As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly prepare a business plan for a UK bank loan.

What to actually do

1. Hand it to a person

   The route this page recommends

   A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.

2. Use a tool built for this

   Second choice

3. Do it yourself

   The distant third

   A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 2 hours until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open a document and a spreadsheet, then gather your business registration details, owner experience, product prices, customer evidence, supplier terms, staff plans, existing borrowing and the precise amount and use of the loan.
   2. Export or copy verified trading figures from your accounting records, including revenue, gross margin, regular costs, one-off costs, cash balance and existing repayments, with the period and source beside each figure.
   3. Fill every bracketed slot in the prompt, write "none" where evidence does not exist, and paste the completed prompt into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini.
   4. Paste the AI's assumptions table and cash-flow forecast into the spreadsheet, then repeat its revenue, cost, break-even and repayment calculations using formulas linked to your source figures.
   5. Open the source documents for every claim about your business, customers, contracts, prices and costs, and compare them with the plan's executive summary, market section and financial tables.
   6. Replace every [NEEDS INPUT] entry with evidence or a clearly labelled assumption, remove unsupported claims, and ask an accountant or business finance adviser to check the final figures if the borrowing is material.
   7. Save the checked plan, forecast, supporting documents and a record of each assumption, then adapt the final pack to the specific application requirements of the UK bank before sending it.

   Prompt

   Prepare a lender-ready draft business plan for a UK bank loan using only the information I provide below. Do not invent facts, customers, contracts, qualifications, market sizes, prices, costs, growth rates or financial results. Where information is missing, write [NEEDS INPUT] and list the exact evidence or figure required.
   
   Business name: [BUSINESS NAME]
   Business structure and registration status: [SOLE TRADER, PARTNERSHIP OR LIMITED COMPANY]
   Business location: [UK LOCATION]
   Business activity: [WHAT THE BUSINESS SELLS]
   Stage: [IDEA, PRE-REVENUE OR TRADING]
   Owners and relevant experience: [DETAILS]
   Products or services and prices: [DETAILS]
   Target customers: [DETAILS]
   Evidence of demand: [ORDERS, ENQUIRIES, CONTRACTS, RESEARCH OR NONE]
   Competitors and our differences: [DETAILS]
   Sales and marketing plan: [DETAILS]
   Operations, suppliers and capacity: [DETAILS]
   Staff and planned recruitment: [DETAILS]
   Existing revenue and costs: [PASTE VERIFIED FIGURES AND PERIODS]
   Cash available and existing borrowing: [VERIFIED FIGURES]
   Loan amount requested: [AMOUNT]
   Use of loan funds: [ITEMISED USE]
   Proposed repayment period and any lender terms known: [DETAILS]
   Financial assumptions: [VERIFIED OR PROPOSED ASSUMPTIONS]
   
   Produce:
   1. An executive summary that states the loan amount, purpose, business model, evidence of demand and repayment plan without making unsupported claims.
   2. A clear description of the business, owners, products, customers, competitors and route to market.
   3. An operations and staffing plan, including dependencies and risks.
   4. A risk register with likelihood, impact, mitigation and the evidence still needed.
   5. A financial section with an assumptions table, monthly cash-flow forecast for the first 12 months, annual summaries for the following two years if the data supports them, break-even explanation, and a debt-repayment view. Use only supplied figures. Label every estimate and show the formula or source for each important figure.
   6. A list of documents a UK lender may ask for, clearly labelled as a general checklist rather than a claim about a particular bank's requirements.
   7. Ten questions I must answer before submitting the plan.
   
   After drafting, add a verification table with columns: claim or figure, source supplied by me, calculation to repeat, and unresolved risk. Keep the tone plain and specific. Do not say the plan is guaranteed to secure finance. This is not professional advice; for a serious borrowing decision, ask an accountant or business finance adviser to check the figures.

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.