A working finance model for a light electric vehicle maker
Follow one Alpha from the factory to the bank account.
SELANA sells the Alpha for €1,900 including VAT. This page shows what is left of that after tax, dealers, the factory in Asia, the sea freight, the import duty and the warranty, and then what happens to cash when those units travel in containers, land in a twelve-month forecast, and get booked in the ledger.
Prices come from selana.nl on 29 October 2026. Every cost is an assumption with a slider. Move the sliders, the whole page recalculates.
Working capital
One container, from the deposit to the day the cash comes back.
The Alphas are assembled in Asia and shipped by sea. SELANA pays the factory long before a rider pays SELANA. This is the cash curve of a single container of 280 Alphas: how deep it goes, and on which day it crosses back above zero. VAT is treated as pass-through.
- Cumulative cash for this container, € ex VAT
- Events
Cash flow forecast
Twelve months ahead, with containers ordered when stock runs low.
November 2026 to October 2027. The model sells Alphas and Novas, reorders a container whenever projected stock drops below one month of demand, pays the factory on its terms, settles VAT every quarter, and delivers the Nova pre-orders that were paid up front. Delivering a pre-order is revenue with no cash in, which is exactly why it is worth modelling.
- Cash at month end
- Net cash flow in the month
- €100k buffer
€ thousands, ex VAT. Opex that carries VAT is paid the month after it is incurred. Team and rent are paid in the month. VAT is settled in January, April, July and October. Corporate tax is accrued, not paid, inside the window.
Financial statements
The same twelve months as an income statement, a balance sheet and a cash flow statement that tie.
Net income flows into equity. Every change in inventory, prepayments, receivables, VAT and customer deposits shows up in the cash flow statement. The two checks at the bottom are computed live, not typed in.
Income statement
Balance sheet
Cash flow statement
Budget tracking
Budget versus actual, and the two paragraphs that go with it.
A sample month with invented actuals, to show the format I would use: variance in euros and in percent, a flag only when both are material, and a short note written for the founders rather than for the accountant.
Bookkeeping
What each SELANA event does to the ledger.
Ten transactions a light electric vehicle maker in the Netherlands books every month. Amounts are taken from the model above, so they follow the sliders. Pick one to see the journal entry and which statements move.
Financial workflows
A five-day month-end close for a company that sells on Shopify and buys by the container.
The job description asks for accurate records and better workflows. This is the close I would set up in the first month, with the reconciliation that proves each number. Each row is one check between two independent sources.
| Day | Task | Reconcile this | Against this | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bank reconciliation | Every bank line, all accounts | Ledger cash account, zero unexplained lines | Finance |
| 1 | Shopify payouts | Payouts received in the bank | Shopify orders less refunds less fees, by payout batch | Finance |
| 2 | Stock count to ledger | Units per model and colour in the warehouse system | Inventory account at landed cost, units times cost | Finance with Ops |
| 2 | Supplier prepayment roll-forward | Deposits and balances paid per purchase order | Containers landed in the month, moved to inventory | Finance with Ops |
| 3 | Landed cost per container | Factory invoice, freight, duty, inbound handling | Budgeted landed cost, difference explained per container | Finance |
| 3 | Customer deposit ledger | Nova pre-orders open in Shopify | Customer deposits liability, after deliveries and cancellations | Finance |
| 3 | VAT and import VAT | Output VAT on sales and deposits, input VAT on costs | Article 23 import VAT declared and deducted in the same return | Finance |
| 4 | Accruals and provisions | Warranty provision at 2% of revenue, Connect subscriptions deferred | Claims paid in the month, subscriptions recognised by month | Finance |
| 4 | Budget versus actual | Actuals from the closed ledger | Budget, with flags and one sentence per flag | Finance |
| 5 | Report pack | Income statement, balance sheet, cash flow, 13-week cash view | Last month's pack, so the story is continuous | Finance to founders |
What this is, and why I made it
A CV says analytical. A model that ties shows it.
What is on this page
A single, connected model. One Alpha's unit economics feed the cash curve of a container. The container terms feed a twelve-month forecast that orders stock on its own. The forecast produces an income statement, a balance sheet and a cash flow statement that reconcile to the euro. The same numbers drive the journal entries. Change a slider at the top and every table on the page moves.
Everything that is public, such as the €1,900 Alpha price, the €899 Nova pre-order, the 21% VAT, the Q4 2026 Nova release and the fact that assembly happens in Asia, is taken from selana.nl and press coverage. Everything else is an assumption, labelled as such, meant to be replaced by real figures in an afternoon.
Why these modules
Because they map onto the role. Financial statements and their practical use: the three-statement section. Bookkeeping, reconciliations and journal entries: the ledger and the close. Budget tracking and cost and revenue monitoring: the budget section and the landed-cost check. Analysing data to support decisions: the container curve, which answers the question a manufacturer asks most, which is how much cash one more container needs and for how long.
What I would do first
- Week 1Set up the bank and Shopify payout reconciliation so it runs in under an hour, and agree the chart of accounts for deposits, prepayments and landed cost.
- Week 2Build the supplier prepayment roll-forward and the landed-cost sheet per container, with actuals against budget.
- Week 3Open the Nova customer deposit ledger and the Connect subscription deferral, so revenue is recognised when it is earned.
- Week 4Close the first month on the five-day schedule above and send the first report pack with a 13-week cash view.
Who I am
Paolo Caneparo, based in Eindhoven. From February 2024 to September 2026 I was co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Rewize, an inventory forecasting platform for e-commerce brands, where I owned product and sales and built its landed cost, supplier payment terms and cash flow tooling. Before that I was COO of WZL, a software studio building inventory planning tools for e-commerce and manufacturing clients.
MSc in Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Esade. BSc in Business Administration, KU Leuven.
I left Rewize in September 2026 and now work as a freelancer. This model and the code behind it are SELANA's to keep, whether or not we work together.
Built in plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript so it runs anywhere, including on a laptop with no internet. No tracking, no cookies, no data leaves the page.
Revenue came in 9% under budget because 12 fewer Alphas shipped than planned. The gap is timing, not demand: the container that was due on the 14th cleared customs on the 29th and those units shipped in the first days of November. Gross margin per unit held at budget.
Operating costs ran €8.4k over budget. Marketing overspent by €5.5k on the demo-drive tour, which generated 41 test rides and 9 orders, so I would keep it. Compliance overspent by €2.2k on RDW conformity testing for the Nova pre-series, which was always going to land in Q4 and should be moved into the Nova budget. Software is a small, permanent overrun from new Shopify apps and should be rebudgeted at €3.4k.
Net effect on EBITDA: €17.4k below budget, of which €8.9k reverses in November when the 12 late units are invoiced. Watch item for next month: landed cost per unit on the late container, since the freight invoice included demurrage.
Rules I use for the flag column