A pitch deck and a project report answer different questions, and a Bengaluru founder who sends the wrong one loses a fortnight. The deck argues that the market is large. The project report argues that the loan gets repaid, month by month, out of cash the business itself generates. Raising equity from a fund? Build the deck. Asking a bank, an NBFC or a scheme lender for term money or a working capital limit? The project report is the document that gets read, and no deck stands in for it.
Which decision comes before anyone opens a spreadsheet?
Settle the borrower and the ask first, because both change the whole document. A private limited company borrows on its own balance sheet, and the lender reads your projections against accounts that are already public. A proprietor borrows personally, so the file leans on personal income and on security. An LLP sits between the two. Then decide how much you want and over what tenure. Then decide whether it is a term loan, a working capital limit or both, because the repayment schedule is the spine of the report and everything else hangs off it.
Two Bengaluru examples show how far apart the same service travels:
- A B2B software and design studio in Indiranagar borrowing working capital against receivables needs the model built on collection cycles rather than on plant and machinery.
- A biotech and life sciences startup at Bommasandra funding lab equipment needs a machinery schedule, a phased drawdown and a moratorium the early cash flow can genuinely carry.
- A promoter applying under a central scheme needs that scheme's own funding pattern, with margin money and eligibility conditions built into the projections rather than bolted on afterwards.
The address you put on the file matters here too. It is what the lender verifies, and in Bengaluru it also decides which municipal body your unit answers to once the money lands.
What does a Bengaluru applicant have to put on the table first?
Nothing gets modelled until the inputs are real. For a running business we start from two years of financial statements, the bank statements, the GST returns and the debtor and creditor ageing. For a new unit we start from quotations, the lease or sale deed for the premises, and the promoter contribution actually in hand.
- Incorporation certificate, memorandum and articles, and the CIN, which for a Karnataka company carries the KA state code in a shape like U72900KA2026PTC123456
- The last AOC-4 and MGT-7 filed on MCA V3, since the opening balance sheet in the report has to tie back to them
- Address proof for the premises, meaning the registered lease agreement, or the khata or the property tax receipt
- Supplier quotations for plant, equipment, fitout and software, each with the supplier named on it
- Promoter identity and address proof, a net worth statement, and any category certificate the scheme asks for
If a figure cannot be traced to one of those, we take it out. Credit officers ask for the source of anything that looks assumed, and an unsourced number costs a week.
How the report gets built, step by step
- We take the brief on a call: who borrows, how much, over what tenure, which lender or scheme, and what the money buys.
- We collect the papers above, then map your Bengaluru cost base, covering rent, salaries, power and the statutory registrations the unit will carry.
- We build one linked model: projected profit and loss, cash flow, balance sheet, break even and the debt service coverage ratio the lender will test.
- We write the market, technical and risk sections around your sector, and reconcile the opening numbers with your MCA V3 record.
- You review, we revise twice, and you get the final report with a note on the questions your credit officer is likely to ask.
What does a project report cost in Bengaluru?
Our fee is ₹5,999 onwards and it covers the report. What sits around it is statutory, payable whether or not you use us, and better inside the projections than discovered later.
| Item | What it costs | Who charges it |
|---|---|---|
| Project report preparation by LegalX India | ₹5,999 onwards | Our professional fee |
| Udyam registration for an MSME borrower | No fee at all | The Ministry of MSME portal |
| Profession tax enrolment certificate | ₹2,500 a year | Karnataka Commercial Taxes Department |
| Shops Act registration on e-Karmika | ₹405 with no employees, ₹810 for 1 to 9 | Karnataka Labour Department |
| City corporation trade licence | Your corporation's own schedule | The Commissioner of that corporation |
A scheme application also carries margin money, which is your contribution rather than a fee, and we size it inside the funding pattern.
Which registrar and portal actually see your numbers?
The report goes to a lender, not to a government office. The record it has to agree with is public, though, and that is where Bengaluru files come apart. A Karnataka company sits on the register of ROC Bengaluru, which the MCA also writes as ROC Bangalore, and which is the single registrar for the whole state. Your AOC-4 and MGT-7 go up on MCA V3, and a credit officer pulls that master data early.
So three things have to line up. The opening balance sheet in the report has to be the one already filed. Paid up capital has to match. Existing borrowings have to match the charges on the register. Section 12(3)(c) also puts the CIN, carrying its KA state code, on your letters and notices, so the number on your loan correspondence is the number the bank is reading.
What does a funded Bengaluru unit owe in its first weeks?
Sanction is not the end of the spending, and a report that ignores the statutory layer understates year one. Karnataka's own charges are small on their own and awkward when they arrive together.
Profession tax comes first. Under Karnataka Act 35 of 1976 a company takes a certificate of enrolment and pays ₹2,500 a year, on e-Prerana at ptax.karnataka.gov.in, within thirty days of starting the trade. An employer also takes a registration certificate and deducts from anyone drawing ₹25,000 and above a month, which runs ₹200 for every month except February and ₹300 for February. A second office elsewhere in the city counts as a separate person and pays its own ₹2,500, while a pure storage godown does not.
Registration under the Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, 1961 follows on e-Karmika, within thirty days of the day the establishment starts work. There is no employee threshold: the fee schedule opens at ₹405 for an establishment with no employees. That certificate runs five years. Once headcount reaches ten, social security registration follows, and coverage now runs off the First Schedule to the Code on Social Security, 2020; the sub regional offices for the city sit at Peenya and at Bommasandra.
The municipal layer depends on the street. BBMP ceased to exist on 2 September 2025 and five city corporations took over its work. A trade licence application under section 303 of the Greater Bengaluru Governance Act, 2024 is now addressed to the Commissioner of the corporation your premises sit in. The trade licence portal still carries the old BBMP branding, which confuses people who land on it. We confirm the corporation for your address on the Greater Bengaluru Authority Know Your Ward tool before we file anything municipal.
Why LegalX India in Bengaluru?
We are a CA and CS team, so the report is built by the people who will also file your AOC-4 and run your profession tax. That matters more than it sounds. The numbers in a project report have to survive comparison with your own filings for years afterwards, and a report written by someone who never touches the compliance side rarely does. We work with founders across Indiranagar, Koramangala and Whitefield and with units in the Peenya and Bommasandra belts, and the whole engagement runs online, with our Bengaluru office there if you would rather sit across a table. For formats, schemes and what lenders expect across the country, read the full project report preparation process nationwide.