Getting Started Guide
Finance & FP&A
P&L, cash flow, budgets, runway, and board-ready exports. FP&A tools built for the people who actually run the business.
Your First 5 Minutes
1Build Your P&L
Start on the P&L tab. Enter revenue lines (product revenue, service revenue, other income), then COGS (cost of goods sold — direct costs tied to delivering your product), then operating expenses (rent, salaries, software, marketing). FinLoom calculates gross profit, operating income, and net income automatically.
2Set a Budget
Switch to Budget vs Actual. Enter your monthly budget for each line item. As you update actuals, FinLoom shows the variance — both in dollars and as a percentage. Green means under budget. Red means over. This is how you catch problems early.
3Import from Your Accounting Software
If you use QuickBooks, Xero, or Wave, export your P&L as Excel or CSV. Import it into FinLoom from the Import tab. FinLoom maps standard accounting export formats automatically — revenue, COGS, and operating expenses land in the right categories.
4Check Your Runway
For startups: enter your current cash balance and monthly burn rate. FinLoom calculates months of runway remaining and the date your cash hits zero at current burn. Adjust scenarios to see how hiring, fundraising, or revenue changes affect your runway.
5Export a Board Deck
Click the export dropdown to generate your financials in Excel, PDF, or CSV. The Excel export is formatted in Jefferies investment bank style — clean headers, no gridlines, professional typography. Send it to your board, your advisor, or your accountant.
Key Features
✓P&L with gross profit, EBITDA, and net income
✓Budget vs Actual with dollar and percentage variance
✓Cash Flow Statement
✓Balance Sheet
✓Startup runway calculator with burn rate
✓Scenario modeling (up to 3 scenarios)
✓SaaS revenue metrics (MRR, ARR, churn)
✓Jefferies-style Excel/PDF/CSV export
✓Import from QuickBooks, Xero, Wave
✓Monthly close portal
Plain English Glossary
Every financial term in FinLoom is defined inline. Here are the ones you'll see most often:
Gross Profit
Revenue minus the direct costs of delivering your product or service (COGS). This tells you how much money you make before overhead.
EBITDA
Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization. A measure of operating profitability that strips out financing and accounting decisions. This is what investors look at.
Burn Rate
How much cash you spend per month beyond what you earn. If revenue is $10K/mo and expenses are $15K/mo, your burn rate is $5K/mo.
Runway
How many months until you run out of cash at your current burn rate. Cash balance divided by monthly burn. If you have $50K and burn $5K/mo, you have 10 months of runway.
Variance
The difference between what you budgeted and what actually happened. Positive variance means you spent less (or earned more) than planned.
Board Deck Export
The Excel export is formatted for professional presentation — Jefferies investment bank styling with clean headers, no gridlines, and proper number formatting. You can send this directly to investors, board members, or advisors without reformatting in Excel.
AI Add-On: Finance AI
With AI Pro ($29.99/mo), unlock forecast narratives that explain your P&L trends in plain language, budget variance analysis with root cause identification, scenario recommendations based on your actual financials, and cash flow projections with sensitivity analysis.