BWA explained – how to read and use your betriebswirtschaftliche Auswertung

TL;DR: A BWA is your monthly profit & performance report. Learn to read it once, and you’ll spot trends early, adjust taxes proactively, and negotiate financing with real numbers—not guesses.

If you run a business in Germany, you’ll hear about the BWA sooner rather than later. Think of it as your monthly business snapshot: a concise report—pulled straight from your bookkeeping—that shows revenue, costs, and profit so you can track performance, talk to your bank with confidence, and make better decisions without waiting for year-end accounts.

In this guide, you’ll learn what a BWA is, how it’s structured, how to read it line-by-line, which version banks typically expect, and common pitfalls that make numbers misleading (and how to fix them). We’ll walk through a simple example, share a checklist for bank-ready BWAs, and answer the questions founders ask most.

Who this is for: solo founders, freelancers, and small business owners who want a clear, no-jargon explanation—and a practical path to creating, understanding, and using a BWA in real life (including for loan applications and investor updates).

What is a BWA?

A BWA stands for betriebswirtschaftliche Auswertung—literally “business management evaluation.” In plain English, it’s a monthly financial report that gives you a quick overview of how your business is performing. Unlike a tax return or an annual balance sheet, it’s not about legal compliance. Instead, it’s a management tool designed to help you understand your numbers while they’re still fresh.

How a BWA differs from a balance sheet and an income statement

• Balance sheet: shows your assets and liabilities at one point in time (usually once per year).

• Income statement (Profit & Loss): shows your revenue and expenses for a full financial year.

• BWA: takes the same bookkeeping data but produces a rolling monthly snapshot—so you don’t have to wait until year-end to know if you’re profitable.

Why do businesses use a BWA monthly

The strength of the BWA is its timeliness. By looking at current data, you can:

• see if your revenue covers your expenses this month,

• detect cost spikes or profit drops early,

• prepare for bank meetings with up-to-date numbers, and

• adjust advance tax payments before the year ends.

In short, the BWA is like a fitness tracker for your business—a live view of how healthy your operations are, not just a once-a-year checkup.

Who creates a BWA?

A BWA doesn’t appear magically—it’s always based on your bookkeeping data. In practice, there are three common ways to get one:

• Tax advisor (Steuerberater): The most common route. Your tax advisor pulls the data from your accounts and generates a professional BWA, often in DATEV format.

• Bookkeeper: If you work with an external bookkeeper, they can also prepare BWAs for you, though these usually aren’t signed or “testierte” versions.

• Accounting software: Many tools can automatically generate a BWA once your transactions are imported and categorized. This is a fast and low-cost way to get an overview, but software-generated BWAs don’t carry the same weight as an officially signed version.

👉 Need a bank-ready BWA?
Banks and grant institutions often insist on a signed/testierte BWA from a certified tax advisor. If you don’t already have one, you can get a signed BWA from a certified tax advisor at a superb price here. This ensures your report is accepted during financing talks.

When should you create a BWA?

No law forces you to create a BWA, but in practice, it’s one of the smartest routines you can build into your business.

• Monthly (recommended): Most entrepreneurs create a BWA every month. That way, you always have an up-to-date picture of revenue, expenses, and profit. Monthly BWAs also help you spot trends early—whether it’s rising costs, seasonal sales swings, or creeping cash flow issues.

• When applying for a bank loan: Banks almost always ask for several recent BWAs before approving credit. They want to see not just your annual results, but your current and ongoing performance.

• For grants and subsidies: Public institutions and grant committees often require BWAs to assess financial stability.

• During investor talks: If you’re raising capital, expect investors to ask for a BWA alongside your business plan and forecasts. It’s one of the simplest ways for them to check if your story matches your financial reality.

• Freelancers and EÜR filers: Even if you’re only doing an income-expenditure report (EÜR), running a monthly BWA is incredibly useful. It gives you the same insights larger companies rely on—without waiting until tax season.

In short: a BWA is optional, but smart businesses treat it as essential. Think of it as your monthly check-in with your company’s financial health.

How to read a BWA

A BWA can look intimidating at first glance: lots of rows, percentages, and accounting jargon. But once you know what to look for, it’s actually a straightforward snapshot of your business performance.

Key elements

Here are the main positions you’ll always find in a BWA:

• Umsatz (Revenue): Shows your total sales for the period. Usually at the top of the BWA under “Erlöse” or “Gesamtleistung.”

• Rohertrag (Gross profit): Revenue minus the direct costs of goods or services sold (often called “Wareneinsatz” or material costs).

• Kostenarten (Expense categories): Breakdowns of costs such as personnel, rent, insurance, advertising, and other operating expenses.

• Betriebsergebnis (Operating result): Your operating profit, calculated as gross profit minus operating costs.

• Ergebnis vor Steuern (Result before taxes): Operating result adjusted by financial income/expenses (e.g., interest) but before taxes.

• Gewinn (Profit): The final line—what’s left after taxes. This is often at the very bottom of the BWA, marked as “vorläufiges Ergebnis” or “Ergebnis nach Steuern.”

In short: Revenue at the top, profit at the bottom, costs in between.

Net or gross?

One of the most common questions: does the BWA include VAT?
BWA figures are net, excluding VAT. This makes it easier to see your real business performance without the distortion of sales tax you later pass on to the Finanzamt.

Example with simple numbers

Imagine you run a small design studio. Your BWA for June might look like this:

• Revenue (sales): €10,000

• Direct costs (software subscriptions, freelancers): €3,000

• Gross profit: €7,000

• Operating costs (rent, insurance, marketing): €4,500

• Operating result: €2,500

• Interest paid to bank: €200

• Result before taxes: €2,300

• Estimated taxes: €700

• Final profit: €1,600

This simple structure is what every BWA shows—just with more detailed categories and comparisons across months. Once you learn to spot these key lines, the document becomes a powerful decision-making tool rather than an accounting riddle.

Types of BWA

Not every BWA looks the same. Depending on your business, your advisor or software may generate different versions. Here are the most common types you’ll come across:

• DATEV-Standard-BWA (01):
  The most widely used format, suitable for almost any business. It provides a straightforward monthly profit and loss overview, based on your bookkeeping data.

• Controlling-BWA (04):
  Adds more depth for internal decision-making, such as detailed comparisons, percentage ratios, and trend analysis. Helpful if you want to dig deeper into cost structures and efficiency.

• Einnahmen-Ausgaben-BWA (43):
  Designed for freelancers and small businesses that file a simple income-expenditure report (EÜR). It focuses on inflows and outflows without the complexity of a full P&L structure.

• Kapitalfluss-BWA (51):
  Focuses on cash flow and financing. Banks often request this version during loan applications, since it shows how money flows through your business and how well you can service debt.

Which one do banks usually ask for?

When applying for credit, banks generally require:

• A Standard-BWA (01) to see your monthly profit and performance, and

• Sometimes, a Kapitalfluss-BWA (51) is used to evaluate liquidity and repayment capacity.

If you’re unsure which one to submit, ask your advisor to prepare the bank package (several recent BWAs, often including both 01 and 51). That way, you’re ready for financing talks without back-and-forth.

Why a BWA matters for your business

A BWA isn’t just paperwork—it’s one of the most practical tools you can use to stay in control of your company. Here’s why it matters:

• Transparency for you as a founder: Instead of relying on gut feeling, the BWA gives you hard numbers every month. You’ll see clearly how revenue, costs, and profit are developing—and whether your strategy is paying off.

• Required by banks: When applying for loans or credit lines, banks rarely rely only on your annual accounts. They want to see up-to-date BWAs to judge how your business is performing right now. Without them, negotiations are almost impossible.

• Helps spot problems early: Because the BWA is updated monthly, you can catch rising costs, falling margins, or unusual spikes before they turn into crises. Think of it as an early warning system.

• Control taxes: Your advance income tax and trade tax payments are based on expected profits. With a current BWA, you can check if those estimates are realistic and ask the Finanzamt to adjust them—avoiding both nasty surprises and overpayments.

In short, a BWA keeps you informed, credible with partners, and proactive in managing both your business performance and your tax burden.

Norman and the future of BWA

At Norman, we’re building tools that take the stress out of accounting for freelancers and small business owners. Today, you can already:

• Streamline bookkeeping: Connect your bank and let Norman automatically categorize income and expenses.

• Manage documents and receipts: Upload invoices and receipts in seconds—no shoebox needed.

• Create and send invoices: Generate compliant invoices, track payments, and keep everything in one place.

And the next step? BWA generation is coming soon to Norman. That means you’ll be able to create your own monthly reports directly inside the platform—without waiting for your tax advisor. This will give you instant insight into revenue, costs, and profit, with the same clarity banks and investors expect.

FAQs about BWA

BWA vs. balance sheet: what’s the difference?

A balance sheet shows assets and liabilities at a single point in time—usually once a year. A BWA, on the other hand, is a rolling monthly report that highlights revenue, expenses, and profit. It’s less formal but far more useful for day-to-day management.

Where to find Umsatz and Gewinn?

• Umsatz (revenue): At the top of the BWA, under “Erlöse” or “Gesamtleistung.”

• Gewinn (profit): At the bottom, shown as “vorläufiges Ergebnis” or “Ergebnis nach Steuern.”

Do freelancers need a BWA?

Freelancers aren’t legally required to create one, but many find it helpful. Even if you only file an EÜR (income-expenditure report), a monthly BWA helps you see if you’re on track, plan taxes, and present professional figures to banks or clients.

Is a BWA mandatory?

No. There’s no legal obligation to produce a BWA. But in practice, banks, grant committees, and investors often require them—and smart entrepreneurs use them as a management tool.

Conclusion

A BWA is more than an accounting formality—it’s your monthly financial snapshot. It shows revenue, costs, and profit in one place, giving you the clarity to make better decisions, talk confidently to banks, and stay ahead of tax surprises.

While not legally required, a BWA is highly valuable: it keeps you transparent with yourself as a founder, credible with partners, and proactive in managing your business. Whether you’re a freelancer or running a growing company, learning to use your BWA pays off quickly.

Use it to understand your profit, revenue, and cost structure—and to speak the same language as banks and investors.

👉 Get your professional BWA signed by a tax advisor now.