3-Year Business Plan Financials
Project revenue, gross profit, fixed costs and net profit across 3 years from a Year 1 base and constant growth assumptions, and check whether cumulative profit covers your initial investment.
Data verified · July 2026
Does this account for corporation tax?
Yes — operating profit each year is taxed at the rate you enter (19% default) before arriving at net profit, so the payback check is on an after-tax basis.
Source: HMRC — Corporation Tax rates (gov.uk/corporation-tax-rates); standard 3-year business plan / financial projection methodology, 2025/26. · updated 2026
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Everything about 3-Year Business Plan Financials
📋Overview+
Projects revenue forward from a Year 1 base at a constant annual growth rate, applies a gross margin to get gross profit, grows fixed costs at their own rate, and taxes the resulting operating profit at your corporation tax rate. The three years of net profit are then summed and compared against any upfront investment to check payback.
💡 Best practices
- Keep revenue growth and fixed cost growth assumptions separate — fixed costs (rent, salaries) rarely scale as fast as revenue.
- A Year 3 operating margin far above your sector average is a sign the assumptions are optimistic — sanity-check against comparable businesses.
- Run the plan twice with a conservative and an optimistic growth rate to see the range of possible outcomes.
🔢 Concrete example
£100,000 Year 1 revenue growing 20% a year at 50% gross margin, with £30,000 fixed costs growing 5% a year and a £20,000 initial investment: Year 3 revenue reaches £144,000 with cumulative net profit comfortably covering the investment.
📖User guide+
How to use this calculator
- 1
Enter your Year 1 revenue and expected annual revenue growth rate.
- 2
Set your gross margin and fixed costs for Year 1, plus how fast fixed costs grow.
- 3
Add any initial investment you want the plan to pay back, and your corporation tax rate.
- 4
Read the 3-year revenue, net profit and operating margin, and whether payback is achieved.
📚Glossary+
- Operating margin
- Operating profit (gross profit minus fixed costs) divided by revenue — shown here for Year 3 as the plan's steady-state profitability.
- Payback
- Whether cumulative net profit across the 3 years is enough to recover an initial investment such as start-up costs or capital expenditure.
ℹ️Sources & updates+
Last data update
July 7, 2026
Sources and references
HMRC — Corporation Tax rates (gov.uk/corporation-tax-rates); standard 3-year business plan / financial projection methodology, 2025/26.
The data in this calculator is updated regularly to reflect the latest official rates. When in doubt, consult the official sources listed above.
FAQ — 3-Year Business Plan Financials
Does this account for corporation tax?+
Yes — operating profit each year is taxed at the rate you enter (19% default) before arriving at net profit, so the payback check is on an after-tax basis.
Can I use this for a loss-making Year 1?+
The model floors tax at zero when operating profit is negative, so a loss-making year contributes zero tax and a negative net profit to the cumulative total.