Financial Modelling & Fundraising Support

Make your growth plans easier to assess with a financial model that connects revenue, costs, cash flow and funding needs. KBA builds and reviews financial models for founders, business owners and management teams across the UK, Qatar, the UAE and international markets.

Request a financial-modelling consultation

Financial models for raising funds

We help translate your business plan into financial projections that investors and lenders can question and understand. Start with the amount you need to raise, how you will use it and the milestones the funding should support.

KBA helps make the assumptions, funding requirements and cash-flow timing behind a business plan transparent and traceable. The model should help management, investors or lenders understand what drives the numbers and what changes under a downside scenario.

Turn the fundraising ask into a cash-runway test

A fundraising model should reconcile the headline amount being raised to the cash the business can actually use, then show when that cash may run low. Build a short bridge that identifies:

1. Available opening cash: the amount management confirms is available for the forecast, rather than every balance shown across accounts.
2. Gross proposed funding: the amount and expected receipt date for each funding source.
3. Costs and immediate commitments: transaction costs, overdue items and payments due soon after completion.
4. Net usable cash: opening cash plus expected funding and other receipts, less the agreed deductions.
5. Monthly or weekly closing cash: the lowest cash point under the base case and at least one relevant downside, including a delayed-close scenario.

Illustrative example, not client work: assume £80,000 of available opening cash, a proposed £600,000 gross raise, £30,000 of fundraising costs and £120,000 of immediate commitments. The bridge gives £530,000 before subsequent operating cash flows. Dividing that by a constant £45,000 monthly net outflow suggests about 11.8 months, but that shortcut is not the forecast: receipts, payroll, tax, capital spending and other payments need to be placed in the periods when they are expected. A two-month delay to the funding date can create an earlier gap even when the headline raise is unchanged.

Record the source and owner of each assumption, reconcile the bridge to the pitch and data room, and show the minimum cash point rather than only the final month. Use our guide to modelling a delayed funding round and the investor data-room reconciliation checklist to test that the story and numbers agree.

General UK business-planning guidance; source checked 24 October 2026: British Business Bank explains that a cash-flow forecast estimates money coming in and going out over a period and helps a business identify cash-pressure points. Its finance-readiness guidance also notes that investors and lenders look at cash-flow forecasts when assessing profitability and financial health. Forecasts remain assumptions, not guarantees. Read the cash-flow forecasting guidance.

Choose the right type of modelling support

• Build a new model: suitable when there is no reliable forecast or the existing spreadsheet cannot connect revenue, costs, cash flow and funding needs.
• Review and repair an existing model: suitable when a workbook already exists but its formulas, assumptions, structure or outputs need an independent check against the agreed scope.
• Add fundraising scenarios: suitable when the core model works but you need to test investment timing, transaction costs, delayed sales, hiring plans or different funding amounts.

If the right route is unclear, share a short summary rather than confidential files in the initial enquiry. KBA can then agree whether the first step is a build, review or limited scenario update.

What your model can include

• Integrated financial statements: connected profit and loss, balance sheet and cash-flow forecasts.
• Revenue and cost drivers: assumptions for pricing, sales volumes, staffing, margins and operating costs.
• Funding requirements and cash runway: when additional cash may be needed and how long available funds could last.
• Scenario and sensitivity analysis: compare your base plan with faster growth, delayed sales or higher costs.
• Investment and financing: model capital expenditure, working capital, borrowing and planned equity funding.
• Management reporting: budgets, actual-versus-forecast comparisons and decision-focused dashboards.

Support beyond fundraising

A financial model can also support acquisitions, a new location, product launches, business restructuring or annual budgeting. We can build a model from the ground up or review an existing spreadsheet for consistency, assumptions and usability.

For a transaction or ownership decision, combine modelling with our business valuation and financial due diligence services. For a US venture, plan the numbers alongside company formation and ongoing accounting requirements.

What an agreed handover can contain

• An editable model file: the agreed forecast structure with inputs and outputs separated clearly.
• An assumptions register: the source, rationale and owner for key revenue, cost, staffing and funding inputs.
• Scenario outputs: agreed base and downside cases, including funding delays where relevant. See the practical guide to modelling a delayed funding round.
• Checks and limitations: visible model checks, unresolved information and areas that require management or specialist judgement.
• A walkthrough: an explanation of how to update the model and where changes flow through the results, when included in the agreed scope.

The exact deliverables depend on the engagement. A financial model supports preparation and decision-making; it does not guarantee investment, lending approval or a business outcome. Before sharing information externally, also reconcile the model to the pitch and accounts using the investor data-room checklist.

From business plan to usable model

1. Define the decision: explain the audience, purpose, forecast period and deadline.
2. Agree the assumptions: review historical accounts, sales plans, contracts, staffing and planned spending.
3. Build and review: connect the financial statements and examine scenarios with you.
4. Handover: receive the agreed model, an explanation of its assumptions and guidance on keeping it current.

Free template or bespoke financial model?

Start with the decision you need to make, not the number of spreadsheet tabs. Our free cash-flow and fundraising Excel template is a 12-month monthly starting point for receipts, payments and funding timing. It is not a full integrated profit and loss, balance sheet and cash-flow model.

• Use a simple template when you can explain the receipts and payments directly and want to test a small number of assumptions.
• Discuss a bespoke model when you need connected financial statements, detailed staffing or sales drivers, several entities or currencies, borrowing schedules, or a specific investor reporting format.
• Add shorter-term detail when payments fall due before receipts within a month. A positive month-end balance can hide an earlier gap. Our practical cash-flow review shows why a weekly or daily schedule can matter.

ICAEW’s cash-flow guidance emphasises choosing a useful level of detail, using sound inputs and revisiting assumptions as the business changes. A larger workbook is not automatically a better answer.

A five-line brief for your modelling consultation

1. The decision: what you want to decide, who will use the model and when they need it.
2. The scope: forecast period, monthly or weekly detail, entities and currencies.
3. The starting point: whether accounts, an existing model and a documented sales or staffing plan are available.
4. The uncertainty: the assumptions you most need to test, such as customer payment timing, hiring dates or sales capacity.
5. The handover: required outputs, who will update the model and whether you want a walkthrough or separately agreed ongoing support.

Illustrative brief, not client work: a UK IT consultancy wants to assess two planned hires over the next 12 months. Its brief would connect delivery capacity, billable work, payroll and customer collection dates, and ask which assumptions would change the hiring decision. That is more useful than asking for a particular number of sheets.

Request a financial-modelling consultation with this short summary. Keep bank statements, customer records and financial identifiers out of the initial form; agree secure document sharing separately. We confirm the scope and fee before work begins.

General business-planning guidance; sources checked 3 October 2026: the UK government’s Financial Model Essentials and ICAEW cash-flow guidance. The government publication is aimed at investment preparation in the space sector; the general principles cited here—transparent assumptions, linked drivers, scenario analysis and cash-flow timing—need adapting to each business. Any tax or payroll inputs need the rates and payment dates applicable to your business and period.

What to prepare

Bring recent accounts or management reports, available forecasts, your business plan, details of existing finance and the decision you need the model to support. An early-stage business can start with a clear explanation of its commercial assumptions.

We agree the deliverables, fees, timetable and any ongoing update support before work begins. Forecasts depend on their assumptions, and funding decisions remain with investors and lenders.

Planning a raise, acquisition or expansion? Request a financial-modelling consultation and tell us the decision, deadline and model you already have.