Business Plan for a Grant: How to Budget for a Website, CRM and Ads

A business plan for a start-your-own-business grant more often stumbles not on the market analysis or the sales forecast but on the budget. Especially on the lines about the website, software and advertising: people write them as a single sentence, "website development and promotion: 60,000 UAH," while the Procedure splits these costs into several categories, each with its own cap.

This article is not about business plans in general; there are hundreds of guides like that. It is about one section: how to describe digital expenses so that each one sits in its own category, stays within its own cap and has a document the bank can pay against and the authorities can check. The information is current as of October 2, 2026, and is based on Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 738 of June 21, 2022, as amended effective September 1, 2026. Before you apply, check the current version of the resolution: it has been amended before and will be again.

The general terms of the grant (amounts, bonuses, who can apply) are covered in a separate guide: the start-your-own-business grant from September 1, 2026. Here we cover only the digital part.

What the Procedure says about digital expenses

The categories a grant can be spent on are listed in clause 7 of the Procedure for Granting Funds to Start or Scale Your Own Business. Digital expenses are spread across two subclauses there: "automation and digitalization" and "packaging, branding, marketing." Here are those lines with their caps, and what they mean in hryvnias on a 300,000 UAH grant, the maximum for starting a business without bonuses (clause 6).

It is easy to read these five lines as "345,000 UAH out of 300,000 can go to digital." It cannot. A cap is a ceiling for one category, not a share you are expected to use up. The total of all lines in the business plan still cannot exceed the grant, and most of the money usually goes to equipment, inventory or rent, which are other subclauses of the same clause 7 with their own limits.

The cap is calculated from the grant amount

The Procedure says "no more than N percent of the grant amount." If the grant is increased by a bonus (clause 6 provides for +5, +20, +30 or +50% under certain conditions, capped at 500,000 UAH for starting a business), it makes sense to calculate the caps from the increased amount. But that is our reading of the text, not a clarification from the employment center. If your budget relies on the bonus amount, confirm this before you apply.

Website, integration, software and ads are four different lines

The main takeaway from the table: work that a contractor often sells as one package is split by the Procedure into separate categories.

• Building a website or store is development: design, front-end, catalog, cart, pages. The Procedure also puts "implementing digital process automation tools" here, for example an online booking module written for your site. Cap: 10%.
• Setup and integration means connecting things that already exist: delivery services, online payments, the cash register, CRM, telephony, data exchange with accounting software. Plus support for these solutions. Cap: 20%.
• Licensed software is the program itself, which you pay the rights holder for: accounting, point-of-sale, CRM, antivirus or other protection. Cap: 25%.
• Marketing and advertising means launching and running ads. Cap: 10%.

Separately, there is brand identity, photo and video, with a 50% cap. It is the only large digital cap, and this is where product photos for the catalog and videos for your pages belong.

What clause 7 does not mention explicitly: domain names, hosting, monthly subscriptions to cloud services. The Procedure does not say whether the employment center will count a CRM subscription as "purchase of licensed software" or hosting as "support of digital solutions." It is better to clarify such lines in advance than to find out during revision.

Why this section can cost you the grant

Clause 19 of the Procedure lists the grounds for refusal. Among them: "absence of and/or mismatch in the business plan with the expense categories provided for in clause 7." In other words, an expense that cannot be assigned to any category, or an expense above its cap, is not a minor formatting slip but one of the formal grounds for refusal.

There is a second chance, but only one. If the business plan needs revision, the regional employment center returns the application once, and the revised plan must be submitted within 10 business days (clause 20). Miss that deadline and the application is refused. The Procedure does not provide for a second return.

After the grant decision, the section does not go away; it becomes part of the contract:

• the grant agreement records the expense categories chosen from clause 7 (clause 23);
• the bank pays expenses based on an invoice or a contract with the supplier that the recipient submits to the bank (clause 31), so the contractor's invoice has to match the line in the plan;
• funds not used within three months of being credited are returned by the bank to the Fund (clause 23), so digital work has to be planned so that it can be ordered and paid for within that window;
• after the decision, the business plan can only be changed by a decision of the State Employment Center's commission, and the intended use of funds only through a separate application with an updated plan (clause 32).

There is some flexibility too. Clause 25 states directly that a change of model, brand, quantity or price is not misuse of funds if the item is functionally equivalent to the one described in the business plan, fits the categories of clause 7 and stays within the grant amount. That is why the plan should describe the function, such as "a CRM for tracking orders and customers," rather than tie itself to one product name without need.

A template for the "Digital tools" section

The simplest way to avoid mistakes is to build the section as a table where each row matches one category from clause 7. Here is a structure you can carry over into your business plan.

How to fill in the columns.

Expense item is a short name you will later see on the invoice. If the plan says "online store" and the invoice says "IT consulting services," the bank will have to figure out that they are the same thing.

What exactly is a list of work or items detailed enough for another person to understand what is being paid for. Not "website development," but what the site will contain.

Justification explains why your business needs this and how it connects to the revenue or jobs in other sections of the plan. The Procedure requires expenses to be made "in accordance with the business plan" (clause 7), so the connection should be clear without verbal explanations.

Amount comes from the supplier's quote or invoice, not from a guess. A quote received before you apply is the best justification for the amount.

Category and cap is the name of the clause 7 category and the ceiling in hryvnias for your grant. This column is for you: it immediately shows where a line runs into its cap.

Below the table, it is worth adding two sentences: what part of the digital expenses comes from your own funds, if any, and in which months the work will be ordered and paid for. The first explains going over a cap; the second shows that three months are enough to use the funds.

Example 1: a pet store with online sales

A hypothetical calculation, not a real client and not a guarantee of approval.

An entrepreneur is opening a pet store with a physical location and delivery across the region. The start-up grant is 300,000 UAH. Most of it will go to store equipment and the initial inventory (goods together with raw materials and supplies may not exceed 50% of the grant under clause 7). The digital section looks like this.

What to notice here.

The cap for the store itself is 30,000 UAH. If the development quote is higher, the difference comes from your own funds, and the plan should say so directly. Moving part of the development into the "integration" line to fit under the cap is a bad idea: the bank pays against the invoice, the employment center monitors how the grant agreement is fulfilled (clause 25), and the name on the invoice and the acceptance act has to match what was actually done.

Integrations in a pet store are real, separate work, not a formality: delivery, payments and the cash register have to work from the first order. So the 20% here is not a "reserve" but a line with its own content.

A pet store needs inventory software for more than the cash register: pet food has an expiration date, and tracking stock with dates is part of the justification.

You can check the cap math yourself: 300,000 × 0.10 = 30,000; × 0.20 = 60,000; × 0.25 = 75,000; × 0.50 = 150,000.

Example 2: a service business with online booking

A hypothetical calculation, not a real client and not a guarantee of approval.

A home appliance repair service with on-site visits. The start-up grant is 300,000 UAH, and most of it goes to tools, diagnostic equipment and spare parts. There are no goods on a shelf here, but there are service requests, repair statuses and phone calls.

One detail matters here. The Procedure puts online booking that is developed for your site in the same line as the site itself: "implementing digital process automation tools" sits next to website development under a shared 10% cap. Connecting a ready-made booking service to the CRM and telephony, on the other hand, is integration with a 20% cap. The site and booking together cannot exceed 30,000 UAH from the grant.

In a service business, the CRM is the central program, not a nice extra: without it, repair statuses end up in a notebook. Its 25% cap is the largest of the digital ones, but if the CRM is sold as a monthly subscription, ask the employment center whether they count it as a purchase of licensed software and for what period it can be paid from the grant.

Common mistakes in the digital section

An expense that does not fit any category

"Digital development," "IT services," "online promotion." A line like this does not literally match any category in clause 7, and a mismatch with the categories is one of the grounds for refusal (clause 19). Each item should be named so that its category is obvious without explanation.

Going over the cap on one line

Most often, the website. A 10% cap on a 300,000 UAH grant is 30,000 UAH, and a full online store may not fit. The honest way out is to show the difference as your own funds, not to spread the work across other lines.

Website and ads on one line

"Website development and promotion" is two categories with two 10% caps. Neither the bank nor the employment center can check them on one line. The same goes for "turnkey website with CRM setup": development, integration and the license are three lines.

An amount with no source

A round number without a quote looks like a guess. It is better to get a quote from the contractor before you apply and refer to it in the justification.

No documents for payment and reporting

The bank pays expenses based on an invoice or a contract (clause 31). If a contractor works without a contract and an invoice issued to the grant recipient, their work cannot be paid from the grant account.

Work planned for "sometime this year"

Funds not used within three months of being credited go back to the Fund (clause 23). A plan in which the website appears "in the second quarter" does not fit that window.

What to ask your contractor for

Before you apply:

• a quote with a breakdown: website development, integrations, advertising, photo or video listed separately, each with a name and an amount, so you can carry them over into the lines of your business plan;
• timelines, to show that the work will be ordered and paid for within three months of the grant being credited.

After the grant decision:

• a contract with the grant recipient, meaning your sole proprietorship (FOP) or company rather than you as a private individual if you have already registered, with a subject that matches the item in the business plan;
• an invoice for payment through the authorized bank, with the same item names;
• an acceptance act once the work is done; it confirms that what was paid for has been delivered. The Procedure does not mention acceptance acts specifically, but you need one for your own records and for a possible check by the employment center.

LIONEX works as a registered sole proprietor (FOP) and issues a contract, an invoice and an acceptance act for every stage.

What we do not do

To avoid misunderstandings, here is where our work ends.

We do not write your business plan and we do not submit the application. We do not advise on which grant to choose and we do not provide legal opinions. We do not guarantee approval: whether expenses comply with clause 7 is assessed by the State Employment Center, the regional center and the authorized bank, and the decision is theirs.

What we do: websites, online stores, integrations with delivery, payments, cash registers and CRM, setup and support, and advertising, as a contractor under a written contract. We can prepare a quote with the work broken down into items so it is easier for you to carry over into your budget; which clause 7 category each item belongs to is your decision, confirmed by the employment center. What this looks like for a website or online store is described on the page a website funded by a grant.

If part of the work goes over a cap and is covered from your own funds, you can use our separate installment payment option for it. That is an ordinary payment term, not a way to get a grant.

A quick check before you apply

1. Each digital expense is on its own line and named so that its clause 7 category is obvious.
2. The amount on each line does not exceed the cap calculated from your grant amount.
3. Website, integrations, software and ads are not combined on one line.
4. Every amount is backed by a quote or an invoice.
5. Anything over a cap is shown as your own funds.
6. Domain, hosting and subscriptions, which clause 7 does not name explicitly, have been clarified with the employment center.
7. The work can be ordered and paid for within three months of the grant being credited.
8. The contractor is ready to issue a contract, an invoice and an acceptance act to the grant recipient.

Sources

• Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Resolution No. 738 of June 21, 2022, "Certain Issues of Providing Grants to Businesses" (in Ukrainian), Procedure for Granting Funds to Start or Scale Your Own Business, clauses 6, 7, 10, 19, 20, 23, 25, 31, 32; version effective September 1, 2026 (amended by Resolution No. 616 of May 15, 2026), text checked on October 2, 2026.
• Regulation on Business Plans Submitted to Obtain State Financial Support, approved by Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 1527 of November 26, 2025; clause 10 of the Procedure refers to it for business plan requirements.