©FAO/Fermin Dibarboure

User guide for the RuralInvest software

RIV20 USER MANUAL

©FAO/Fermin Dibarboure
2023

©FAO/Fermin Dibarboure
Table of content
1. Introduction 2
a. Useful links 3
b. Create an account 4
c. Home page 8
d. How to create a configuration 10
e. List 16
2. Create a new business concept 22
c. Overview 24
d. General information section 26
e. Justification & analysis 28
f. Personal notes 29
g. Entrepreneurs and beneficiaries 30
h. Qualitative assessment 31
i. Investment costs 32
j. General and fixed costs 36
k. Activity blocks 37
l. Summary and reports 46
Table of content
3. Convert a Business Concept into a Business Plan 49
m. New information required 51
n. General information 52
o. Entrepreneurs and beneficiaries 53
p. Investment costs 55
q. General and fixed costs 58
r. Activity blocks 63
s. Contributions 70
t. Summary and reports 79
4. Sensitivity analysis 86
5. Incremental analysis 89
6. Collaboration features 95
Useful links
RuralInvest website
[Link]/in-action/ruralinvest

An introduction to RuralInvest
[Link]/course/[Link]?id=754

Course 1: Participatory data collection and investment planning in the field

[Link]/course/[Link]?id=755

Course 2: Business concept: feasibility snapshot

[Link]/course/[Link]?id=756

Course 3: Business plan: detailed description

[Link]/course/[Link]?id=757

4
Create an account

To download the software go to: [Link] You can

access this page from the RuralInvest website (link in useful links pg. 4).

Click here to download.

Then go to your downloads
The website will automatically
folder and click on the
recognize the version suitable
executable file to install
for your pc.
the software.

Check our installation guide and tutorials to

learn in detail how to download and install
the software:
[Link]/in-action/ruralinvest/resources/en/

5
Create an account

Once you have installed the RuralInvest software, you must first create an account.

Choose your Language

Once you have your account you

will login here. You also have the
Click here to option to see your password and
restore it in case you forget it.
create your
account (see the
next slide)
6
Create an account
Fill the information required and click ‘Create Account’. You must use an email you have access to and
create a new password which you will use every time you want to connect to RIV20. You will receive a
confirmation email, asking you to verify your account.

7
Create an account
Once you click the link to verify your account, you will be directed to the web app and see a confirmation
message. You can enter your credential and go back to the desktop app.

Click on ‘Back’ and then login with

your credentials.
8
Home
When you open the software for the first time, you will see the ‘Home’ screen. Please, note that your version
might be newer than the one used for this guide, thus, it might be slightly different.

This is the number

of the version you
are using.

Here you can

access to the
eLearning
courses.

The list of projects in

progress will be
empty, as you have
not created projects
in RIV20 yet.
9
 Home
Main menu
At the top of the page, you will see the main menu, which will be always visible, and where you can
choose your main settings.

Come back to the

overview from Access and admin all Select your Logout from your
wherever you are. your configurations. preferred language. RIV account

Check your list of business Administrate your Send us

plans/business concepts. account. feedback!

10
Configuration
Creating a configuration
The first thing you must do in order to create a new business concept/plan is to create a configuration.
1
Click on the configuration button and
click on ‘New’.

You must give a name to that

configuration, by default the
configuration will be "Personal" (later
"Collaboration" will be explained) and 1
then click "Create configuration".
2
You can also import an existing
configuration or receive a configuration
via collaboration. This is of particular
interest if you want to adopt the
configuration created for a certain bank
or development institution.

11
Configuration
Creating a configuration
The configuration allows you to have business concept/plans with the same parameters. This
”centralized” configuration ensures easier comparison between projects within a context: with the same
currency, the same exchange rate, the same qualitative sections, and especially the same discount rate.

First, you must enter the financial

information:
• Currency name
• Currency symbol
• Exchange rate The name that you previously
• Discount rate entered will be shown here.

You will see this information displayed

in the ‘General Information’ section of
the business concept/plan.

12
Configuration
Discount rate
The discount rate refers to the interest rate used in discounted cash flow analysis to determine the
present value of future cash flows. The discount rate expresses the time value of money. It is the
interest rate used to determine the present worth of a future value by discounting.

To compare two business plans, it is important to use the same discount rate.

As guiding principle, discount rates should represent the opportunity cost of capital
for the agent (producer or government). For the producer, a realistic alternative is an
average of the passive deposit rate of local commercial financing agencies. The
government should instead consider the interest rate at which the country can borrow
capital from a relevant international capital market; alternatively, the return on long-
term public treasury bonds is also a suitable option.

The discount rate is the minimum rate of return to be made in order to make a profit,
this profit is the NPV.

13
Configuration
Customize the Qualitative Analysis
The qualitative information is a very important element of a business concept/plan. It allows the person
to analyse the business concept/plan and better understand the environment, the market opportunities,
the constraints, etc. Hence, you should give as much detail as possible about the project: the target
market for the products/services, the organisation of the business, the potential social and
environmental impacts and the risks.

You can customize the sub-steps and categories according to your needs and those of the institutions
who will receive the business plan.

Click on each section

to modify the existing
sub-steps, the help
texts and/or click the Click on the trash
orange button to add a bin to delete a
new one. sub-step.

14
Configuration
Customize Categories and Fields
You can also modify the Custom Categories and Fields. These categories appear in the first section of
the business plan/ business concept. This allows the plan to be classified according to these categories.

Press this button to transfer to your

Collaboration Configurations (see the
section “Collaboration” in page 95).

When you have finished, click

the "Save" button and the
Configuration file will be saved
in the list of Configurations.
15
Configuration
Configuration overview
Once saved, you will see your list of configurations in the Configuration section.

Here you can see which

configurations are
personal and which are on
the Collaboration section.
Go to page 95 to read
about the configurations
in the Collaboration
section.

16
List

In the List, you can visualize all your projects, organizing them by folders.

17
List
List overview
Within the List section, you can create and import projects and visualize them as “personal projects” or
”collaboration projects” (see the section on “Collaboration” in page 95). Finally, you can also make a
backup saving your business plans all together.

Use these filters to Click here to download

visualize your projects your List in Excel format.
as you prefer.

Customize the
information you
want to see in the
columns of the list
You will of projects.
visualize your
projects here,
organized by
folders.

18
List
Manage your plans
You can download one project as well as move it between folders, delete it, duplicate it, download the
final report in excel or in PDF.

Select the
project.

19
List
Create new folder
You can create different folders to organize your projects.

Click here to create a new

folder, type the name and You will see
click on “Create Folder”. your folders
like this.

20
List
Organize projects
To move a project between folders, select the project and the “edit buttons” will appear on the right.

1
Select the
project you 2
want to
move.

4 3 You can Download the

RIV20 file, Delete or
Duplicate the project,
Download the report in
Excel or in PDF and Move
between folders. Choose
‘Move To Folder’ and then
select the folder.

21
Create a new project
New busines concept
You can create a new business plan or business concept either from the List or from the ‘Home’ screen
by clicking ‘New’.
Choose if you want to create
a ‘Personal project’ (offline)
or a ‘Collaboration’ project
(in the cloud).
Choose the folder in which your
project will be saved within the
software. By default, your project
Precise here "Business is saved in the “Default folder”.
Concept" or "Business Plan”.
Select the configuration from your
list of configurations before you
Select whether you want to perform an can click the "Create" button.
incremental OR non-incremental
analysis -we will continue this guide
with the non-incremental analysis. You
will learn about the incremental analysis
further in the document-.

22
Create a new project
Business concept or business plan
Before making a detailed analysis of your project over several years (by selecting "Business Plan"),
RuralInvest recommends you make a simplified analysis on the cruising year (by selecting "Business
concept").

Once your business concept is finished, and

Non-Profit
analysed, you can, if you wish, convert it into a
version of RIV20
business plan. How to convert a business
is still under
concept into a business plan is covered further
development.
along in this guide.

A business plan is a multiple-year analysis

that also looks at the years before
reaching the year in full production.

23
Business concept
Overview
In the ‘Overview’ you will see the different sections of a project. In the case of a Business Concept, you
have eight sections. You can navigate through the sections just by clicking on them.

24
Business concept
Overview
From the ‘Overview’ you can also convert your business concept into a business plan (see page 49) and
transform a personal project into a collaboration project to access to it online from any computer or to
collaborate with colleagues (see the section on “Collaboration” in page 95).

You will see that the icon

changes, which helps to
easily identify whether the
project is on the personal or
collaboration list.

25
Business concept
General information section
In the general information section, you can change the name of the project if you want to and insert the
start-up month for the calendar, the environmental and the project category (that you previously
completed in the configuration) as well as additional information related to the location and status.

You can write

personal notes
here (that will
not be shared)
and any other
observation
that can be
included in the
By clicking on any of report (see
these buttons you will page 28).
access the overview of
your project. Once you finish filling the information,
the orange button will take you to the
following section.
26
Business concept
General information section
You have a direct access to your configuration in case you need to modify anything, and you are also
allowed to attach files to the project.

By clicking the lock, you

will be able to modify the
configuration details here The information
locked. Normally, this is in grey is set in
NOT recommended. Before the configuration
doing it, you will see this chosen.
confirmation box:
Press this button
to access the You can also
configuration. attach the files
you want.

27
Business concept
Justification & Analysis
In every section of your project, you will have, at the right-side, access to the Justification & Analysis.
It is often the place where the technician or the reviewer can write an additional analysis or justify the
financing or the rejection of the project. When you print the report, you can choose whether to add this
section or not.

28
Business concept
Personal notes
In every section of your project, you will also have access to your personal notes. These notes may serve
as personal reminders or annotations for each section and will not be shared. Only you can see them.

29
Business concept
Entrepreneurs and beneficiaries
In this section you will enter all the information collected about the entrepreneurs and the beneficiaries.

30
Business concept
Qualitative assessment
The qualitative assessment is accompanied by subsections to better organize the information. As
mentioned previously, you can customize this section by adding/editing/deleting sub-steps and help
texts in the configuration (see page 14).

You can select each

of the topics to fill
in the specific Here you can see the process to
information. complete the qualitative
assessment. You can either click
on these buttons to jump to the
Each section sub-section you want or click on
contains a ‘help the orange button at the bottom.
text’ that serves as
a guide to insert the
information.

31
Business concept
Investment costs
The investment costs are divided in three categories: Goods, Labour and Professional Services

Click here to add a

‘Goods’ cost.

Click here to add a

You will visualize all ‘Labour’ cost.
your investment
costs by type here.
Click here to add a
‘Professional
service’ cost.

32
Business concept
Investment costs
When inserting ‘Goods’ you need to have the following information:
Remember to indicate whether
the good is new or not.
• Unit type, Quantity and Unit cost
• Amount covered by own resources
or external resources
• Economic life: how long the Good
is expected to last until it is
replaced
• Salvage: estimated price at which
the Good could be sold at the end of
its economic life
• Annual Maintenance: that will
appear in the General and fixed
costs

You should follow a similar process

with ‘Labour’ and ‘Professional
services’.

33
Business concept
Investment costs: adding an already existing good
If the Good that you are entering is an already existing good, you should be aware of the different fields
to complete.

Check this box if The current value of

your property will the investment good
not depreciate over will be automatically
time (e.g. land). calculated

Enter the economic

As the ‘good’ already
life at the time of
exists, 87,5%
purchase of the good.
Specify how many represent the current
years have passed value: % of the initial
since the purchase value in own
of the good. resources in Kind.

34
Business concept
Investment costs: adding a labour cost
When adding a ‘Labour cost’ within the investment costs section, you can link it to a specific asset. This
means that when the asset will be replaced, the linked labour cost will automatically be considered.

Open the drop

down menu and
you will visualize
the Goods that you
Once you select the Good have already
associated to this labour cost, you inserted. Select
will see its economic life here. the Good that is
linked to this
labour.

35
Business concept
General and fixed costs
Follow a similar procedure with overhead and fixed costs: expenses of the business concept in a full
production year but which do not depend on the production volume of the enterprise.

Click here to add

‘Supplies & Services’
and ‘Labour’ costs.

"Maintenance costs" are

linked to the investment
assets, you can modify them
for each "asset" that requires
maintenance, in the
investment costs section.

36
Business concept
Activity blocks
To calculate all the costs that depend on the production and the revenues of the business, you will have
to create the necessary Activity Blocks.

Click here to add a

new block.

37
 Business concept
Activity blocks
Once you click to create a new block, you will have to enter the name, the chosen reference unit, the
number of reference units per cycle and then you will design the cycle in the calendar.

1
Choose the reference unit: the Like in the
best unit for calculating previous
production costs/revenues sections, you
during a cycle. can click here
to move within
2 the sections of
Choose the number of
reference unit per cycle: to a block. In the
reflect the whole activity, we second stage
can have a certain number of Here you can you will insert
reference units per cycle. add a revenues and
description of costs.
3 the block.
Fill in the corresponding boxes
to design your production
cycle.

38
Business concept
Activity blocks
By clicking on each ‘half-month’ of the calendar, the rectangles will become yellow. You will choose the
starting and ending month for the production i.e., months when the production costs will be applied.
Additionally, you will mark the months when transport costs will be applied for the sales (2nd row) as well
as the months when the payment is received (3rd row).

1 2
In the first row In the second
you establish row you will
the months select the
when the months when
production transport cost
costs will be will be applied
applied. for the sales.

3
In the third row you will
select the months when
the payment is received.
39
Business concept
Activity blocks
As a business concept is an annual analysis, if your cycle is longer than 12 months it cannot be created
and will have to be reduced to one year. When developing a detailed business plan, it will be possible to
have a longer cycle. However, if your cycle repeats itself within the year, you can easily duplicate it.

By clicking on ‘+’ you can create a

second cycle for the year. This means
that your cycle will be exactly
replicated and will start in the month
you select for the beginning of the
second production.

40
Business concept
Activity blocks
After designing the cycle, you will have to enter all the information related to ‘Revenues’, ’Input costs’ and
‘Labour costs’ always per reference unit per cycle.

Click here to add a

‘Revenue’.

Click here to add

You will see the
an ‘Input’ cost.
revenues and
operating costs
listed here per Click here to add a
reference unit ‘Labour’ cost.
per cycle.

41
 Business concept
Activity blocks : Revenues
For the Revenues, the business can sell products or services. You must select a unit of sale for each
product according to the information provided by the entrepreneur and taking into account which
market prices are available.
2
Insert the quantity
produced of the
selected unit per 1
reference unit and Specify the ‘Sales
per cycle of unit’. This is the unit
production. in which a product or
service will be sold
3 (e.g.: kg, piece of
Insert the price for fruit, person-day of
the unit of sale work).
selected.

4
You can also insert
transport costs per unit of
sale associated to the
product/service to be sold. 42
 Business concept
Activity blocks: Input costs
For the Input Costs, you must select the unit of measurement used to measure the asset. This may vary
according to the information available, but remember to insert the quantity of that unit per reference
unit and per cycle of production.

2
Insert the quantity
used of the selected 1
unit per reference Specify here the
unit and per cycle of ‘Unit Type’. The
production. unit of
measurement for
3 that cost.
Insert the cost
per unit.

4
You can also insert
transport costs per unit
type associated to the cost.
43
 Business concept
Activity blocks : Labour costs
For the Labour Costs, you must also select the unit of measurement used to measure the asset.
However, in this case, the software will give you four options to choose from: person-day, person-week,
person-month, person-year.

2
Insert the quantity
used of the selected 1
unit per reference Click ‘Unit type’
unit and per cycle of to display the
production. drop down
menu and
choose your
preferred
option.
3
Insert the cost
per unit.

44
Business concept
Activity blocks
Finally, you will visualize the blocks in the block overview. Here you can see the months when an activity
takes place and the months when there is no production costs nor revenues. Also, you will see when you
have overlap of different productions.

One month with overlap in

Months of the year in the production of Block 1 and
full production Block 2.

Number of reference
units per cycle

If you click in the By placing the mouse in the

three dots, you can cycle, you can see the total
edit, duplicate or margins for the cycle.
delete the block.

For each block you can see a

summary of the margins per
reference unit.

45
Business concept
Summary and Reports
In the last section, you will first see a summary of the project with the main indicators of the business
concept.

46
Business concept
Summary and Reports
And then you will be able to generate a report in Excel and PDF formats.

You can choose to

generate a ‘basic
report’, a ‘detailed
report’ with or a
customized report. In
the last one, you will Finally click on Generate PDF
be able to select which and once it loaded, click on
sections to include in download PDF.
the report.

47
Business concept
Summary and Reports: detailed and customized reports

In the detailed report you will

also have investment costs,
general and fixed costs and
activity blocks tables.

In the customized report

you get to choose which
sections you want to
include and which not.

48
Convert a Business Concept into a
Business Plan

49
Convert to Business Plan
Conversion allows to move from an “annual“ analysis to a “pluri-annual” analysis – without starting
from scratch.

Remember: you can start since the

beginning with a Business Plan by
choosing it when creating a new
project, but RuralInvest recommends to
start always with a business concept.

To convert your Business Concept into a Business

Plan, you must come back to the ’Overview’ screen
of the business concept and click on the orange
button. Automatically a business plan will be
created in your list with your already entered data
and your business concept will remain intact.

50
Business Plan
New information required
Once you convert your business concept to business plan, you will see the sections you might need to
review highlighted with yellow and a whole new section, ‘Contributions’ in green. Within each section,
the new fields of information you might need to complete will also be highlighted.

51
Business Plan
General information
Firstly, in the ‘General information’ section you will find the possibility of choosing the duration of the
analysis for the business plan.

Click on duration and select

the number of years you want
the analysis to cover.

52
Business Plan
Entrepreneurs & Beneficiaries
In the ‘Entrepreneurs and Beneficiaries’ section you will have to provide further information about the
development partner (bringing the grant) and Indirect beneficiaries.

You can use the toggle

to ‘turn off’ the indirect
beneficiaries.

53
Business Plan
Entrepreneurs & Beneficiaries
When inserting a development partner you will see a drop down menu to choose the type of partner

54
Business Plan
Investment costs
Within the ‘Investment costs’ section, there are more funding sources for the investment: own
resources in kind, in cash, grant and loan.

You can also select

the year in which a
specific investment
cost will happen.

55
Business Plan
Investment costs
When adding a new Investment Good, you can breakdown the total cost between (i) internal funding:
Own Resources in Kind or in Cash; or (ii) external funding: Grant Amount or Loan Amount.

You can complete

the breakdown of
You will insert ‘Unit the total cost in
Type’; ‘Quantity’; and ’Absolute values’,
’Unit Cost’ as before. meaning the
amount of money
If you don’t cover the total cost for each category or
with Own Resources or Grant, in ‘Percentage’ of
the remaining amount will be the total cost.
automatically calculated into
the Loan Amount.

As now we are doing

a pluri-annual
analysis, we can
select the year of
the investment.
56
Business Plan
Investment costs
When adding a new Investment Labour and Investment Professional Services you must also specify the
source of funding and the year in which this investments costs begin.

57
Business Plan
General & Fixed Costs per year
Within the ‘General and Fixed Costs section’, you have 2 modes: (i) simplified: the general costs entered
will be applied for all the year of the analysis equally; and, (ii) per year: which gives the option to modify
the costs between the different years, for example, if the business expects to grow over the years and
therefore needs to recruit more employees.

The ‘Per year’ option

adds the bar where you
can select a specific
year to modify.
You can also add ‘Own
resources in kind per
Year’ for Labour costs
such as family labour.

58
Business Plan
General & Fixed Costs per year
When you create a new cost or open an already entered cost, you will be able to specify the quantity and
value per year.
1
Select the years you wish to apply
specific costs to. In this case, the ‘Unit
cost’ and the ‘Quantity per Year’
selected will be applied to the selected
year 1, 2 and 3 (in stripes).

2
Then, add the ‘Unit Cost’
and the ‘Quantity per year’
(for the selected years)

Click ‘Reset’ if you want to

start again or ‘Apply’ to
keep the values inserted
and make more changes.
59
Business Plan
General & Fixed Costs per year
Once you have clicked on "Apply", the bar with the selected years changes colour. You can easily see
which years have the same costs.

When all years have associated

costs and quantities, you can
save and exit by clicking on ”
Done” or “Update” if you were
editing an existing cost.

60
Business Plan
General & Fixed Costs simplified
If, on the other hand, the general and fixed costs remain the same for all the years of the analysis, then
you can remain in "Simplified" mode. Note that if you were in "Per Year" mode and you switch to
"Simplified" mode, by default the general and fixed costs of year 1 will be applied to all years.

You can change

from ‘Per year’
to ’Simplified’
just by clicking
here.

61
Business Plan
Overview of the project
As you review each section, the yellow highlight will disappear so you will see only the unreviewed
sections.

62
Business Plan
Activity blocks
As a business plan is a multi-year analysis, you will now see that the blocks span several years. The
information filled in the cycle designer will allow the software to calculate a very precise monthly
operational cash flow.

Remember: You can change

the first month of the
calendar in the General
Information Section
By default, the calendar
will repeat the cycle every
year at the same time.

63
Business Plan
Activity blocks
As a business plan is a multi-year analysis, you can also create cycles over several years and set the
interval between two cycles.

By default, cycles are added

with the "+" by clicking on the
1st month of the next cycle.
They will repeat during each
year of analysis (in blue).

For a cycle longer than 12

months, uncheck the
"Repeat yearly” option and
set the interval between
repetitions.

Click on "+" or "-" to

set the interval
between two cycles.
64
Business Plan
Activity blocks
When inserting revenues & costs within a block, in the revenues, you can insert Quantity for Internal
Consumption which will be subtracted from the Total Sales. Meanwhile, in the input and labour costs
you can insert the Quantity drawn from Own Resources which will be subtracted from in the Total Cost
(cash).

65
Business Plan
Activity blocks
By default, all revenues and costs will be equally distributed among the previously selected months in
the cycle. However, you can specify whether there are any specific revenues or costs that occur at any
specific time during the selected half months.

1
Deactivate the toggle
Once you select the
and the timeline will 2 specific month(s) you
be revealed. You will
will see them in solid.
see the steps of the
calendar painted with
stripes. This means
there are no steps
The same thing
selected. Click the
could be done for
steps in which this
the inputs and
specific revenue will
labour costs.
take place.

66
Business Plan
Activity blocks
The blocks you designed in the business concept were based on the year in full production. However,
after the conversion into a business plan, in a multi-year analysis your number of reference units per
cycle may not be the same from year to year.

For this reason, you

have a new section in
the Cycle Designer: the
Here you can see Production Pattern.
the information
entered in steps 1
and 2.

67
Business Plan
Activity blocks
In the Production Pattern, you can modify the number of reference units per cycle for all production
cycles. This is particularly useful if production increases over the years until it reaches full capacity.

By clicking the rectangles, you can enter

For example, if a block in once the number of reference units for
your business plan does the selected cycles.
not start until year 2, you
would simply enter 0 in
the cycle(s) for the first
year. The software will
multiply the revenues
and production costs
with 0.

68
Business Plan
Activity blocks
You can model the growth of the activity by simply changing the number of reference unit per cycle.

This is one of the reasons why it

is essential to select the correct
reference unit when developing
the block.

69
Business Plan
Contributions: Long term loan
In Contributions, you will first see a summary of the investment costs: everything that is not covered by
own resources or grants will have to be covered by a long-term loan.

70
Business Plan
Contributions : Long term loan
You will also be able to insert the information of up to two long term loans.

Click on the tabs to visualize

the different information.
The amortization changes in
real time with the
information entered below
(number of payments, loan
duration and amortization
method).

Enter here the name of

the financial institution You can activate a
from which the loan can second loan.
be taken and all necessary
details (see next page).

71
Business Plan
Contributions: Primary loan
Check below how to model the primary loan to cover the investment costs.

Name of the financial

The loan amount is automatically
institution that can issue
calculated. It is the total amount
the loan.
of the investments minus the
contributions from own
resources and grants.
Interest rate charged by the
financial institution. Choose the method of
amortization requested by
the financial institution.
Automatically the long-term
loan will be taken out in the The duration of the loan is
first year, the first month. expressed in months and is
often given by the financial
institution.

Select the payment frequency:

Monthly, Bimonthly, Quarterly,
4-month, 6-month or yearly Choose the number of payment periods during which the payment will not
payments. take place. The payments are just shifted and not forgotten.
72
Business Plan
Contributions: Secondary loan
RuralInvest allows up to two long-term loans to be integrated into the business plan. If there is a large
financing need or if the investment costs are spread over several years. You can model a second loan for
a different year than the first. The amount of the first loan will automatically decrease.

When you hover the

mouse within the
graph in bar, it gives
you the amount of
investment costs per
year

In this case, there is a considerable amount

of investment on year two. To avoid getting
the cash altogether on year one, you can
model a secondary loan from the 13 th month.

73
Business Plan
Contributions
You can choose one of three options for the loan amortization. The Straight-Line and the Mortgage Style
Amortization, both explained below, and the Linear style which divides both interest and principal
equally between each payment period.

In the Mortgage Style Amortization,

the the repayment per period is
constant throughout the loan
payment periods. In this case, more of
the payment goes towards interest in
The information the beginning of the loan.
displayed in ‘x’ is
the ’payment
period’ and it will
change accordingly The Straight-Line Amortization the
to what you select same amount is paid toward the
when entering the
principal each month, but the amount
information about
the loan. paid toward the interest decreases
over time with the outstanding
balance of the loan.
74
Business Plan
Contributions: Working capital
Working capital requirement = ‘Highest amount’, is the highest negative amount in the Operational
Monthly Cash Flow: it is the gap to fill.
You can cover this
Revenues Production working capital
Operational General requirement totally or
(from the costs
Monthly Cash flow costs
block) (block) partially with grant
and/or own resources
in cash.
What remains is the amount that needs to be financed
by a credit, it is the highest negative amount in the
operational cash flow after the grant and the own
resources.

75
Business Plan
Contributions: Working capital
The ‘Amount financed’ is
The ‘Annual interest rate’ and the amount remaining
‘Method of amortization’ is that needs to be financed
information that will come by a credit
from the financial
institutions. The ‘Start month’ will be the first
negative month, in this case, the
second one. The loan duration is
It is not reasonable nor
calculated from the duration
recommended to start
between first and last negative
repaying the capital/interest
month. It is recommended
while the situation of the
though to add 2 months in case
business is still fragile. It is
something happens differently
advisable to leave enough
than expected.
grace period.

76
Business Plan
Contributions: Working capital
If the Cash Flow after the loan is still negative, the software will display an error message, you can not
continue.

There are some possibilities why this might

happen:
• The grace period might not be long enough
• The interest rate could be too high
• The amount to be financed could be too high

77
Business Plan
Contributions: Credit line
The other possibility to finance the working capital requirement is through a Credit line, which represents
a credit of the exact amount needed for each negative month. You have to enter the ‘Credit Limit’ which
is the maximum outstanding amount that can occur in any month. This value is usually set by the financial
institution providing the credit line.

When the Credit Limit is below the

amount that is needed to be
financed after Grant and Own
Resources, it means that the
business still needs financing.

78
Business Plan
Summary and Reports
Normally, national financing agencies will be more interested in the cash flow meanwhile within the
development context it is useful to assess the financial profitability of a business, considering self-
consumption and own resources in kind.

Thus, you can visualize ‘Yearly

Cash Flow’ and ‘Financial
Profitability’ indicators
separately.

79
Business Plan
Summary and Reports
The Yearly Cash Flow table, as its name indicates, gives an overview of all the inflows and outflows in
cash for all the years of the analysis: Investment outflows, Operation and Financial inflows and
Recurrent and Financial outflows.

The negative cash flow before financing

shows the need for financing. It can be
negative, especially the first year
because of the investment costs.
In this section, own resources
in kind and the quantity for
internal consumption are not
considered.
The Cumulative Cash The Cash flow after
Flow After Financing financing shows
must be always positive. the impact of the
You will also see the three financing. You can
profitability indicators see negative
calculated on the Cash Flow values.
before financing.
80
Business Plan
Summary and Reports
Below the Yearly Cash Flow table, you can visualize the same information in a graph. If you hover the
mouse in any of the bars, the exact amount for that year will be displayed.

81
Business Plan
Summary and Reports
The Financial Profitability table gives an overview of all the revenues and costs of the business
considering the self-consumption and own resources in kind.

You will also visualize the three

profitability indicators calculated
based on the Net Income before
financing.

82
Business Plan
Profitability indicators
Money loses its value over time. Therefore, with the Net Present Value, you can visualize the future cash
balance expressed in the monetary value of today. Meanwhile, the Internal Rate of Return is the annual
rate of growth an investment is expected to generate.

The Internal Rate of Return

shows the intrinsic feasibility The Net Present Value
of the business. If it is higher calculates today’s value of a
than the discount rate, it
future stream of monetary flows
means the business looks discounted to the project’s
promising.
start-up year by the discount
rate. The larger the NPV, the
greater the benefit of the
The amount of time to return the business.
investment.

83
Business Plan
Summary and Reports
As it was the case with the business concept, when generating a report of a business plan, you can
generate a Basic Report, a Detailed Report and a Customized Report in both Excel and PDF formats.

As with the
business concept,
here you can
choose the type
of report between
basic, detailed or
In the business plan
customized.
report you can also add
the Income Statement
Here you Indicators for which you
choose between will be asked to
Excel and PDF. choose the Income Tax
Rate to apply.

84
Business Plan
Summary and Reports
With the Detailed Report you can print a complete report including all the possible fields and tables
whereas with the Customized Report you can select those sections you are interested in having within
the report.

85
Sensitivity analysis

86
 Sensitivity Analysis
Business concept
In the sensitivity analysis of a business concept, you can see what would happen to the Net Annual
Income and the number of Years to Recover the Investment in the best and worst situations. As we are
working on a Business Concept, you will visualize the analysis for one year in full production.
1
You must select in the 2
You can modify the selected
table the variable(s) variables to visualize the different
you want to vary, situations: the best case (green) and
either in the revenue the worst case (orange).
(quantity produced,
price) or in the costs
(quantity purchased,
unit cost etc.). The
value entered in the
business plan/concept
will appear in grey as:
‘Base’.
3
At the right, you will see the impact of each
Visit the RuralInvest website variable in the financial indicators of the business
to see our animated tutorial plan for both situations. Below, you will see the
about the Sensitivity Analysis: impact of each variable combined in the financial
[Link]/in-action/ruralinvest indicators for each situation.
87
Sensitivity analysis
Business plan
Within a business plan, you will visualize the impact of the the best and worst case situations over the
years. This is also shown in a graph.

You will see the impact of

combination of all the downside and
upside scenario in the business plan
indicators: NPV and IRR.

You will see the impact of

combination of all the downside
and upside scenario on the cash
flow and the profitability graphs

88
Activate the incremental analysis

89
Incremental analysis
With-project vs without project scenarios
RuralInvest is a tool to assess new investment and new activities within a business, therefore you can
distinguish between two different scenarios. The comparison will help to visualize the impact of the
investment/activities.

The without-project scenario or ’business as

usual’, refers to the current situation of an
entrepreneur. How the business works without
additional investment or new activities.

The with-project scenario, is the scenario with

new activities and so with additional investment.

90
Incremental analysis
How to activate the incremental analysis
You can create the project with the incremental analysis since the beginning, but you can also activate it
within the ‘General information’ section, once you have already started to work on the business concept
or plan.

Activating the toggle will

create the ’without project
scenario’. If you have already
worked on a non incremental
analysis (as explained until now When you create a new
in this guide) you worked on the business concept/plan
with-project scenario and now select ‘Yes’ in the
you will have to complete the
incremental analysis.
without-project one.

Visit the RuralInvest website

to see our animated tutorial
about the Incremental Analysis:
[Link]/in-action/ruralinvest 91
Incremental analysis

All the information you had inserted until the moment, will automatically be on the ‘With Project’ tab. You
will have to complete the without project tab to be able to compare both scenarios.

You will find this

distinction in the
quantitative
information
sections:
Investment costs,
General & Fixed
costs and Activity
Blocks.

92
Incremental analysis
Copying cost from one scenario to the other
You can copy and paste information from one scenario to the other within all three quantitative
information sections. 2
Click the orange button that will
appear at the top right corner:
‘Copy to other scenario’.
1
Select the item
you want to
transfer to the Within the Activity Block
other scenario. section, you must click on
the three dots of the block.

3
Finally, it will
automatically appear
in the other scenario

93
Incremental analysis
Profitability indicators
With the incremental analysis activated and all the information completed, you will find in the ‘Summary
and Reports’ section the profitability indicators for each of the scenarios.

94
Collaboration in RIV20

95
Collaboration
It is now easy to collaborate and share business plans with colleagues with the collaboration features.
Instead of downloading a business plan and emailing it, which can cause different versions of the same
business plan; all you have to do is transfer it to Collaborative Projects and share it with collaborators in
order to work on the same business plan.

Business plan in
collaboration

Business plan Business plan

Personal 1 Personal 2

96
Collaboration features
Business plan list
Within your List of projects, you can click the tabs to change between Personal projects and
Collaboration projects.

Collaboration projects are created by

you, and you can choose who to share
them with and their privileges.

Projects shared with you are

Personal projects are those which are projects created by someone else
stored in your computer and only you can that were shared with you either to
access to, from the desktop app or via ‘view & comment’ or to ‘edit’.
web browser from your computer.

Collaboration projects are those which

are stored in the cloud, and you can share
with colleagues to work with them at the
same time with internet connexion. 97
 Collaboration features
Configuration
The configurations you create, or import will be listed in the configurations section. When you import or
receive a business plan you will automatically see its configuration in this list. You can share a
configuration without sharing a project. This could be of use, for example, if you have a team and you
want all certain business plans built with the same configuration.
3
You can download only the
1 configuration file by clicking
With this toggle you can Download. You can also delete or
visualize your personal
duplicate a configuration. Click on
configurations or those in
the specific button to transfer the
the collaboration section.
file to Collaboration
The ones in the
collaboration section, are
those which you can share
with colleagues.
2
Select the
If you want to share a
configuration.
personal configuration,
This will activate
you first must transfer it to
the blue buttons
collaboration.
on the right.

98
Collaboration features
Configuration
Click the Collaboration tab to see your collaborative configurations, you will be able to share these.

To share a
configuration, first
you must select it.
That will activate
the blue buttons
on the right.
You can send your configuration back to
‘Personal Configurations’. You can also
delete or duplicate a configuration. And you
can share via email or link.

99
Collaboration features
Configuration
Click the ’Share’ button and you can choose either to ’Invite via Email’ or to ‘Invite via URL’.

1
Type the email of your
colleague(s) and select the
privileges you want to assign
them: (i) Edit: all fields can be
modified; (ii) See/comment: 2
nothing can be changed, only The software will notify your
commented. colleague via email and will
automatically show the
configuration in their list of
configuration in
collaboration.

3
You will see the list of people to whom
you shared this file with. You will also see
if they already have an account or not. 100
Collaboration features
Configuration
Click the ’Share’ button and you can choose either to ’Invite via Email’ or to ‘Invite via URL’.

1
Select the privileges
you want to assign to
anyone who receives
the link.

2
The link will appear once you select the
privileges. Then just copy and share the
URL. Note that when using this option,
your colleague will have to access RIV20
via browser. Once clicked,, the
configuration will appear in the list of
configuration in collaboration.
101
 Collaboration features
Access RIV20 via browser
If you need to access RIV20 and you don’t have your computer, you can do it via browser on the internet
(preferably Google Chrome). Go to [Link] and log in with your credentials. If you
go to your List, you will see those in collaboration and the ones shared with you.

3
When someone
shares a project with
you, you will receive
an email with a link to
4
As in the software, you will see
access the plan via
1 your collaboration projects
browser.
Log in with your credentials and those shared with you, as
in RIV20 website. well as the privileges you were
assigned.

2
You will see your profile
from the browser.
102
Collaboration features
Transfer to Collaboration project
From the ‘Overview’ click ‘Transfer to Collaboration project’ to transform a personal project into a
collaboration project to access to it online from any computer or to collaborate with colleagues.

You will see that the icon

changes, which helps to
easily identify whether the
project is on the personal or
collaboration list.

103
Collaboration features
Transfer to Collaboration project
Once you transfer your project to Collaboration, you will still see it in both tabs: under the ‘Personal’ tab
in the List, and a copy will be created in the ‘Collaboration’ tab. In the collaborative project, you will see
new features, only available in this type of projects.
You can also transfer a Personal project to Collaboration Project directly via the list.

if you or one collaborator

You need stable internet connexion change this copy, it will
to access a collaboration business not affect the original
plan. However, the RIV team is business plan in your
working to improve this. personal tab. 104
Collaboration features
Invite collaborator
You can now work with other people in the same project, at the same time. For this, you can invite
someone to collaborate. Click the green button at the bottom.

Choose to invite via

email or via URL

105
Collaboration features
Invite collaborator
To invite via Email, type the email address of the person you want to invite and select the privileges.
With ‘Edit’ privileges, the person invited can modify and work on the project, this means that if the
person makes changes, it will directly affect the project and you cannot go back. However, if you want
the person only to review and leave comments, you can choose ‘View / Comment’. This way, only you
can modify the project.

You will see the list of people to whom

Click ‘Send invite’ you shared this project with. You will
also see if they already have an account
or not.

106
Collaboration features
Invite collaborator
To invite via URL, just select the privileges and click ‘Copy URL’, then share the link with your colleagues.
With ‘Edit’ privileges, the person invited can modify and work on the project, however, if you want the
person only to review and leave comments, you can choose ‘View / Comment’.

Select the privileges

you want to assign to
anyone who receives
the link.

The link will appear once you

select the privileges. Then
just copy and share the URL.

107
Collaboration features
Comments
Besides Justification & Analysis and personal Notes which are still available, you can leave comments in
each section for easier collaboration with your colleagues.

Comments are visible for everyone with access

to the project and you can reply to them.

Click the three dots to display

the ‘Delete’ and ‘Reply’ options.

108
Collaboration features
Activity tracker
Be aware of the last changes made to each section.

You can see the last

activity performed in
each section.

This part is under development and

might change in the future. 109
 ©FAO/Joan Manuel Baliellas

©FAO/Paballo Thekiso
©FAO/Paballo Thekiso
SUPPORT
Please contact us if you need extra support: CFI-ruralinvest@[Link]
2023