CMA Data Format in Excel: All 7 Statements Explained with a Free Download

The CMA data format in Excel is a seven-sheet workbook: existing and proposed limits, operating statement, analysis of balance sheet, comparative current assets and liabilities, MPBF calculation, fund flow statement and ratio analysis. Each sheet carries five year-columns, and sheets 4 to 7 must compute from the others rather than being typed in.

Key facts

• Seven sheets, five columns, one unit. Two audited years, one provisional or estimated year, two projected years — in a single unit throughout. Mixed lakhs and crores across sheets is the most common defect in packs a credit desk returns.
• There is no official template. RBI publishes no CMA format and no filename. What circulates is a family of CA-firm templates descended from the Tandon Working Group's information system; a reviewer should confirm the specific lender has not mandated its own layout.
• The ratio the layout was built around was formally withdrawn. RBI records that the MPBF prescription "based on a minimum current ratio of 1.33:1, recommended by Tandon Working Group has been withdrawn", leaving banks to "evolve an appropriate system" of their own (RBI, Master Circular — Management of Advances (UCBs), RBI/2023-24/51, para 3.1.2). Sheet 5 still uses it because lender policy still uses it.
• Under ₹5 crore, the workbook is usually the wrong document. For micro and small enterprises up to ₹5 crore of fund-based working capital, assessment runs on projected turnover, and the Common Loan Application Form asks for "actual performance for two previous years, estimates for current year and projections for next year" — eight lines, not seven sheets (Indian Bank, Common Loan Application Form for MSME loans up to ₹1 crore).
• On the lender's side, YuSight produces the assessment with 100% of figures cited, each number one click from the source document and page — so a committee arguing about a receivable-days assumption can see the invoice ageing it came from.

Free download. A blank seven-sheet CMA workbook built to the specification below is available on this page. [EDITORIAL] Attach the template file here before publication — no URL has been fabricated in this draft.

How is the workbook laid out?

Use one column scheme on every sheet. Nothing else in the file matters as much.

Rules that keep the file usable:

• One unit, declared in cell A1 of every sheet. "₹ in lakh" or "₹ in crore". Never both.
• Column E is the assessment year. Every figure the bank sanctions against comes from column E.
• Sheets 5, 6 and 7 contain no typed numbers at all. Every cell is a formula pointing at sheets 2, 3 or 4. If you find yourself typing into sheet 5, the workbook is already broken.
• No merged cells, no hidden rows, no colour-coded meaning. The file will be printed, scanned and re-uploaded at least once.
• Send the workbook, not a PDF of it. A credit desk that cannot see the formulas has to recompute everything by hand.

Sheet 1 — Particulars of existing and proposed limits

One row per facility, not one row per lender.

Rows: cash credit / overdraft; working capital demand loan; export packing credit; bill discounting; letter of credit; bank guarantee; term loans, listed individually; unsecured loans from directors and related parties; other borrowings.

Columns for this sheet only: existing limit, outstanding as at the latest date, security offered, primary and collateral, rate of interest, proposed limit.

The check the bank runs first: sheet 1 against the credit information report. An omitted facility with another lender is the one CMA defect that gets escalated rather than returned for rework.

Sheet 2 — Operating statement

This is the profit and loss account, recast into the order a limit assessment needs.

Rows, in order: gross sales, split domestic and export; less excise or GST where applicable; net sales; other income; raw material consumed; power and fuel; direct labour; other manufacturing expenses; depreciation; cost of production; opening stock of work in progress and finished goods, less closing stock; cost of sales; selling, general and administrative expenses; interest, split working capital and term; profit before tax; tax; profit after tax; dividend or partners' drawings; retained profit.

Two derived rows most templates omit and every analyst adds back:

• Sales growth % = (current year − prior year) ÷ prior year
• PBT margin % = profit before tax ÷ net sales

Put them in. A projection that lifts sales 25% while trend growth is 14% is a question, and the question should be visible on the sheet rather than found by an analyst with a calculator.

Sheet 3 — Analysis of balance sheet

The balance sheet reclassified into the bank's categories, which are not the Schedule III categories.

Liabilities block: short-term bank borrowing; sundry creditors for goods; advances from customers; statutory liabilities; other current liabilities; total current liabilities; term loans; deferred payment credits; unsecured loans from promoters, flagged separately as subordinated or not; total term liabilities; share capital or partners' capital; reserves and surplus; less intangibles and accumulated losses; tangible net worth.

Assets block: cash and bank; receivables, split up to six months and over; inventory; advances to suppliers; other current assets; total current assets; gross block; less accumulated depreciation; net block; investments; loans to group entities; non-current deposits; total assets.

Three derived rows: net working capital (total current assets − total current liabilities), total outside liabilities and TOL/TNW.

The reclassification is where judgement enters. Loans to group entities, security deposits with electricity boards, disputed tax refunds outstanding beyond a year and investments in associates come out of current assets, even when the audited balance sheet shows them there.

Sheet 4 — Comparative statement of current assets and current liabilities

The most important sheet in the workbook, and the one to build with the most care.

Each current asset gets three cells per year: the holding period in days, the base it is applied to, and the resulting value. Do not type the value.

Two rules that decide whether the sheet is usable:

1. Other current liabilities on this sheet exclude short-term bank borrowing. That borrowing is what the assessment is trying to size. Including it deflates the working capital gap and inflates nothing — it just produces a smaller, wrong answer.
2. Use 365 days on every row, on every sheet. Some templates use 360 on inventory and 365 on debtors. The inconsistency is invisible on any one line and obvious the moment ratios are recomputed.

Add a derived block underneath: the holding periods implied by the audited columns. Receivable days for FY2026 = receivables ÷ net sales × 365. Put the actual next to the projected. That comparison is the whole point of the sheet.

Sheet 5 — Calculation of MPBF

Formulas only. Nine rows:

1. Total current assets — link to sheet 4
2. Other current liabilities — link to sheet 4
3. Working capital gap = row 1 − row 2
4. Projected net working capital — link to sheet 3
5. 25% of working capital gap
6. 25% of total current assets
7. Method I MPBF = lower of (row 3 − row 5) and (row 3 − row 4)
8. Method II MPBF = lower of (row 1 − row 6 − row 2) and (row 3 − row 4)
9. Resulting current ratio = row 1 ÷ (row 2 + the method adopted)

Most Indian lenders sanction on Method II. Why the two methods give different answers, and the algebra behind the gap between them, is worked through in MPBF calculation explained.

Sheet 6 — Fund flow statement

Long-term sources: profit after tax; depreciation; increase in term loans; increase in subordinated promoter loans; fresh capital.

Long-term uses: capital expenditure; term loan repayments; dividend and drawings; increase in non-current assets.

Surplus or deficit = sources − uses.

Then the one row that makes the sheet worth having: the surplus must equal the movement in net working capital between sheet 3's two columns. Put that check on the sheet as a live formula returning OK or a difference. If it does not tie, a number somewhere in the workbook was typed instead of computed.

Sheet 7 — Ratio analysis

Every cell links to sheets 2, 3 or 4. Nothing typed.

Current ratio; quick ratio; TOL/TNW; debt-equity; inventory turnover days; receivable days; creditor days; operating cycle in days; PBT margin; return on capital employed; interest coverage; DSCR where a term loan is proposed.

Compute the ratio from the source rows rather than restating a number from elsewhere — recomputing is how a mismatch between sheets surfaces.

A worked example: one borrower across all seven sheets

Illustrative only. Constructed figures. Margins and ratio norms are lender policy, not regulation.

Sheet 4, column E

Sheet 5, column E

• Working capital gap = 5.60 − 1.40 = ₹4.20 crore
• Projected net working capital (from sheet 3) = ₹1.32 crore
• 25% of total current assets = 0.25 × 5.60 = ₹1.40 crore
• Method II (a) = 5.60 − 1.40 − 1.40 = ₹2.80 crore
• Method II (b) = 4.20 − 1.32 = ₹2.88 crore
• MPBF Method II = lower of the two = ₹2.80 crore
• Resulting current ratio = 5.60 ÷ (1.40 + 2.80) = 5.60 ÷ 4.20 = 1.33 : 1
• NWC the method requires = 5.60 − 4.20 = ₹1.40 crore against ₹1.32 crore projected — shortfall ₹0.08 crore, met by a partners' capital infusion condition.

Sheet 6, column E

Net working capital FY2026 = ₹1.10 crore. Add ₹0.22 crore = ₹1.32 crore, which is exactly the NWC on sheet 5. The workbook ties.

The cross-check the borrower should run before sending

Five formulas. They take an hour to build once and they catch the defects that cost a fortnight of back-and-forth.

The cross-check the analyst runs, which is different

Kaveri's proposed limit is ₹2.80 crore — a small enterprise, under the ₹5 crore threshold. So the turnover method also applies:

• Working capital requirement = 25% of ₹18.00 crore = ₹4.50 crore
• Borrower's margin = 5% of turnover = ₹0.90 crore
• Minimum bank finance = 20% of turnover = ₹3.60 crore

The turnover method gives ₹3.60 crore. Method II gives ₹2.80 crore. RBI's guidance is that the turnover figure is a minimum, and that "if the credit requirement based on traditional production / processing cycle is higher than the one assessed on projected turnover basis, the same may be sanctioned" (RBI/2023-24/51, paras 2.1–2.3). Here the traditional method is lower, so the sanction lands at ₹3.60 crore under the turnover method — and the seven-sheet workbook was never the operative document.

Whether a lender sanctions the higher figure, the lower, or the turnover figure with a condition varies by board-approved loan policy. Confirm against the specific lender's policy before treating this as a rule.

Which Excel format do banks actually accept?

An .xlsx workbook, formulas intact, one sheet per statement, one unit throughout, sent as a file rather than a printout. Beyond that, expectations vary and none of it is regulated:

Once inside the bank, the file goes through the lender's own spreading, and the credit appraisal memorandum is written on the spread numbers, not on the borrower's workbook. The sections that memo has to carry — and how the spread financials land in each of them — are set out in the guide to the credit assessment memo. What CMA data is and why the bank asks for it in the first place is covered in the pillar on CMA data.

Frequently asked questions

What are the 7 statements in CMA data?

Particulars of existing and proposed limits; operating statement; analysis of balance sheet; comparative statement of current assets and current liabilities; calculation of MPBF; fund flow statement; and ratio analysis. They run in that order because each one feeds the next.

Which Excel format do banks accept for CMA?

An .xlsx workbook with the formulas left in, one sheet per statement and a single unit throughout. Some banks ask for a signed printout as well, but the file is what the credit desk actually works from.

Can CMA data be generated automatically?

The borrower's side can be templated once the audited financials are in a spreadsheet. The lender's side is a different job — the bank has to spread the financials independently and recompute the ratios, which is what a financial spreading tool does.

Is there an official RBI CMA format?

No. RBI publishes neither a template nor a required filename. The seven-statement layout is an industry convention, which is why every CA firm's template looks slightly different.

How many years of data does a CMA workbook need?

Five columns is standard — two audited, one provisional or estimated, two projected. Term loan proposals sometimes carry a third projected year.

What is the most common mistake in a CMA Excel file?

Typing numbers into sheets 5, 6 and 7 instead of linking them. The moment the working capital gap on sheet 5 stops matching total current assets minus other current liabilities on sheet 4, the analyst knows the MPBF was reverse-engineered.

Should other current liabilities on sheet 4 include bank borrowing?

No. Short-term bank borrowing is excluded, because it is the figure the whole computation is trying to arrive at. Including it produces a smaller working capital gap and a wrong MPBF.

Do I need CMA data for a loan under ₹5 crore?

Usually not, if you are a micro or small enterprise. Assessment at that size normally runs on projected turnover, and the simplified application form asks for far less. Check with the branch before commissioning a full workbook.

Can I send the CMA data as a PDF?

You can, and most borrowers do, but it makes the analyst's job slower and the queries longer. A PDF hides the formulas, so every tie-out has to be recomputed by hand.

Key takeaways

• Seven sheets, five columns, one unit. Get the column scheme right on every sheet before entering a single figure.
• Sheets 5, 6 and 7 should contain no typed numbers. Everything links back to sheets 2, 3 and 4.
• Sheet 4 is where the limit is decided. Put the audited holding periods next to the projected ones on the same page.
• Build the five tie-out checks as live formulas. They catch most of what a credit desk would otherwise return the file for.
• Below ₹5 crore for micro and small enterprises, the turnover method usually governs and the workbook may not be the operative document at all.
• Send the workbook, not a PDF of it.

On the lender's side, the workbook is only the starting point — the bank still has to spread the financials itself, recompute every ratio and be able to show where each figure came from. YuSight's Financial Spreading module does that from the source documents, computes leverage, liquidity and turnover ratios, and delivers an assessment with 100% of figures cited and one-click source verification, analyst-editable throughout. Version history is kept, so a reviewer can see what changed between the draft and the sanction.

Watch YuSight spread a real balance sheet.

Sources

• RBI — Master Circular: Management of Advances (UCBs), RBI/2023-24/51, 25 July 2023
• RBI — Guidelines on Loan System for Delivery of Bank Credit, RBI/2018-19/87, 5 December 2018
• RBI — Master Direction: Lending to the Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) Sector, RBI/FIDD/2017-2018/56
• Indian Bank — Common Loan Application Form for MSME Loans up to ₹1 crore