Forecasting P&L Template For Excel & Google Sheets

What's inside the Forecasting P&L Template?

Live Forecast & Actual

This tab shows the financial performance of an entity for the current fiscal year including both actuals (when available) and forecasts. Column A provides an overview of all your Profit and Loss accounts, while Column B and others show the monthly financial data corresponding to each item in Column A. In Column O, you can see the expected figures for the entire fiscal year. In Row 13, you can select monthly actuals and forecasts according to your preference. The forecast numbers for a month are calculated based on the actual numbers for the previous month and the growth rate of each item defined in the “Growth Rates” tab.

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Growth Rates

This tab contains historical monthly changes for all P&L accounts for the last fiscal year. Then the sheet calculates the average monthly change (or growth rate) for each item, which is shown in Column O. The computed average percentage for an item is summed up with an expected change (or growth) rate manually input in Column P. You can apply a different expected change rate to each item given its nature. You have expected monthly growth or change in Column Q as a result. The numbers in Column Q are used in the formula on the “Live Forecast & Actual” sheet to compute the forecasted figures for each month.

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Live P&L from QBO

By default, this sheet contains monthly income statements of an entity for the current and previous fiscal years. The data on the sheet is pulled from your Quick Books accounts and refreshed automatically according to your setting with LiveFlow. The date on this tab is referred to in the formulas to show numbers on “Live Forecast & Actual” and ones to calculate monthly changes (%) in each accounting item on “Growth Rates”.

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Forecasting P&L 101

Introduction

Thank you for being so interested in learning more about Forecasting P&L. In this post, we will provide you with all the information you need about Forecasting, including what to look for and how to create your own. We will also share tips to help you increase your workflow efficiency by a factor of ten.

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What is Forecasting P&L

The Forecasting P&L Statement combines actual and forecasted figures from your income statement. This template is designed to help you quickly create a financial forecast for the current year at the beginning of the year, and to update your estimated financial results as the fiscal year progresses.

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How do you create a Forecasting P&L?

Creating a projected P&L statement can be a challenging, time-consuming process that requires manual effort. Fortunately, LiveFlow offers a simplified template, the Forecasting P&L Statement Template, which provides the essential components of a financial forecast in a faster and more user-friendly manner.

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How do you make your forecast better and more accurate?

There are various methods to improve your forecast. One approach is to break down accounting items, such as revenue or major cost items. Then, analyze the historical performance of sub-items, taking into account their future performance, and predict the expected growth of the account for the current fiscal year. Additionally, you can use more reasonable assumptions (if any) for the growth rates of each item, rather than entering the combination of monthly and expected change rates input manually.