Building this year's P&L for a consumer brand

Walk through how you would forecast the current year's income statement for a company that sells consumer goods.

Start from revenue drivers and work down the statement. Forecast sales as volume times price by segment or region (using market growth, share and pricing trends), then apply gross-margin assumptions for cost of goods, project operating expenses such as marketing and SG&A as a percentage of sales or from known plans, then depreciation, interest from the debt schedule and tax at the effective rate. Sanity-check margins against history and peers and flag the key sensitivities.