Dr Jeff Cornwall

Thanks to Paul Chenoweth (see his blog here) and the other folks at Belmont who worked to spruce up my site. Hope you all like the new look.
There is also a new feature at this site. We developed financial templates for our entrepreneurial finance text. They provide a relatively easy way to create complete three year financial forecasts for a new venture — income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements.
We have gotten very positive feedback from bankers and investors who read business plans with these detailed financial included. The spreadsheets force the entrepreneur to think through all assumptions that go into the revenue model. If done properly, this makes the business plan a much tighter and more credible document. It helps to ensure that your marketing plan and revenue forecasts are telling the same story — one of the most important aspects of a fundable business plan.
You can download these templates by clicking on the buttons in the left column. They are completely free to use! We created them for our students, but hope all aspiring entrepreneurs find them useful.
There are three versions of the Financial Analysis Spreadsheet. The first version is for businesses that have inventory. Examples of this type of business include retail, distribution, re-sellers, and manufacturing. The second version is for businesses with little or no inventory. Examples include service, consulting, health care, software, and engineering. The third version is for non-profit organizations.
The proper development of assumptions is key to getting the most out of these spreadsheets. Each assumption should be carefully documented and any changes in assumptions should be noted. The financial statement assumptions should come out of the business plan assumptions, with all assumptions being consistent and clearly tied together.
The use of the templates requires only a very basic understanding of the use of computer spreadsheets. No programming will be required. Simply enter data in the proper cells as instructed. If unusual errors occur when entering data, it may be the result of entering a space in the assumptions worksheet instead of a zero. In trouble-shooting this problem, make sure that zeros are entered into any “empty” cell.
There are two worksheets for each version of the template. One is for the assumptions, and the second is the actual financial statements worksheet. Yellow cells indicate data to be entered. Blue cells indicate model calculations. The worksheets will provide financial statements for three years when completed.