Short answer: no law says who may prepare CMA data — it is a bank's appraisal format, not a statutory return. A chartered accountant, a cost accountant, a consultant or your own finance team can all produce it. What decides whether it survives is not who typed it but whether the projections reconcile with your own history when a credit officer tests them.
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CMA data: who prepares it, and what the bank does with it
CA K Sanjay Bhargav, Chartered Accountant, Bengaluru
Membership No. 250054 · DISA (ICAI)
Published
The document is an appraisal, not a filing
This is the distinction that changes how you should approach it. A statutory return has a prescribed form, a due date and a penalty for getting it wrong. CMA data has none of those. It is a standardised way of presenting your business to a lender, and the standard exists so the credit officer can compare your file against every other one on the desk.
That has a practical consequence. There is no authority to appeal to on format, and no single correct version. If your bank's template differs from the one you downloaded, the bank's template wins. The name itself is a historical artefact — what CMA data stands for, and why it misleads is worth two minutes before you start.
Who prepares it
In practice, four routes:
| When it tends to fit | |
|---|---|
| Chartered accountant | The financials are already audited by one, the limit is material, or the bank has asked for certification |
| Cost accountant | Costing and inventory build-up are the substance of the file |
| Finance consultant | Routine renewals where the history is stable and uncontested |
| In-house | Small, simple files where someone internally knows the numbers cold |
No statute reserves the work. What the branch tests is whether the historical columns tie to the audited accounts and whether the forward columns can be defended — which is why the preparer who knows your business is often worth more than the one with the more impressive qualification.
Two cautions. Where a statutory or tax audit applies, the historical figures must agree with those audited accounts; a CMA pack that quietly differs from them is the fastest way to lose credibility. And some banks do ask for a chartered accountant's certification on the pack itself — that is a condition of their lending policy rather than a general rule, so ask rather than assume.
What you hand over before anything is prepared
The delay most within your control sits here, not in the preparation:
- Audited financials for the years the bank has asked for
- The current year so far — provisional figures, not a guess
- Existing sanction letters for every facility you already hold
- Current stock and debtor statements, at a date you can support
- Any expansion or capex plan that explains why the requirement is changing
Assemble these first. A file prepared while inputs are still arriving is a file whose columns get revised twice, and revisions are where inconsistencies enter.
How the branch actually reads it
The seven statements are not read in order. The credit officer goes to the number and then works backwards to see whether it holds:
- Form V first — the MPBF computation, because that is the figure the sanction turns on
- Then Form IV — the current assets and current liabilities that fed it, to see whether the holding periods are realistic
- Then Form II against history — do the projected sales, margins and expenses move consistently with what the past columns show?
- Then Form VII — the ratios, as a cross-check on everything above
Each statement and what it establishes is walked through, on a worked set of numbers, in the CMA data format, form by form.
The important point for anyone preparing a file: MPBF is a ceiling, not an entitlement. The branch can sanction below it — and routinely does — if it takes a different view of your holding periods, expects a larger margin from you, or reads the ratios as not supporting the exposure.
The three things that send a file back
Projections that move without a reason. Sales up thirty per cent, debtor days down, creditor days up, all in the same projected year, with nothing in the file explaining what changed. Each may be defensible alone; together and unexplained they read as a number worked backwards from the limit wanted.
Historical columns that do not tie. If the past figures in the CMA pack differ from the audited accounts the bank already holds, everything after them is treated as unreliable — including the parts that were right.
A stock or debtor position that cannot be supported. The statement is dated. If the figure cannot be reconciled to what the books show on that date, the current assets feeding the MPBF computation are in question.
None of these are arithmetic failures. They are consistency failures, which is why a file is better prepared slowly with the explanation written alongside it.
Make sure CMA is the document you were asked for
"Send your CMA" is sometimes said loosely. A term loan for a new project is appraised on a project report; a larger proposal may want a detailed project report with feasibility and market study. Working out which of the three you have actually been asked for before preparing anything saves the most time of any step here.
Two situations sit outside this entirely. Small-ticket and micro-enterprise lending is assessed on much simpler documents — whether a Mudra loan needs CMA data at all is usually answered no. And a renewal is not a fresh sanction: the bank already holds last year's projections and will read this year's figures against them, which makes a cash credit renewal the harder exercise rather than the routine one.
The order that works
- Confirm which document the bank wants, and ask for their template
- Assemble the inputs completely before preparation begins
- Prepare the historical columns and tie them to the audited accounts
- Build the projections — and write down the reason for every movement
- Compute MPBF, then read it as a ceiling and sanity-check the ratios
- Submit with the explanations attached, not held back for questions
Steps one and four are where files are won or lost. Doing step four last, after the limit has already been decided on, is how a projection ends up with nothing behind it.
This is a working reference on general practice, not a statement of law or of any particular bank's policy. Formats, thresholds, the years required and any certification condition are set by individual lenders and change from time to time; confirm what your branch wants before preparing a file.
Download the CMA data format template
All seven forms, the MPBF computation under both methods, the ratio screens and a pre-submission consistency checklist. CSV — opens in Excel or Google Sheets.
Frequently asked questions
Who can prepare CMA data?
There is no statutory restriction — CMA data is a bank's appraisal format, not a document prescribed by any Act, so no law reserves its preparation to a particular profession. In practice it is prepared by a chartered accountant, a cost accountant, or a finance consultant, and sometimes in-house. What matters to the branch is not the preparer's letterhead but whether the figures reconcile: the historical columns must agree with audited financials, and the projections must be defensible when questioned. Individual banks may ask for a chartered accountant's certification on top, which is a lending-policy condition rather than a general rule.
Can I prepare CMA data myself?
Nothing prevents it, and for a small, simple file it can be done. The difficulty is rarely the arithmetic — it is that the projections have to survive a credit officer testing them against your own history. Holding periods, creditor days and a sales growth assumption that all move at once, with no explanation, are what invite questions. If you prepare it yourself, prepare the explanation alongside it.
Is there an official CMA data format in Excel?
There is no single government-issued template. The seven-statement structure is a long-standing convention rather than a prescribed form, and most banks issue their own spreadsheet built on it, with their own column headings and occasionally an extra schedule. Ask the branch for theirs before preparing anything — a file rebuilt into the bank's own template late is avoidable work, and the freely downloadable formats circulating online are generic rather than wrong.
How many years does CMA data cover?
Typically two years of audited figures, the current year as an estimate, and three years of projections — though banks vary, and some ask for three years back or five forward. The shape matters more than the count: the past establishes credibility, the current year establishes where you are now, and the projections establish the requirement being funded.
Does the bank sanction the limit the CMA data asks for?
Not necessarily. The computation in Form V produces the maximum permissible bank finance, and that is a ceiling rather than an entitlement. The sanctioned limit can be lower if the branch takes a different view of the holding periods, if the margin expected from you is higher, or if the ratios do not support the exposure. The figure you arrive at is the start of the conversation, not the end of it.
How long does the process take?
The preparation is usually days once the inputs are complete; the appraisal is the variable part and depends on the branch, the size of the limit and how many queries the file raises. The delay most within your control is the first one — assembling audited financials, existing sanction letters and current stock and debtor figures before preparation begins rather than during it.
Asked for CMA data and working out who should prepare it?
Send your last two years of financials and your existing sanction letters. What the bank will ask for, what the projections have to reconcile against, and where your file is likely to be questioned are established before anything is submitted.
Related service: CMA Data & Project Reports