Introduction

CA Beegam Shajahan Shabnam is a Chartered Accountant with Big 4 audit experience and the National Champion in Public Speaking of ICAI (2021). As a faculty member for CA and international finance courses, and through extensive work with Indian and International clients, she observed a critical gap in the financial advisory ecosystem.

Start-ups and MSMEs struggle to create structured financial projections, bank-ready reports, and investor pitches. At the same time, CAs spend hours manually analysing statements, preparing projections, and writing advisory reports—time-consuming, repetitive, and prone to human error.

To solve this, FundAssist AI was developed: an automated, intelligent advisory generator that transforms raw financial data into actionable funding insights—instantly.

Problem Statement

Start-ups and MSMEs in India face major challenges when preparing documents for:

1. Bank term loans and working capital proposals
2. Investor funding pitches
3. Government grant/benefit applications
4. MSME support schemes and subsidies

Key pain points:

For Start-ups & MSMEs

1. Difficulty preparing financial projections (eg: 3–7 years).
2. Limited understanding of funding options and eligibility.
3. No standardized executive summaries, SWOT analyses, or business plans.
4. Lack of financial literacy → inability to present business strength to lenders/investors.

For Chartered Accountants

1. Hours spent manually analyzing financial statements.
2. Repetitive work preparing projections, ratio analyses, trends.
3. Drafting advisory reports from scratch each time.
4. Difficulty staying updated on the latest MSME schemes, startup incentives, and sector norms.
5. Pressure to deliver quick turnaround advisory with high accuracy.

This leads to:

1. Delayed loan processing and rejected applications
2. Inconsistent financial documentation
3. Increased workload for CAs
4. Missed opportunities for MSMEs to scale due to poor financial presentation

The Solution: FundAssist AI

FundAssist AI is a fully automated financial advisory generator that transforms raw financial statements into an intelligent, structured, bank/investor-ready report.

What It Does

Simply upload:

1. P&L Statement
2. Balance Sheet
3. Cash Flow (optional)
4. Basic business info (sector, age of business, funding need, etc.)

FundAssist AI instantly:

1️⃣ Analyses Past Performance

1. Trend analysis
2. Key ratios (profitability, liquidity, leverage, efficiency)
3. YoY performance summaries
4. Commentary on financial strengths & concerns

2️⃣ Generates Financial Projections (3–10 years)

1. Revenue projections using Prophet
2. Scenario-based projections
3. Automated projected financial statements
4. What-if analysis for margin/volume changes

3️⃣ Suggests Suitable Funding Schemes

1. MSME loans, CGTMSE
2. PMEGP / Stand-Up India
3. Startup India incentives
4. Sector-specific schemes
5. Working capital vs. term loan decision support

4️⃣ Drafts a Complete Advisory Report

Auto-generated professional report that includes:

1. Executive Summary
2. Business Overview
3. Financial Highlights
4. Ratio Analysis & Interpretation
5. Projection Summary (3–10 years)
6. SWOT Analysis
7. Funding Recommendation
8. Eligibility Mapping (Loan/Scheme)
9. Risk Factors & Mitigation
10. Conclusion + Next Action Plan

The system produces the final report as a PDF, Excel projection sheet, and dashboard.

Key Features

✔ Automated Financial Analysis

Reads uploaded statements → structures data → calculates key ratios & insights.

✔ AI-Based Projection Engine

Uses Prophet + domain rules to forecast revenue, margins, costs, and cash flows.

✔ Intelligent Scheme Recommendation

Matches MSME/start-up to the right loan or government scheme based on:

1. Turnover
2. Industry
3. Funding need
4. Credit profile
5. Collateral availability

✔ Advisor-Level Report Generation

Creates investor-ready/bank-ready documents with no manual drafting.

✔ What-If Scenarios

Simulates:

1. Margin improvement
2. Increase in volumes
3. Interest rate changes
4. Cost optimization

✔ Streamlit Interface

Simple, clean UI for CAs to upload data and download reports instantly.

✔ Export Options

1. PDF (ReportLab)
2. Excel projections (XlsxWriter)

Technology Stack

1. Python – core engine
2. Pandas – data handling & ratio computation
3. Prophet – forecasting and projections
4. OpenAI GPT – narrative generation & advisory text
5. Streamlit – interactive UI
6. ReportLab – PDF report generation
7. XlsxWriter – Excel export

Impact

For Chartered Accountants

1. Reduced report preparation time from 4–6 hours to 10–15 minutes
2. Standardized quality across clients
3. Upskilling from compliance → advisory
4. Ability to handle more clients with less effort
5. Boosts professional value through insights, not manual work

For Start-Ups & MSMEs

1. Faster access to funding
2. Better presentation to banks & investors
3. Improved financial understanding
4. Increased approval rates due to structured financial documentation

For the Ecosystem

1. Promotes MSME growth
2. Enables financial inclusion
3. Strengthens advisory-led CA practice models

Future Roadmap

1. Multi-Business Dashboard for CAs managing multiple clients
2. Automated Investor Pitch Deck Generation (with charts & highlights)
3. AI Creditworthiness Scoring
4. Integration with GST and MCA APIs (future possibility)
5. Sector Benchmarking Engine
6. Mobile App Version
7. NLP-Based Voice Input for Business Owners

Conclusion

FundAssist AI goes far beyond traditional projection tools.

It functions as a virtual financial analyst, empowering Chartered Accountants to deliver:

1. Accurate
2. Insightful
3. Bank-ready
4. Investor-ready
5. Data-driven

advisory reports within minutes.

By automating financial analysis, projections, and report drafting, FundAssist AI allows CAs to shift focus from tedious manual tasks to high-value strategic advisory, contributing directly to India’s MSME and start-up growth