Executive Summary
- CMA data answers three plain questions: where you've been, where you're going, can you repay
- Each of the 6 forms maps to one of these three underlying questions
- You don't need an accounting background to understand what's being asked — just what each section means
- A CA or advisor still does the technical preparation, but understanding it helps you check their work
The Three Plain Questions Behind CMA Data
Strip away the technical terminology and CMA data is fundamentally answering three questions a bank needs answered: where has your business actually been financially (historical performance), where is it credibly going (projections), and can it repay this specific loan from its own cash flow (ratio analysis). Every one of the six forms maps to one of these three underlying questions.
Where You've Been: The Historical Forms
CMA Forms 1 and 2 — covering your Operating Statement and Balance Sheet analysis — present your last three years of audited financial performance in the bank's standard format. This is simply your existing audited financials reorganised into the structure the bank expects, not new information you need to generate from scratch.
Where You're Going: The Projection Forms
Forms 3, 4, and 5 — covering current assets comparison, MPBF calculation, and fund flow — extend your historical pattern into three years of credible projections, alongside calculating your eligible working capital limit. This is where genuine financial modelling skill matters most, since projections need to be realistic and properly derived, not optimistic guesses.
Can You Repay: The Ratio Analysis
Form 6 distils everything into the specific ratios — DSCR, TOL/TNW, Current Ratio — that directly answer the bank's core question: can this business service this specific loan. See our complete breakdown of CMA Form 6 for what each ratio actually measures and what threshold your bank applies.