Church Pro Forma Template

Once your assumptions are in, review the Revenue and Expense Projections sheets together. The revenue sheet will show you whether projected giving keeps pace with expense growth — and if not, which year the gap starts to open. Pay particular attention to the personnel cost row: churches that hire ahead of giving growth often hit cash flow trouble in year 2 or 3. The Capital Campaign sheet is where you model the construction timeline and loan draw schedule if you're planning a building project. Enter your contractor's draw schedule by month and the sheet calculates exactly when you need cash and how much debt you'll carry.

Churches that approach a building loan without a multi-year cash flow projection often discover the debt service problem after they've committed to a construction budget. A well-built pro forma shows you the answer before you're in the room with a banker: given your current giving levels, growth assumptions, and expense structure, can you service the debt while maintaining ministry programs? Personnel costs are usually the biggest variable — churches that staff up during a campaign period sometimes find that giving-per-attender doesn't grow fast enough to sustain the payroll once the campaign excitement fades. The projection makes that risk visible so leadership can make an informed decision.