A business plan template a Canadian credit desk will recognise
The seventeen-part structure we deliver to lenders, a note on what each part has to prove, and – the part no other template gives you – where every number comes from. Forty pages in Word. Delete the guidance, and what remains is your document.
Three things, and the third is the one that matters
Seventeen parts, in the order a lender reads them
From the executive summary through methodology, assumptions, unit economics, the three statements, the funding request and a risk register. Every table a credit analyst looks for is there with its rows already labelled – the income statement, the cash flow, the balance sheet, coverage by year.
What each part has to prove
A grey box at the head of every part says what the analyst is looking for there and what ends the reading if it is missing. The five questions a credit desk asks, in order, are on page three, so you can write the plan to where they will look.
Where every number comes from
A gold box at the foot of every part names the public source for each figure a lender will check: the free federal table that gives cost of sales and rent as a share of revenue for your exact industry, the census tract for your catchment, the wage survey for your hiring schedule, the inflation forecast for your five years. No other template does this.
Six sources most self-written plans never use
All free, all Canadian, all public. The template carries the full set, part by part; these are the ones that change a plan most.
| Source | What it gives you, and where it goes |
|---|---|
| Financial Performance Data · ISED | Cost of sales, wages, rent, marketing and net profit as a percentage of revenue for small businesses in your industry and province. The single most useful free table in Canada. Part VII benchmarks, and the sanity check on Parts X and XI. |
| Canadian Industry Statistics · ISED | Industry revenue, number of businesses, growth and profitability by six-digit NAICS code. Part V, industry overview. |
| Census Profile 2021 · Statistics Canada | Population, age and household income by census tract – your catchment, not your city. Part II trade area and Part V demographics. |
| Monetary Policy Report · Bank of Canada | The inflation projection your five years should carry. Prices and wages frozen for five years is the signature of a template. Part IX, alongside the IMF and a major bank's forecast for a consensus row. |
| Wage reports · Job Bank | Low, median and high wage by occupation and economic region. The defensible basis for a hiring schedule. Parts IV and XI. |
| Program page · Canada Small Business Financing Program | Eligible asset classes, maximums, the registration fee and the rate cap – read the week you file, because they change. Parts I and XV. |
The template names the page on each site rather than repeating the figures, because the figures move. A source with a year beside it is what separates a number that was looked up from one that was typed.
What the template will not do
It will not get you approved
Structure is free, and every plan a credit desk reads has roughly these seventeen parts. What decides the file is the numbers under them – whether they were looked up or typed, and whether they agree with each other across the summary, the projections and the funding request.
It will not produce the projections
Part XIV has every table a lender expects, rows labelled. It does not fill them. An income statement that adds down, a cash flow that closes to the balance sheet, coverage tested three ways and a downside with its breaking point named come from a model that ties, and the template says so on the page where you will need it.
It will not tell you today's program figures
Maximums, fees and rate caps have changed more than once. The template sends you to the current page on each program's site instead of repeating a figure that may be stale by the time you file. Checked September 2026; the rule stands whenever you read this.
Three stops, and the second is credited into the third
Write it from the template
Fill the seventeen parts, source every figure from the gold boxes, and run the checklist at the back before it goes anywhere.
CA$0Plan Check
A written report on what in your draft would fail at a credit desk – the arithmetic, the definitions, the plausibility, the language. Three to four days.
CA$490credited in full within 60 daysBusiness Plan + Live Model
A bottom-up model in Excel, the plan written around it, and every figure in Parts I–XV taken from the same cells. Seven to ten business days.
CA$2,990Most people who download this will never need the second or third stop, and that is fine. It is why there is no email gate. See the Business Plan practice →
Questions
Why is it free, and why no email?
Because the structure was never the part worth paying for. The seventeen parts are already published on this site, and a finished twenty-page sample plan is already a free download. What gets a plan approved is the numbers under the structure, and that is the work we sell. No email because a template gets shared and linked, and a gate stops both – and we have nothing to send to a list anyway.
Will a lender reject a plan because it was written from a template?
Not for the headings. Every plan a credit desk reads has roughly the same seventeen parts. What analysts are trained to find is a template's numbers: round figures with nothing underneath, prices and wages frozen for five years, thirty days of receivables in a business paid by card, a market section made of adjectives. This template gives you the structure and tells you where every figure comes from. Whether the figures are looked up or typed is still yours.
Is the Excel financial model included?
No. This is a template of the document, not of the model. Part XIV has the tables a lender expects, with every row labelled, and the template says plainly which five figures decide the file. Producing them from a model that ties is the part we build, and the template says so in the same place rather than hiding it.
Can I use it for a CSBFP, Futurpreneur or BDC application?
Yes. The structure is the one Canadian lenders read regardless of the program; what changes is the funding request in Part XV, which maps your uses of funds to the asset classes the program finances. The template points you to each program's current page rather than repeating its rules, because the maximums and fees have changed more than once, and a stale figure in a funding request costs more than a missing one. For the program itself, see our CSBFP and Futurpreneur pages.
Can I keep your name on it?
Please do not. The footer says so on every page. A lender should read your document, not a template with a consultancy's name in the margin – that is exactly the signal the template is trying to help you avoid. Delete the grey and gold boxes, replace the footer with your company name, and it is yours.
Forty pages of structure and sources. The numbers are yours
Word format, free to use and share, no email. When every brace and every box is gone, what remains is your plan.