SmartHelping / Fintech & Lending / Excel
Buy Now, Pay Later Financial Model
Forecast a buy now, pay later business that pays merchants upfront and collects customer installments over time. Connect merchant growth, usage, fees, defaults and financing to cash flow, capital needs and investor returns.
Immediate download after purchase. By purchasing, you agree to the Terms of Service.
See the model in action
Walk through merchant growth, repayments and funding.
Follow the main walkthrough to see how the transaction assumptions feed revenue, credit outcomes, financing requirements and financial statements.
Recent model updates
Sources and uses, with improved equity injection inputs.
Watch the supplemental overview of the funding summary and equity input updates.
Template features
Connect each transaction to the full business forecast.
Build the merchant and customer assumptions, then review the statements, funding requirements and investment returns as the service grows.
Review monthly and annual financial statements
Model up to 60 months with a fully connected income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement, including monthly and annual views.
Build the forecast from merchant activity
Onboard up to three merchant types with their own sales, order values, fee rates and usage assumptions to build the operating forecast from the transaction level.
Review the startup funding plan
The recent model updates add a sources and uses summary and improve the equity injection inputs, helping you review the funding plan alongside the projected cash flows.
Connect contributions to ownership and returns
Use dynamic cap table inputs and output summaries for investors and operators alongside the equity funding assumptions.
Finance merchant payments as volume grows
Set the percentage of merchant payments financed each month through an interest-only facility. Define the interest rate and optionally convert the facility into a term loan later.
Evaluate the investment case
Review DCF analysis, IRR, NPV and equity multiple alongside the operating forecast and funding requirements.
See how the business develops over time
Use the included visualizations to review the forecast together with the financial statements and investor or operator summaries.
Work with an editable financial model
The Excel workbook is fully editable and unlocked so you can adjust the assumptions and work through the calculations for your planned BNPL business.
Merchant and customer assumptions
Configure the revenue, collections and direct costs.
Use the detailed input sections to connect merchant onboarding and usage to customer repayments and transaction economics.
Set onboarding and merchant sales
Enter merchants onboarded per month, average annual sales per merchant and average annual sales growth for each of the three merchant types.
Calculate the core transaction revenue
Define average order value and its annual growth, the merchant fee that drives the main revenue stream, and the fee charged per transaction.
Model the share of merchant sales captured
Set the starting BNPL penetration rate, average monthly increase and stabilized penetration rate to forecast usage across the merchant base.
Account for late payments and uncollected fees
Define the average late payment rate, late payment fee and the percentage of late customers who also default, for whom no late fees are collected.
Set the amount and timing of interest collection
Enter the percentage of customers who do not pay in full on time, the penalty rate representing total accrued interest, and the delay in months before promotional interest is collected.
Model losses and the timing of recovery
Set the percentage of customers who stop paying, adjustable by year, the typical month they stop paying, the net percentage of defaults recovered and the number of months to recover.
Define upfront payments and installments
Set the average installment term, the percentage paid upfront, the percentage paid in installments and the amount paid per month.
Include the costs attached to transaction volume
Configure volume-based and per-transaction fees, credit or risk assessment checks, and regulatory or compliance fees.
Credit facility and cash flow
Plan the funding between merchant payment and customer repayment.
Track the cash required to pay merchants before the customer installments have all been collected, together with the financing costs of supporting that activity.
Upfront merchant payments
The BNPL firm pays the merchant upfront and collects customer repayments over time. As transaction volume grows, the timing difference affects the cash needed to fund the business.
Flexible facility usage
Define the percentage of merchant payments funded by the credit facility separately each month. Set its interest rate and use the option to convert the interest-only facility into a term loan at a later point.
Funding cost in the margin
In this model, interest on the facility used to fund transactions is included in cost of revenue. This connects the cost of borrowed capital to the transaction revenue it helps generate.
Connected statements and cash flow
The financial statements track the timing difference between recognized revenue and customer collections through receivables and cash flow adjustments. Review those balances alongside default, recovery, repayment and funding assumptions.
Staffing, software and overhead
Build the operating team and platform budget.
Model the people, software development and fixed costs required to support the transaction forecast.
Link staffing requirements to processed orders
Configure up to five employee types that scale with total orders processed per month. Each type has its own staffing ratio, salary, payroll taxes or benefits and annual growth assumptions.
Plan the rest of the full-time team
Use a separate section with 20 slots for employee type, count, start month, salary, payroll taxes or benefits and salary growth.
Schedule development costs over the first 48 months
Define up to 15 high-level software development cost categories plus contingency. Schedule the percentage of each budget paid over the first 48 months. The model capitalizes these costs as fixed assets and calculates depreciation using a defined useful life and start month.
Build the corporate overhead budget
Define fixed costs for General and Administrative, Sales and Marketing, Research and Development, and other fixed cost of goods sold. The schedules provide 32 items for each section.
How to use it
From merchant assumptions to a funded operating plan.
Build the merchant and usage forecast
Set onboarding, merchant sales, order values and BNPL penetration for up to three merchant types. Define the merchant and per-transaction fees.
Configure repayments and credit outcomes
Enter customer repayment terms, late fees, promotional interest, defaults and recoveries. Add the direct costs attached to transactions.
Plan financing and the operating team
Set monthly credit facility usage, interest and any later term-loan conversion. Add scaling employees, other staff, software development and fixed overhead.
Review cash, funding and returns
Check monthly and annual financial statements, sources and uses, equity injections and the cap table. Review DCF, IRR, NPV, equity multiple and the visualizations.
Who gets value from it
Built for the people launching, financing and operating BNPL.
BNPL founders
Plan the merchant network, transaction economics and cash required to launch and grow the service.
Finance and strategy teams
Connect usage, pricing, credit outcomes and operating costs to a five-year forecast.
Funding and credit teams
Evaluate how merchant payments, installment collections and facility usage affect cash requirements.
Investors and operators
Review capital contributions, cap table outputs, financial statements and investment returns.
Also available in these bundles
Need more tools for fintech and business planning?
This buy now, pay later financial model is included in the following SmartHelping collections.
SaaS & Recurring Revenue Bundle
Explore models for software platforms, recurring revenue and service-based businesses.
View SaaS BundleIndustry-Specific Models Bundle
Explore financial models for operating plans across a wide range of industries.
View Industry-Specific BundleLending & Credit Models Bundle
Explore models for lending businesses, loan portfolios, financing and credit analysis.
View Lending & Credit BundleRelated financial models
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Explore this templateQuestions before you choose
A few useful details.
How long is the forecast, and how many merchant types can I model?
The model supports up to 60 months with monthly and annual financial statements. You can configure up to three merchant types with their own revenue and usage assumptions.
How does the credit facility work?
An interest-only facility can fund a percentage of merchant payments, with that percentage adjustable each month. You set the interest rate and can optionally convert the facility to a term loan later. In this model, its transaction-funding interest is included in cost of revenue.
Can I model defaults, recoveries and delayed collections?
Yes. Inputs cover annual default rates, the typical month a customer stops paying, the net percentage recovered and recovery timing. Separate inputs cover late fees, uncollected fees from defaulting customers and delayed promotional interest.
What changed in the recent model updates?
The updates added a sources and uses summary and improved equity injection inputs. The supplemental video above walks through these changes.
Can staffing scale with transaction volume?
Yes. Up to five employee types can scale with orders processed each month. A separate section provides 20 slots for other full-time employee assumptions.
How is the software buildout modeled?
You can define up to 15 software development cost categories plus contingency and schedule the spending over the first 48 months. The costs are capitalized as fixed assets, with depreciation based on the useful life and start month you define.
Is the workbook editable and included in a bundle?
Yes. The Excel workbook is fully editable and unlocked. It is included in the SaaS & Recurring Revenue, Industry-Specific and Lending & Credit bundles linked above.
Bring merchant growth, credit outcomes and funding together
Build the BNPL service around a clear financial plan.
Purchase the buy now, pay later financial model for $75 and receive immediate access to the download.
