Business plans
that pass compliance

They are read for different things. A bank compliance team tests whether the business is real, legal and consistent with the file, while a credit team tests whether the business can service the debt. We keep the factual core, being identity, ownership, business model and geography, and rewrite the front and financial sections per reader. Never send the lender version to a bank's compliance team, or the reverse.

CBUAE rules say banks should aim to complete account opening within three business days for applicants that are low ML/TF risk and provide standard CDD documentation. The job of this document is to make you look exactly like that applicant. Note that a bank may still receive opening funds and block them until financial crime compliance requirements are met.

Yes. A business plan is a signed document that a bank, a registrar and potentially the FTA can all read, so the numbers in it are assertions. Projected turnover above AED 375,000 says VAT registration is mandatory, and taxable income above AED 375,000 says corporate tax at 9% applies. We run the projections past your tax position before you sign.

A plan that says you will supply UAE mainland customers has documented that those sales are non-qualifying, and selling to consumers is an Excluded Activity because those are transactions with natural persons. If non-qualifying revenue passes the lower of 5% or AED 5m, the de minimis is breached and QFZP status is lost for that year and the next four. Projected revenue of AED 50m or more also brings e-invoicing into scope, with an ASP required by 30 October 2026.

Non-exempt SPVs must submit ADGM's own business plan template, executed by both the applicant and the appointed Company Service Provider. It has to demonstrate a nexus to ADGM, the UAE and/or the GCC region, since a structure with no regional link will not be registered. It also needs documentary evidence of the target asset, certified as a true copy no more than three months old, with certified English translation for anything in another language.

From the bottom up: revenue as units times price, or clients times average value times frequency. A top-down claim of taking a percentage of the market is worthless to all three readers. Cost lines include cost of sales, rent and Ejari, WPS-compliant payroll, visa and immigration costs, health insurance at AED 320 minimum per employee, licence renewal, audit fees, professional fees, bank charges, marketing, utilities and corporate tax at 9% above AED 375,000. For a lender we model base, downside and upside, including what happens at 20% below plan.