The business plan for EU funds: structure, financial model and scoring criteria

In calls for firms under the regional programmes, the business plan is the document on which most of the evaluation rests. The points for quality and sustainability, the budget and the applicant's financial capacity all depend on it. It is a mandatory annex at submission, it is prepared according to the template in the applicant's guide and it comes with a standard financial model. If it is missing at submission, the project may be rejected without you being asked for clarifications.

In brief

• Definition: the document that describes the investment, the market, the budget and the financial projections. On this basis, the evaluator decides whether the project is viable and whether it can be sustained once the funding ends.
• Legal basis: the applicant's guide for each call (OUG no. 23/2023 for the evaluation procedure) and Article 65 of Regulation (EU) 2021/1060 for the durability of the investment.
• Format: the business plan template and the financial model in the annexes to the guide. For the Bucharest-Ilfov PR (call P1/1.8/1/2024) these are Annexes 4.1 and 4.2, and for the North-East PR (micro-enterprises, call 2) they are Annexes 7 and 15.
• Quality threshold: 70 points in the PR BI call for micro-enterprises. Projects below this threshold are rejected.
• Durability: the investment must be maintained for 3 years from the final payment or for as long as the state aid rules require, whichever ends last (PR BI).

What structure must the business plan have?

Each call has its own template, so the first rule is to use the annex from the call's guide, not a generic template. In practice, the templates in the 2021–2027 regional programmes have the same main blocks:

1. The applicant: history, shareholding, current activity, CAEN codes, human and material resources.
2. The investment: what is being bought or built, where exactly, and how it relates to the funded activity.
3. The market: customers, competition, prices and sales strategy.
4. The budget: eligible and ineligible costs, allocated to the budget lines.
5. The financial projections: the financial model, that is, revenues, expenses, cash flow and indicators.
6. The indicators and sustainability: what results you commit to and how you maintain the investment after the final payment.

The PR BI guide requires other documents to be submitted as well. The plan must be consistent with them: the list of goods and services allocated to budget lines (Annex 6), the summary table justifying the costs, with at least 2 distinct sources (quotes, catalogues, screenshots from websites), and the chartered accountant's report on the revenue obtained from the funded CAEN code.

What do evaluators score in the business plan?

As a concrete example, the PR BI call P1/1.8/1/2024 for micro-enterprises has a grid with four chapters. The business plan directly influences two of them:

• Project quality and sustainability: the quality of the business plan (3.1), the project budget (3.2) and financial sustainability (3.3). For the latter, the cumulative net cash flow is analysed, "on the basis of a detailed, well-founded and realistic estimate of expenses and revenues".
• The applicant's financial capacity: the solvency ratio (4.1), the share of revenue from the funded CAEN code in turnover (4.2) and the ratio between the requested grant and turnover (4.3). All three are calculated on the financial year preceding submission.

The plan also supports criteria in other chapters: the innovative nature of the product or process, internationalisation activities and environmental measures. If you do not describe them concretely, you do not get the points.

Calculation examples

Solvency ratio. The formula in the PR BI guide is RS = Total assets / Total liabilities. A firm that had total assets of 900,000 lei and total liabilities of 300,000 lei on 31 December has RS = 3. With the same assets and liabilities of 600,000 lei, RS falls to 1.5. The figures are taken from the filed balance sheet, so you can no longer improve them after the financial year has closed.

Grant / turnover ratio. A firm that requests 800,000 lei in non-refundable funding and had a turnover of 400,000 lei last year has a ratio of 2. The same request, at a turnover of 1,600,000 lei, gives a ratio of 0.5. The ratio shows how large the project is compared with the firm. The scoring thresholds differ from one call to another, so check them in the call's grid.

Cumulative net cash flow. For each year of the projection, add up the receipts and subtract the payments, including co-financing, loan instalments and taxes. Then accumulate the results. If the annual flow is +50,000, –20,000 and +80,000 lei, the cumulative flow is +50,000, +30,000 and +110,000 lei. A negative cumulative figure in any year shows that the firm has nothing to pay its obligations from. The evaluator checks whether the figures are well-founded, not just positive.

Mistakes that lower your score or lead to rejection

• The plan does not match the rest of the application. The costs in the plan differ from the budget in MySMIS, the general estimate or the investment list. The PR BI guide states that the eligible value can no longer increase after clarifications.
• The core activity receives too little money. Under PR BI, at least 50% of the eligible budget must go to the core activity.
• Prices without justification. Costs must be in line with the average market price, with at least 2 quotes or sources.
• Revenues that grow without explanation. Large year-on-year increases, without contracts, production capacity or a market study to support them, affect the sustainability criterion.
• Post-investment costs are forgotten. Maintenance, staff, energy and depreciation must be included in the projections. The applicant undertakes to cover them throughout the durability period.
• Missing annexes. Under PR BI, if a document that is mandatory at submission is missing, the project is rejected without the possibility of requesting clarifications.

What this means for your business

Our recommendation is to start with the figures, not the text. First calculate the solvency ratio, the share of the CAEN code and the grant / turnover ratio on the latest balance sheet. These can no longer be changed at submission and they show how large the project can be while remaining competitive. Then build the financial model starting from revenues that you can document: contracts, pre-orders, machinery capacity. The text of the plan comes last and explains what the figures show.

Bear in mind that the commitment continues after the final payment. For at least 3 years you cannot cease the activity, move it out of the region or substantially change the investment, otherwise the grant is recovered in proportion to the period in which you did not meet the conditions. For a first check of your firm's situation, you can use the eligibility check.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use the same business plan for several calls?

Not as it is. Each guide has its own template and financial model, and the scoring criteria differ. The data about the firm and the market can be reused, but the structure, the budget and the indicators must be redone for each call.

How many years do the financial projections cover?

The horizon is set by the call's financial model. As a rule, the projections cover at least the implementation period and the durability period, which under PR BI is 3 years from the final payment. Check the number of years in the call's annex.

What happens if I do not achieve the indicators in the plan?

The indicators you commit to are part of the funding contract and are checked during monitoring. Failing to meet them, including during the durability period, may lead to full or partial recovery of the funding.

How detailed must the market study be?

Detailed enough to justify the revenues in the projections: who the customers are, at what price you sell and what volumes you estimate, with verifiable sources. General statements about a "growing market" do not support the sustainability criterion.

Official sources

• Applicant's guide, Bucharest-Ilfov PR, call PR BI P1/1.8/1/2024 – micro-enterprises (ADR BI)
• Applicant's guide, North-East PR – investments for the modernisation of micro-enterprises, call 2 (ADR North-East)
• Regulation (EU) 2021/1060 – common provisions, Article 65 on the durability of operations

Information checked on 27 September 2026. Conditions may be amended by the managing authority — check the guide in force before submitting.