Financials are pretty important. They can't be learned overnight, but you can use other people's basic spreadsheets to get you rolling.
They're important both for your own benefit, and for getting financing (banks, SBA, investors, etc). I'd put together a bunch of different scenerios (best case, most likely, worst case, etc) to help you with planning. Be realistic. If it does come out to worst case, what will you do? How will you change things? Etc, etc...
The SBA has a lot of info on their site including links to sample biz plans, which include financials I believe.
http://www.sba.gov/starting_business/pl ... gplan.html
The P&L is pretty straight-forward, but try to copy the basic format. Sales, Cost of Goods Sold, then expense, then finally the bottom line.
Things like taxes and depreciation get a little trickier. And your cash flow is a little different than your P&L, but very similar. Your balance sheet must balance (assets equal liabilities).
-nimbus
