What CMA data is
The statement set a lender appraises. It restates your past accounts and your projections into a shape a credit officer can compare across borrowers.
Two things make it different from the accounts you already have. It is restated, not copied: current assets, current liabilities, term liabilities and net worth are reclassified on the lender's definitions, which are not always the same as Schedule III. And it is forward looking: the same statements carry projected years, so the lender can see whether the business can carry the facility it is asking for.
The name explains the purpose. Credit Monitoring Arrangement is a monitoring exercise, not a one-off document. The lender wants a comparable set of numbers at sanction and again at every renewal, so that a deterioration shows up as a change in the same row of the same statement.
There is no RBI CMA format
Nothing prescribes a CMA form. Each bank publishes its own, and they differ.
You will find pages describing the "RBI CMA format" or a report "built per RBI norms". We do not, because we have not found a current RBI-prescribed CMA form, and we removed those claims from our own project report page for the same reason. The formats in circulation differ in the number of past and projected years, the ratio set, the level of detail in current assets, and how the working capital computation is laid out.
That is why the first question we ask is which lender, and not which template. If you later approach a second bank, the same underlying numbers are recast into that bank's format rather than rebuilt.
The seven statements
Most CMA templates run to seven statements, numbered Form I to Form VII. The numbering and the presentation vary by lender. This is what each one does.
| Statement | What it contains | Why the lender reads it |
|---|---|---|
| Form I: existing and proposed limits | Every facility you already have, with sanctioned amount, outstanding, security, rate and conduct, and the new limit you are asking for | Shows total exposure and whether you are already fully drawn |
| Form II: operating statement | The profit and loss restated: sales, cost of sales, operating profit, interest, depreciation, tax and profit, for each year in the set | The earning capacity that has to service the facility |
| Form III: analysis of the balance sheet | Liabilities and assets reclassified into current liabilities, term liabilities and net worth, and current assets, fixed assets and non-current assets | Every ratio and the working capital computation are built from this reclassification |
| Form IV: comparative current assets and current liabilities | Inventory, receivables, advances, creditors and other current items in detail, usually also expressed as holding periods in days | Tests whether the working capital you are asking to fund is real |
| Form V: computation of maximum permissible bank finance | The working capital gap and the limit the lender's method produces from it | This is the number that becomes your cash credit or overdraft limit |
| Form VI: fund flow statement | Sources and uses of funds across the years: profit, capital brought in, loans raised, against assets bought and loans repaid | Whether the projection is internally consistent, and where the cash actually goes |
| Form VII: ratio analysis | The ratio set the lender screens on, computed for every year in the set | The summary page a credit officer reads first |
Some lenders add or merge statements, ask for a sensitivity case, or want a separate schedule for related-party balances. We build what your lender's format asks for.
The columns: what is history and what is a promise
Every statement runs across the same columns, and which column a number sits in changes how it is treated.
| Column | What it is | How it is supported |
|---|---|---|
| Audited, last two or three years | Completed years | The audited or finalised accounts themselves. Where an audit applied, see statutory audit and tax audit |
| Provisional or estimated, current year | The year in progress | Books to date plus a defensible estimate for the rest, reconciled to GST returns |
| Projected, the years ahead | Your plan | Your own assumptions on volume, price, margin, collection and payment periods |
The line between the estimated column and the projected column is where most applications get questioned. An estimated current year that does not match the GST returns already filed is the fastest way to lose credibility, because the officer can check it. Projections are yours to make, but each assumption should be stated, not implied.
How the working capital limit is arrived at
The lender funds part of your working capital gap and expects you to fund the rest.
In outline: current assets that the facility is meant to support, less the current liabilities other than bank borrowing, gives the working capital gap. The lender then applies its own method and its own margin to that gap, and the result is the maximum permissible bank finance in Form V.
We do not publish a percentage for the margin or name a method as the standard one, because lenders differ and we have not verified a current prescribed method. Ask your branch two questions before the statements are finalised: which method it applies, and what margin it expects you to bring. The answers change the limit, and it is cheaper to build to them than to submit and be revised.
Once the limit is sanctioned, drawing power is usually computed separately each month from the stock and debtor position you report. That is why the projection in Form IV matters after sanction and not just before it.
The ratios the lender reads off your statements
Form VII is a summary of the other six. Nothing in it is new information: it is the same numbers expressed as relationships.
The set usually covers liquidity, leverage, coverage and efficiency. The efficiency ratios are the ones borrowers pay least attention to and lenders read closely, because they say whether the working capital request is consistent with how the business actually runs.
- Inventory holding period. Days of stock held, from Form IV. If you are asking to fund 90 days of inventory and you have historically held 45, the request needs an explanation.
- Debtor days. Average collection period. A projection that quietly assumes faster collection than you have ever achieved is the most common weakness in a CMA set.
- Creditor days. How long you take to pay. Stretching this in a projection reduces the gap on paper and raises a question about supplier relationships.
- Turnover to net worth, and to the facility asked for. Whether the ask is proportionate to the size of the business.
The three ratios a credit officer usually checks first, the debt service coverage ratio, the current ratio and total outside liabilities to tangible net worth, are explained in detail on our project report page. Each lender sets its own minimum for them, so ask the branch rather than relying on a figure from any website, including ours.
Making the projection reconcile with the past
A CMA set is judged on whether it hangs together, not on how good the projected profit looks.
Five checks we run before anything is submitted.
- Opening balances. The closing balance sheet of the last audited year is the opening position of the projection. Nothing appears or disappears at the join.
- Three statements agree. Profit in the operating statement flows into net worth in the balance sheet and into the fund flow. If the projected balance sheet only balances because of a plug figure, the set fails on the first read.
- Past figures match what you have already filed. Turnover in the audited column has to be reconcilable with your GST returns and your income-tax return. Where turnover crosses the limit, that reconciliation is the same exercise as GSTR-9C.
- Existing loans are honoured. Repayment schedules on facilities you already have appear in the projection, with the interest and the principal. A projection that quietly stops repaying an existing term loan is not a projection.
- Depreciation and tax are computed. Both are calculated on the assets and the profit in the set, not carried forward as last year's figure.
Where a projection will not support the limit you want, we say so at the assumptions stage. Changing the ask, the tenure or the promoter contribution is cheaper than submitting and being sent back.
CMA data or a project report: which one has your bank asked for
They are different documents and most new-loan applications need both.
| CMA data | Project report | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | The statement set: restated past and projected financials, working capital computation, fund flow and ratios | The document around the numbers: what the business does, why it needs the money, the security and the repayment |
| Mainly used for | Working capital limits, and at every renewal | A new term loan or a new project |
| Shape | Spreadsheets in the lender's format | A written report with financial annexures |
| Who asks | The branch or credit processing cell, at sanction and renewal | The branch, for a fresh sanction or a scheme-linked loan |
| Our page | This page | Project report and CMA data |
If your bank has sent you a blank Excel workbook with sheets numbered Form I to Form VII, it wants CMA data. If it has asked for a project report or a scheme application, it wants the document, usually with the CMA statements inside it. When in doubt, send us the email the branch sent you.
Renewal: why the bank wants it again every year
Because the arrangement is a monitoring one. A working capital limit is sanctioned for a period and reviewed when that period ends, and the review runs on a fresh CMA set.
At renewal the lender is doing something a new borrower never faces: comparing last year's projection with what actually happened. A renewal set therefore has an extra burden. The year you projected twelve months ago is now an audited column, and the difference has to be explained.
That is worth knowing before you build the first set. Projections that were written to get a limit approved come back as a question at renewal, and the honest version costs less over two cycles than the optimistic one. Ask your branch what its renewal cycle and format are, since both vary.
Renewal usually comes with other periodic reporting: stock and debtor statements for drawing power, and whatever else the sanction letter lists. Read the sanction letter for that list rather than assuming it.
Who prepares it, and what a CA signature does and does not mean
A chartered accountant can compile the statements, test them for arithmetic and internal consistency, and state what they are based on. Nobody can certify that a projected year will happen.
So the division of responsibility is this. The assumptions are yours: volumes, prices, margins, collection periods, the capital you will bring in. The structure, the reclassification, the computations and the internal consistency are ours. Where the assumptions cannot support the request, we tell you at the start.
If your bank asks for the statements to be certified rather than only prepared, that certificate is a CA certificate like any other and carries a UDIN, which the bank can verify. See CA certificates. And no firm can promise a sanction: that is the lender's decision, on its own credit policy.
Documents we need
- Audited or finalised financial statements for the last two or three years, with schedules
- Provisional figures for the current year, and the trial balance
- GST returns for the period covered, see GST return filing
- Income-tax returns for the same years, see income tax return
- Bank statements for all accounts, usually twelve months
- Sanction letters and repayment schedules for every existing facility, including from group entities
- The lender's own CMA format, or the email or workbook the branch sent you
- Ageing of debtors and creditors, and the inventory position with valuation basis
- Your assumptions: sales plan, pricing, margins, collection and payment periods, capital expenditure planned
- Udyam registration certificate, which most lenders ask for first and which is free
If your lender also asks for a net worth certificate, a turnover certificate or an LEI registration alongside, see those pages.
Where the books for the current year are not written up, we can compile them first as separate work: see accounting services.
Fees
Fee on quote after a free review. There is no government fee: nothing is filed with any department.
| Item | Position |
|---|---|
| Regikart professional fee, CMA data | Fee on quote after a free review |
| Government fee | No government fee |
| Project report with CMA data, single entity, one lender's format | From ₹7,499, see project report |
| Bookkeeping to produce the past or current-year figures | See accounting services |
| An Excel model for your own scenario testing | See financial modeling |
Professional fees exclude GST at 18%. Government fees, where they apply, are paid at actuals to the department and are shown separately. Fees verified on 27 September 2026.
What moves the quote: the number of past and projected years, whether the accounts are ready or have to be compiled, the number of entities and lenders, whether it is a fresh set or a renewal with last year's projection to explain, and whether the lender's format is a standard one or its own workbook.
Why borrowers bring this to Regikart
Regikart is a CA and CS firm serving 250+ clients, with offices in Kolkata (head office), Delhi and Bengaluru. This page is reviewed by CA Deepak Jaiswal.
- Your lender's format, asked about first. We do not have a house template we call the RBI format.
- Numbers that tie back. Past columns reconciled to your GST returns and income-tax returns before the projection is built, because that is what an officer can check.
- Renewals handled as renewals. Last year's projection against this year's actuals, with the difference explained rather than hidden.
- The rest of the stack in one firm. Accounting, GST, income tax and the project report itself, so one set of numbers goes everywhere.