Business Knowledge

Cash Flow Forecasting

Don’t Run Out of Cash! A 5-Step Forecast.

Cash is the oxygen for your business. Here’s how to make sure you don’t run out.

  1. Know Your Starting Point

    • How much cash do you have in the bank right now?

  2. Estimate Cash COMING IN

    • List all the payments you expect to receive from customers in the next few weeks. Be realistic about when they’ll actually pay!
    • Add any other expected cash, like loans or asset sales.

  3. Estimate Cash GOING OUT

    • List all your fixed payments: rent, salaries, software subscriptions.
    • List all your variable payments: supplier bills, marketing spend, taxes.

  4. Do the Math (for each week/month)

    • Inflows - Outflows = Net Cash Flow
    • Starting Cash + Net Cash Flow = Ending Cash

  5. Review and Repeat

    • Do you see any future weeks where your Ending Cash gets dangerously low?
    • If so, what can you do NOW to fix it? (e.g., chase late payments, delay a big expense).
    • Update this forecast every week!

Biggest Pitfall: Being too optimistic about when you’ll get paid. It’s better to be conservative.