Business Revenue
This is the most complex exercise in Financial Modeling because a single business can have multiple revenue streams, each with a different billing logic—and each can have associated direct costs and fine-tuned seasonality and growth adjustments.
What it's for
Revenue is what sustains everything else in Financial Modeling: without projected revenue, the Income Statement, Cash Flow, and Investment Analysis have nothing to measure. That's why it's worth spending more time here than on any other exercise in this stage.
The six types of revenue
When creating a new revenue stream, the first step is to choose the type, because it changes how the value is calculated:
Product sales — unit value × quantity sold per month.
Service fees — fee per service rendered.
Hours billed — value per hour × hours billed.
Occupancy rate — revenue based on occupancy (useful for businesses that sell capacity, such as spaces or usage subscriptions).
Subscription model — recurring revenue per subscriber.
Commissioning — revenue calculated as a percentage of something (e.g., a resale).
A single business typically registers more than one type—for example, a "Product sales" revenue from its own e-commerce and another "Commissioning" revenue from sales through resellers, each as a separate record.
Filling in a revenue stream
The form follows four blocks:
1. Revenue Type — the choice among the six types above.
2. Identification — revenue name and validity period (Start/End), which by default follows the projection horizon defined in the plan's Initial Configuration.
3. Parameters — unit value and quantity per month (fields change names according to the chosen type), seasonality, and annual growth (see below).
4. Direct Costs — specific costs of generating this revenue (see below).
The cost of the product or service (Direct Costs)
Each revenue stream can have one or more associated direct costs—the cost of goods sold, a commission paid, the cost of a specific supplier for that revenue line. Use Add in the "4. Direct Costs" section to include one, with a name and value.
These costs are not hidden: they appear as indented sub-lines below each revenue stream in the Revenue Projection Table and the Income Statement (in the Direct Costs/COGS section), being deducted to arrive at the Net Revenue for that source. This is how Vibz calculates margin per revenue source, not just for the business as a whole.
Fine-tuning the projection: Seasonality and Annual Growth
Within "3. Parameters," two features allow fine-tuning the projection beyond the base value:
Seasonality — a slider control for each of the 12 months of the year (multiplier factor, where 100% = no change). Use to reflect real seasonal peaks and valleys of your business—for example, increasing December for a store that sells more at year-end, or reducing January/February for a service affected by holidays.
Annual growth (%) — a configurable growth percentage for each year of the horizon (Year 1 to Year 5, for example), with Year 1 potentially having a separate "intra" growth (from the first to the last month of that same year).
The two combine: seasonality redistributes revenue within each year; annual growth increases (or reduces) the level from one year to the next.
The summary panel and Revenue chart
At the top of the page, each registered revenue stream appears as a card with the type, average monthly value, period, and number of associated direct costs, with Edit (opens the full form) and Adjust (quick edit) shortcuts.
Immediately below, the Revenue Chart shows the monthly (or annual, via the Monthly/Annual toggle) evolution in stacked bars—one color per revenue source—overlaid by three lines: Total revenue, Net revenue (after deducting direct costs), and Direct costs. You can turn each source on/off individually by clicking its legend, to compare a specific revenue against the total.
Revenue Projection Table
Below the chart, the Revenue Projection Table details, month by month, each revenue source with its direct costs as sub-lines, followed by three total lines: Total revenue, (−) Direct costs, and Net revenue. Use the Consolidated / Full Monthly toggle to choose between a summarized view and one with all months of the horizon, and the Excel button to export.
Tips
Register each revenue source separately, even if they seem similar (like "Via Notre" and "Ecommerce" for the same product type)—this allows comparing performance and direct cost per channel in the chart and table.
Don't forget Direct Costs: a revenue stream without an associated direct cost appears more profitable than it actually is in the Income Statement.
Use Seasonality in moderation initially—it's easier to validate the model with "even" months first, and adjust seasonality after the basic revenue structure has been reviewed.
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