Financing & Cash Management for Small Businesses
Learn how a small business in Germany calculates its capital needs, chooses between internal financing, bank loans, public funding, leasing, factoring and equity, and then manages its cash week by week so that it never runs dry.
Self-study course Self-study course: written lessons, videos and downloadable materials for independent learning. There is no supervision, assessment, individual feedback or tutoring. Self-check quizzes are evaluated automatically in your browser — we do not see your results.
All 12 lessons free
Before you start
- Business Basics (revenue vs profit vs cash flow, fixed and variable costs, break-even)
- Comfort with percentages and a simple spreadsheet or calculator
- About 60 minutes per lesson for reading and the practice activity
What you will be able to do
- Build a Kapitalbedarfsplan that separates start-up costs, working capital and a liquidity reserve
- Compare bootstrapping, bank loans, KfW programmes, leasing, factoring and equity by cost, risk and balance-sheet effect
- Calculate an annuity, the debt-service capacity ratio, the implied interest rate of a lease and the annualised cost of a missed Skonto
- Prepare the documents and numbers a Hausbank or a public funding institution expects to see
- Produce a 13-week direct cash-flow forecast with VAT and tax prepayments placed in the right weeks
- Monitor working capital and insolvency warning signs with a one-page early-warning dashboard
Lessons in this course
Calculating capital needs: start-up costs, working capital, reserve and the Kapitalbedarfsplan
Build a complete Kapitalbedarfsplan that adds start-up costs, the working capital gap of the first months and a liquidity reserve, so you know how much money you really need before you ask anyone for it.
Bootstrapping and internal financing: prepayments, retained earnings and lean operations
Shrink your financing gap with customer prepayments, milestone billing, retained earnings, cash from depreciation and lean operations before you turn to outside capital.
Bank loans in Germany: the Hausbank, overdraft versus investment loans, collateral and rating
Understand how a German Hausbank reads your numbers, when to use an overdraft and when an investment loan, which collateral banks accept and how to calculate an annuity and your debt-service capacity.
KfW and public funding: ERP-Gründerkredit, Bürgschaftsbanken, Gründungszuschuss and regional programmes
Get a general orientation on the public funding routes available to founders in Germany, how the Hausbank principle works, what a Haftungsfreistellung really means and how to calculate the cash effect of grace years and a start-up grant.
Leasing and hire purchase: full versus partial amortisation, cost comparison with a loan and the balance-sheet effect
Tell full-amortisation, partial-amortisation and hire-purchase contracts apart, compare their total cost and implied interest rate with a bank loan, and see what each does to your equity ratio and VAT.
Factoring, supplier credit and Skonto: fees, recourse versus non-recourse and the cost of a missed cash discount
Calculate the annualised cost of forgoing a Skonto, decide when supplier credit is worth it, and price a factoring contract with its fee, interest, advance rate and recourse terms.
Equity investors from the founder's side: business angels, VC, crowdinvesting, Beteiligungsgesellschaften, valuation, dilution and term-sheet basics
Understand who provides equity to small German companies, calculate pre-money and post-money valuation and dilution over two rounds, and read the five term-sheet clauses that decide what founders actually receive at exit.
Cash-flow forecasting: a 13-week direct forecast, scenarios and placing VAT and tax prepayments correctly
Build a rolling 13-week direct cash-flow forecast on a weekly grid, place VAT and tax prepayments in the right week, run a downside scenario and read the minimum cash point.
Working capital management: the cash conversion cycle, DSO, DIO and DPO, collections and Mahnwesen
Calculate DSO, DIO, DPO and the cash conversion cycle, convert each day into euros of tied-up cash, and run a German-law-compliant dunning process with default interest and the €40 lump sum.
Pricing and terms for cash: deposits, milestone billing, subscriptions, early-payment discounts and minimum orders
Design payment terms that finance the work from the customer's side: compare end-billing with deposit and milestone billing on a project, price an early-payment discount correctly from the seller's side, and use annual prepayment and minimum orders without losing customers.
Insolvency warning signs and legal duties: liquidity ratios, the Zahlungsunfähigkeit and Überschuldung tests, filing deadlines and restructuring options (general orientation)
Recognise the early warning signs of a liquidity crisis, apply the German tests for Zahlungsunfähigkeit and Überschuldung on paper, know the filing deadlines and manager liability, and see which restructuring routes exist before and inside insolvency.
A twelve-month financing plan with cash-flow forecast, financing mix and an early-warning dashboard
Combine capital needs, a financing mix of equity, loan, leasing and overdraft, a monthly cash-flow forecast with debt service and a six-indicator early-warning dashboard into one written plan you can show a bank and review every month.
Trading Foundations
After this course, continue with Trading Foundations if you want to understand how financial markets price the capital that businesses use.
View course outline