How to use AI to write a formal business plan or executive summary when a bank or landlord asks for one

A bank or landlord has asked for a business plan, and you have no idea where to start. This post walks you through using ChatGPT{:target="_blank"} or Claude{:target="_blank"} to draft a complete, bank-ready business plan — section by section, with prompts you can use directly. The approach works because AI handles structure and language while you supply the verified financial data that lenders will actually check against your tax returns.

Most AI business plan tools are built for startup pitches to venture capitalists. Banks want something different. They want evidence you can repay debt.

What You Need Before You Start

ChatGPT{:target="_blank"} (GPT-4o) or Claude{:target="_blank"} (Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Claude 3.7 Sonnet): General-purpose AI tools capable of long-form structured documents. ChatGPT requires a Plus subscription ($20/month) for GPT-4o access. Claude's paid plan (Pro) also runs $20/month. Both free tiers work but have output limits that will slow you down on a full business plan.

LivePlan{:target="_blank"}: A purpose-built business planning tool starting around $20/month. Its structure maps directly to SBA requirements. Use this if you want guided inputs instead of a blank chat window.

Your source documents: Last 2–3 years of tax returns, recent bank statements, a current P&L and balance sheet exported from QuickBooks{:target="_blank"} or Wave{:target="_blank"}, and any existing contracts or lease agreements.

Time required: 4–8 hours across one or two sessions for a complete draft. Budget additional time for financial review and revisions.

Skill level: No coding required. You need to be comfortable copying and pasting prompts and editing AI output in a word processor.

Prepare Your Source Material Before You Open Any AI Tool

AI cannot generate your financial data. It can only structure and narrate numbers you give it. Banks verify everything against your actual records.

1. Export your financials. Pull a 3-year profit and loss statement, a current balance sheet, and a 12-month cash flow statement from your accounting software. Save them as PDFs or spreadsheets.

2. Write down your loan or lease purpose. State the exact dollar amount you need and list specifically what you will spend it on. "Equipment: $45,000. Leasehold improvements: $22,000. Working capital: $8,000." This becomes your "use of proceeds" section.

3. Calculate your DSCR. Divide your annual net operating income by your total annual debt payments, including the proposed new loan. Lenders require a minimum of 1.25. If yours is below that, you need to know before the banker does.

4. Write a 5-sentence owner biography. Name, years in this industry, relevant credentials, previous businesses, and any notable client relationships or contracts. Lenders weight owner track record heavily.

5. Note your three largest customers or revenue sources. Include what percentage of revenue each represents. You should see these numbers shape every claim you make about business stability.

Gathering this material is the actual work. The AI drafting goes fast once you have it.

How to Use AI to Write Each Section of Your Business Plan

The most effective prompt pattern for bank documents is: role + your specific data + format requirements + tone constraints. Generic prompts produce generic output that reads like a template and raises flags with reviewers.

Section 1: Company Description

You are a senior SBA loan consultant drafting a formal business plan for a bank submission. Write a company description section for the following business:

• Business name and legal structure: [your info]
• Years in operation: [your info]
• Location and service area: [your info]
• Primary products or services: [your info]
• Number of employees: [your info]
• Annual revenue (most recent year): [your info]

Format: 3–4 paragraphs. Tone: formal, conservative, factual. Do not use phrases like "rapidly growing" or "explosive demand." Avoid superlatives. Focus on operating history and stability.

You should see a factual, grounded company overview. If the output uses phrases like "poised for growth" or "innovative solutions," delete them. Banks read those as filler.

Section 2: Market Analysis

Replace generic AI-generated statistics with local data. National market size numbers mean nothing to a community bank reviewer.

Using the business context above, write a market analysis section. Include: the local market we serve (city/region), our target customer profile, our three main competitors and how we differentiate from them, and any local demand factors relevant to our industry. Base all claims on the following data I will provide — do not insert placeholder statistics:

• [Paste your local market notes, competitor names, and customer data here]

Format: 2–3 paragraphs. No bullet points. Formal tone.

You should see a market section grounded in your actual competitive context rather than a U.S. industry overview that a reviewer will immediately recognize as AI-generated filler.

Section 3: Organization and Management

Paste your owner biography here and ask the AI to expand it into a formal credentials section. Include any key staff.

Section 4: Financial Narrative

This is where most owners hand the AI their exported numbers and ask it to explain them in plain language.

I am attaching my 3-year profit and loss statement. Write a financial overview section that narrates these results for a bank reviewer. Highlight revenue trend, gross margin, and net income. Calculate and state the Debt Service Coverage Ratio using these figures: [net operating income] divided by [current annual debt payments of X]. Note that the proposed loan adds [Y] in annual payments. Show the DSCR with and without the proposed loan.

Tone: conservative. Do not project growth beyond what the historical data supports.

You should see the AI organize your actual figures into coherent narrative paragraphs. The numbers come from you. The structure and language come from the AI.

Section 5: Use of Proceeds

This section is straightforward. Give the AI your itemized list and ask for a formal paragraph. SBA lenders look for specific language here.

Write a "use of proceeds" section for an SBA loan application. The loan amount is $[X]. Funds will be used as follows: [your itemized list]. Explain how each expenditure supports business operations or growth. Formal tone. One paragraph.

Write the Executive Summary Last

The executive summary is the first page a banker or landlord reads. It answers five questions: What does the business do? How long has it been operating? What is the loan or lease for? How will the debt be repaid or rent covered? What is the owner's track record?

Write every other section first. Then prompt the AI to synthesize them.

Based on all sections above, write a 1-page executive summary for a bank loan application. Answer these five questions in order: (1) What does the business do and how long has it operated? (2) What is the loan for? (3) What do the financials show about ability to repay? (4) What is the owner's relevant background? (5) What is the loan amount requested? Keep the total length under 400 words. Formal, conservative tone. No growth projections beyond what the historical data supports.

For a landlord submission, adjust question 3: replace debt repayment with revenue stability, customer base size, and any anchor contracts.

The SCORE association{:target="_blank"} offers free templates formatted for bank submissions. Run your completed draft against their structure before submission.

When Something Goes Wrong

The AI output sounds overly optimistic. The model defaulted to startup-pitch language. Add this constraint to your prompt: "Use no superlatives. Do not describe growth as 'rapid,' 'strong,' or 'explosive.' State only what the historical data supports."

The financial section has numbers you didn't provide. The AI fabricated placeholder figures. This is a serious risk. Delete any number you cannot verify against your source documents. Review every figure in the document before submission.

The document is structurally inconsistent between sections. This happens when you draft sections across multiple sessions and context resets. Paste all completed sections into a single document, then prompt the AI to review for consistency in tone, tense, and terminology.

What to Do Next

Have a SCORE mentor review your draft before you submit it to a lender. SCORE mentors are free, many have banking backgrounds, and they will catch problems that neither you nor the AI will notice. Find your local chapter at score.org{:target="_blank"}.

Learn how to organize your financial records for loan applications before your next submission — clean source documents make every section of this process faster and more accurate.

---

FAQ

Can I use a free version of ChatGPT to write my business plan? You can start drafting on the free tier, but GPT-4o (available on ChatGPT Plus) handles long documents more consistently. The free model may truncate sections or lose context between prompts. For a document a bank will review, the $20/month upgrade is worth it.

How is a business plan for an SBA loan different from a regular bank loan? The SBA's 7(a) and 504 loan programs{:target="_blank"} have explicit section requirements: executive summary, company description, market analysis, organization structure, product/service description, marketing strategy, and financial projections. Conventional lenders vary in their requirements, but SBA lenders follow this structure closely. If you are applying for an SBA loan, match those sections exactly.

What financial projections should I include in a bank business plan? Banks typically want a 3-year forward projection: a projected P&L, cash flow statement, and balance sheet. Base your projections on your historical averages, not best-case scenarios. AI can format and narrate these projections, but the underlying assumptions must come from you and be defensible when the banker asks follow-up questions.

Can I use the same document for a bank loan and a commercial lease application? Use the same core document but swap the executive summary. Landlords care about revenue stability, years in operation, and anchor clients. They do not need to see your collateral schedule or DSCR calculation. A landlord-specific executive summary is one page and focuses on demonstrating that you will reliably make rent.

How long should a bank business plan be? Most community bank and SBA lenders expect 10–20 pages including financial exhibits. Longer is not better. A clean, well-organized 12-page document with accurate financials outperforms a 40-page document that buries the key figures.