The free tools we've built so far
A good CFO doesn't hand you a blank spreadsheet — they set one up, wire the formulas, and show you how to read it. That's what these are. We've built five free tools so far, and they share two things that most "free template" downloads don't: you fill them in live in the browser, and what you download is a real, formula-driven Excel model — not a flat PDF, not a locked sample, but the working spreadsheet with your numbers already in it.
They line up along the same three layers everything at Wauvel does — Reporting (what happened), Forecasting(what's coming), and Reasoning(what to do about it). Here's the whole shelf, grouped that way, with a note on which one to grab first. All free, all at /tools.
Reporting — make sense of the month you just closed
Budget vs. Actual (Monthly P&L). The fastest way to turn a closed month into feedback instead of weather. Set your plan beside what actually happened and the tool computes the variance on every line — so "we spent a lot on marketing" becomes "marketing ran $4,200 over plan, and that's where the margin went." It's the report that makes next month's budget a little less of a guess.
Forecasting — see what's coming before it arrives
This is where the shelf is deepest, because the forward look is where decisions actually live. Three tools, in rough order of how far out they see.
The Annual Operating Plan (AOP) Builder. The plan you set the whole year by. Build revenue up stream by stream, lay in cost of sales and operating expenses by category, and the tool spreads it across twelve months with gross profit and operating income falling out for you. It's the number everything else gets measured against — including that Budget vs. Actual above.
The 3-Statement Financial Model. The one a banker or investor actually asks for, and the one most owners pay someone to build. Set a handful of assumptions — growth, margins, working-capital days, capex, financing — and it projects a fully linked income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow, three years out, monthly. The hard part of a 3-statement model isn't the typing; it's the linkage — net income has to flow into retained earnings, cash has to tie, and the balance sheet has to actually balance. This one does that for you, every period:
=B2 − B3 − B4| A | B | C | D | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Balance sheet | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 |
| 2 | Total assets | $2.17M | $2.84M | $3.61M |
| 3 | Total liabilities | $0.88M | $1.12M | $1.34M |
| 4 | Total equity | $1.29M | $1.72M | $2.27M |
| 5 | Check (A − L − E) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
The 13-Week Cash Flow Forecast. The near-term one a CFO keeps at their fingertips: beginning balance, money in, money out, week by week for a quarter — and the projected low point that tells you exactly when cash gets tight. Far enough out to do something about it, near enough that the numbers are real. We wrote a whole post on why it's the one forecast worth keeping.
Reasoning — know what the numbers are telling you
The Financial Health KPI Tracker. The vital signs on one page — margins, current ratio, days-to-get-paid, the cash conversion cycle, runway — tracked month over month with the formulas already in. The point isn't any single number; it's the trend. A current ratio of 1.9 is fine; a current ratio that was 3.1 a year ago and is 1.9 now is a conversation. This is the tool that surfaces the second one.
Which one should you grab first?
- Cash feels tight, or you just want to sleep: start with the 13-Week Cash Flow. It answers "are we going to be okay" faster than anything else here.
- It's planning season: the AOP Builder first, then Budget vs. Actual each month to hold yourself to it.
- You're raising money or talking to a bank: the 3-Statement Model is the one they'll ask for.
- You just want to know if you're healthy: the KPI Tracker puts the vital signs in one place.
See what a report like this looks like on your own numbers.
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