Part 1: Your Personal Baseline
Your business has a very important employee to support. It's you. Let's work out what your life costs before we give your revenue goal a number.
This version is for self-employed service business owners who take owner draws. Everything is in CAD.
Does this plan fit your business?
This version is built for self-employed service business owners who take owner draws. It estimates monthly cash needs using sales collected. If you pay yourself through a corporation's payroll or dividends, the owner pay and tax calculations need a separate plan.
Everything is in CAD. Gather a few months of statements, then check for annual bills and seasonal costs that haven't made an appearance lately.
Use your personal share of shared bills. Count purchases once, then add payments toward older debt. Your credit card payment doesn't need a second invitation if the spending is already here.
Your realistic baseline covers the life you're living, including the saving you want to keep doing. Choose how often you pay each item. I'll turn it into a monthly amount.
Your dream baseline starts with your realistic costs until you make your own changes. Give the life you want some actual numbers. The revenue target will do the maths with you.
Think employment income or a household contribution. Enter only the amount that covers the costs above. Leave it blank if the business needs to cover all of them.
The business needs to fund $0.00 of your monthly take-home pay. Income tax gets its own provision in Part 2.
You can keep this one practical, dramatic, or both.
Part 2: Your Biz Baseline
Now give the business its own list. Software, staff, insurance, the subscription you forgot was still charging you. We need the real cost of keeping the doors open.
Enter running costs here. Keep your own pay out of staff payroll, and enter only the business share of shared bills. If a purchase is already included, don't count its credit card payment again.
If you recover sales tax on your costs, enter the cost after that recoverable tax. Keep the sales tax calculation separate from this plan.
Debt principal & other cash commitments
Include loan principal, planned equipment purchases or another cash commitment you need to fund. Keeping these separate means they don't quietly reduce the amount used for your tax planning reserve.
Give tax its own seat at the table
Sales tax stays separate. Leave GST/HST, PST or other sales tax out of your sales figure. Keep the amount you need to remit out of the money you're planning to spend.
Use an income tax planning reserve you've worked out from your own numbers or with your accountant. Include the self-employment contributions you need to provide for. This tool doesn't calculate your tax bill.
The percentage applies to sales collected minus running costs, before personal spending, debt principal and optional extras.
This is a regular savings goal included in your revenue target. Enter 0 or leave it blank if you're starting with the essentials.
This covers your running costs, tax planning reserve, cash commitments, take-home needs and chosen cushion.
Part 3: Give Your Money a Job
Your goal has actual numbers behind it now. Let's see what your current sales can cover, then give any extra money somewhere useful to go.
Use a representative few months. Enter sales after refunds, before payment processing fees, and excluding sales tax. Leave out unpaid invoices, loans and transfers. Starting from $0 is allowed.
Add your sales figure to see where things stand.
Your extra-money plan
Your base take-home pay and tax reserve have already had their turn. These categories split only the extra money. Savings already included in a baseline don't need counting twice.
Check cash before you transfer. These are monthly planning targets. Look at the money actually in your account, upcoming bills and sales tax you owe before moving it anywhere.
Make the plan happen
Your Zero to Profit Plan ✨
Want help putting these numbers to work? You can reach me at learn@sparkybookkeeping.ca.