Project Finance Covenants – DSCR, LLCR & PLCR Excel Model
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Description
A focused, low-cost project finance covenants model that builds every core lender ratio — CFADS, DSCR, DSRA, LLCR, PLCR and IRR — from your own inputs, so you can see exactly how each is constructed, in one transparent Excel template.
Covenants are the language of project finance. Before a lender commits, they want to know the project’s cash flows can cover its debt service — not just on average, but in the worst period, and across the full life of the loan. The ratios that answer those questions have a reputation for being intimidating, but they all flow from one foundation: the cash flow available for debt service. Understand CFADS, and the rest follow.
This project finance covenants template is built to make that connection visible. It aims to acquaint you with the fundamentals — cash waterfall, CFADS, DSCR, DSRA, LLCR, PLCR, Project IRR and Equity IRR — by letting you input your own numbers and watch each ratio build from them, step by transparent step.
The template runs on a quarterly basis across construction and operations, and can hold ten scenarios at once — switched from a single cell — so you can see immediately how each covenant responds to a change in the underlying cash flow.
What the Model Builds
Six linked sheets take you from raw cash flow to the full covenant suite:
| Assumptions | Construction start and term, operations term, debt-equity ratio, tax rate, interest rate — with automatic flags and timeline |
| CFADS | Cash flow available for debt service, built from your inflows and outflows |
| DSCR & DSRA | Debt service coverage ratio and debt service reserve account |
| LLCR | Loan life coverage ratio — discounted CFADS over the loan life against debt outstanding |
| PLCR | Project life coverage ratio — the same logic extended across the full project life |
| IRR | Project-level and equity-level internal rate of return |
Learn the Ratios by Building Them
The value of this project finance covenants model is that nothing is hidden. Enter your inflows as positives and outflows as negatives on the CFADS sheet, and every ratio downstream updates in front of you. Trace a DSCR back and you can see the exact cash flow and debt service behind it; follow the LLCR and you can watch how discounting the cash flow over the loan life produces a coverage number.
That transparency makes it as much a teaching tool as a calculator. For anyone moving into project finance — or anyone who has used these ratios without ever building them from scratch — it turns a set of intimidating acronyms into something concrete.
Who This Is For
- Students and analysts new to project finance learning how covenant ratios are constructed
- Developers and sponsors who want a quick covenant check on a set of cash flows
- Anyone preparing for a project finance role who needs the ratios to become second nature
- Modellers wanting a clean reference build of CFADS, DSCR, LLCR and PLCR
This is a learning-focused template. Our full sector models build these same covenants automatically within a complete two-phase project finance structure — see the range below.
For the theory, read an overview of the debt service coverage ratio. Explore our PPP and project finance templates, or talk to us about project finance advisory services.
Master the Covenant Ratios
CFADS, DSCR, DSRA, LLCR, PLCR and IRR — built from your own inputs across ten scenarios, in one transparent Excel model.
