Financial projections tool MicroVision

 

How to make financial projections?
In November 2009, Terrafina Microfinance organised a workshop about financial projections. Nine MFIs and nine consultants - all from Senegal and Burkina Faso - were trained in using MicroVision, a new tool for making projections. The participants considered both the MicroVision tool and the workshop as a great success.

 

"The Microvision tool helps us to plan ahead. We can now see the impact of unexpected events for our operations such as lower savings or higher provisions. It also helps us to assess the best possible responses."  Joost Box

"If I invest EUR 40,000 in establishing new offices, how long does it take before those offices cover their costs?" "How big a loan should I get in order to finance the expansion of my microcredit portfolio"? "Can I afford to buy a new MIS system, and hire extra loan offers at the same time?" These are examples of questions that MFIs ask themselves when they are writing their business plans. To answer such questions, a systematic financial projection is

is needed. Not all MFIs, however, have the skills to make such projections. Also, the available software is sometimes more complicated than needed for smaller MFIs.
Therefore, Terrafina Microfinance has supported the development of an easily accessible tool for making financial projections. The tool is called MicroVision and works in Excell. It has been developed by Dutch consultant Mr Joost Box.
MicroVision has been tested extensively (2007-2009) and has proven to be functional. It is now being used by most MFIs in the Terrafina portfolio. Additional modules for consolidation of projections for Cooperative Unions and for annual cash flow planning are being developed.

It is envisaged that Microvision will be made available more widely through Microned. More news on that will follow. More information through info@terrafina.nl.