Do you need to project all 3 statements in an LBO model? Are there any shortcuts?

Yes, there are shortcuts and you don’t necessarily need to project all 3 statements.

For example, you do not need to create a full Balance Sheet – bankers sometimes skip this if they are in a rush. You do need some form of Income Statement, something to track how the Debt balances change and some type of Cash Flow Statement to show how much cash is available to repay debt.

But a full-blown Balance Sheet is not strictly required, because you can just make assumptions on the Net Change in Working Capital rather than looking at each item individually.