Which forecasts should you prepare before selling your business?

Updated March 2026 - In a business sale, forecasts are not there to make the company look prettier. Their role is to make the file understandable, support the valuation discussion and help a buyer judge whether the post-acquisition trajectory is credible. Weak projections do more than waste time. They directly affect negotiation, financing capacity and confidence in the transaction.

Short answer: prepare at least a forecast profit and loss account, a cash-flow forecast, an initial financing plan and a three-year financing plan. Build them from the actual historical base and make the assumptions explicit. That is the fastest way for a buyer to see whether the story is believable.

To place these documents in the broader transfer process, see also our articles on the sale protocol, the final transfer deed and our business transfer guide 2026.

Bpifrance Creation generally points to four essential building blocks:

• the forecast profit and loss account;
• the cash-flow forecast;
• the initial financing plan;
• the three-year financing plan.

What each forecast answers#

Each table answers a different question. The projected P&L shows whether the business model remains profitable. The cash-flow forecast shows whether the business can actually get through the year without tension. The financing plans show what resources are needed at the start and over the medium term.

A buyer is not looking for optimistic percentages. They want to understand whether the proposed trajectory is coherent and financeable. In practice, the review focuses on:

• consistency between historical performance and future assumptions;
• the company's ability to finance growth or absorb a transition period;
• possible cash pressure points;
• the human, technical and commercial resources needed to deliver the plan;
• whether the assumptions are tied to something observable rather than wishful thinking.

The closer the forecast is tied to actual history, market conditions and operating constraints, the more useful it becomes in a sale process.

What makes the file credible#

A credible forecast does not need to promise the moon. It needs to show a path. If the plan says turnover will rise, the file should also explain how: more clients, more capacity, more stock, more recruitment or better conversion. If costs will rise too, that should be visible as well. The buyer is not just reading the figures. They are reading the mechanism behind them.

• overstating revenue growth;
• underestimating the commercial effort needed to win that growth;
• presenting figures without clearly stated assumptions;
• looking at profit first and cash second;
• forgetting working capital, investment timing or transition costs.

These weaknesses immediately raise questions in due diligence. If the forecast is disconnected from the past, if recruitment needs are missing, or if working capital requirements are ignored, the buyer starts discounting the story and usually the price as well.

Hayot Expertise insight: a good sale forecast is not an optimistic story put into columns. It is a defensible trajectory connected to historical performance, market reality and a concrete action plan.

The strongest sale files usually start with the actual accounts and then explain, line by line, what changes in the future scenario. That means:

• building from the real historical base;
• making the growth assumptions explicit;
• isolating the investments and hires needed to support the plan;
• showing the effect on cash, not only on margin;
• separating what is already proven from what still depends on execution.

This approach is more convincing than generic projection work because it helps the buyer, their bank and their advisers understand how the business is expected to move after closing.

The cash-flow view deserves special attention#

Many sellers focus first on profit. That is understandable, but not enough. A buyer wants to know whether the business can survive timing gaps: supplier payments, tax payments, payroll, investment outlays or a temporary slowdown during the handover period. This is why a clean cash-flow forecast is often one of the most persuasive pieces in the whole file.

Assumptions should be easy to trace#

If the forecast contains a growth assumption, the reader should be able to see where it comes from. Is it linked to the current commercial pipeline? To an increase in prices? To a new contract? To better productivity? The more traceable the assumption, the easier the file is to defend.

The lender does not read the forecasts the same way as a buyer. It wants to test repayment capacity, financing robustness and the resilience of the business after the transaction. In other words, the lender asks whether the company can absorb the deal without damaging day-to-day operations.

That means the dossier should connect:

• the profit logic;
• the cash logic;
• the financing need;
• and the assumptions behind the improvement story.

If these pieces are aligned, the buyer and the lender can read the same file with different but compatible expectations.

Before launching the discussions, it is useful to step back and ask:

• are the assumptions explained in plain language?
• do the numbers match the historical accounts?
• are the planned hires and investments included?
• does cash remain acceptable in the sensitive months?
• can you defend the gap between the base case and a more prudent case?

This is usually the best moment to clean up the file. Once it is circulating, every correction becomes more visible and more expensive in time and credibility.

We can help you prepare forecasts that are readable for a purchaser, a lender and the transaction advisers, so that the numbers support the story instead of undermining it.

Build a stronger sale file

Forecasts are not there to embellish a disposal process. They are there to make the company's trajectory understandable and testable. The more closely they are tied to facts, assumptions and cash consequences, the more they support the price discussion and smooth the transfer process. A good forecast is therefore not only a number set. It is a story the buyer can actually verify.