A cash flow forecast lists when money is expected to enter and leave the business. It answers a different question from a profit statement: can the business meet payments on the dates they fall due? This 13-week structure works in a spreadsheet or a dedicated planner. The figures are illustrative USD assumptions.
Download the cash flow forecast Excel template
Download the free 13-week cash flow forecast (.xlsx)
Make a free Google Sheets copy
Sign in to Google and choose Make a copy before editing. The shared template is view-only. Your copy is stored in your Google account; use the Excel download if you prefer a local file.
Use the Forecast tab for your own inputs. The Example tab contains the same hypothetical USD figures as the table below: $5,000 starting cash, $6,300 after week 1 and $4,100 after week 13.
- Set B3 to your first Monday and B4 to reconciled starting cash.
- Enter positive cash receipts in column C and positive payments in column D for each week. Include all expected bank payments, including tax, payroll, financing and one-off purchases where relevant.
- Opening cash carries forward from the previous closing balance. Net cash equals receipts minus payments; closing cash equals opening cash plus net cash.
- Review negative closing balances and the dates of uncertain receipts. Test a delayed receipt by moving the amount to its revised collection week.
- Save a dated copy before replacing a forecast with actual figures.
Does this template calculate profit?
No. It follows bank receipts and payments. Revenue recognition, unpaid invoices, depreciation and profitability need separate records.
How do I roll the forecast forward?
Save the old version, set a new starting Monday and reconciled opening balance, then enter the next 13 weeks of receipts and payments. Changing the date does not move existing amounts automatically.
For a focused seven-day view, use the Weekly Cash Commitments Planner. For the dedicated offline app, review CashFlow-13 OS and its live demo.
Read cash movements separately from profit
For a fictional small shop, opening cash is $5,000. Week 1 customer receipts are $2,800; supplier payments, rent and other bills total $1,500. Closing cash is $6,300. The $1,300 net inflow is not necessarily profit: receipts may relate to earlier sales and stock may have been bought in another period. The full table below carries that balance through all 13 weeks.
Use the small-business budget example to compare planned and actual costs. For a longer view of how a recurring cash deficit affects your reserve, use the monthly cash runway template with hiring and collection scenarios. Runway estimates the time to a threshold; this forecast identifies the weeks when receipts and payments create a gap. Neither replaces bank and bookkeeping records.
Build the 13-week forecast from a bank balance to a weekly decision
Step 1 — Set the starting cash and source records
On the chosen Monday, reconcile the $5,000 opening amount to the business bank account. List customer invoices and expected collection dates, recurring bills, supplier payment terms, payroll, tax payments and known one-off purchases. Record an owner and source for each line. A sales target, unsigned quote or issued invoice is not cash in the bank. If the business has restricted funds, identify them separately rather than treating all account balances as freely spendable.
Step 2 — Lay out every week and calculate closing cash
Create 13 columns with week-ending dates and rows for opening cash, confirmed receipts, uncertain receipts, supplier payments, payroll, occupancy, tax, debt and other commitments. The compact table below rolls categories into total receipts and payments for readability. Week 1 closes at $6,300. Week 2 opens at exactly $6,300, and the same carry-forward rule applies across the horizon.
| Week | Opening | Receipts | Payments | Closing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5,000 | 2,800 | 1,500 | 6,300 |
| 2 | 6,300 | 1,700 | 3,200 | 4,800 |
| 3 | 4,800 | 2,100 | 2,700 | 4,200 |
| 4 | 4,200 | 2,000 | 2,000 | 4,200 |
| 5 | 4,200 | 2,600 | 2,100 | 4,700 |
| 6 | 4,700 | 1,800 | 2,500 | 4,000 |
| 7 | 4,000 | 2,200 | 2,300 | 3,900 |
| 8 | 3,900 | 3,000 | 1,900 | 5,000 |
| 9 | 5,000 | 2,400 | 2,600 | 4,800 |
| 10 | 4,800 | 1,600 | 2,700 | 3,700 |
| 11 | 3,700 | 2,800 | 2,100 | 4,400 |
| 12 | 4,400 | 2,300 | 3,000 | 3,700 |
| 13 | 3,700 | 2,600 | 2,200 | 4,100 |
Every closing figure equals opening + receipts − payments; the $4,100 at week 13 is a forecast, not an ending bank statement. Weeks 10 and 12 are the lowest baseline closing weeks at $3,700. A reserve threshold should reflect actual upcoming commitments, not an arbitrary universal percentage. The detailed rows behind the totals tell the owner what can be changed.
Step 3 — Add a downside case and an action owner
Move a $1,200 receipt from week 2 to week 5, without duplicating it. Week 2 closes at $3,600, week 3 at $3,000 and week 4 at $3,000; week 5 returns to the baseline $4,700 once that receipt arrives. If the owner sets a $3,500 internal cash threshold for this example, weeks 3 and 4 breach it. The action is specific: confirm the invoice collection date, review a discretionary purchase that can genuinely move, and agree any supplier change rather than assuming a bill can simply be delayed. Record the responsible person and decision date.
Step 4 — Roll the forecast each Friday
Replace the past week’s projected entries with actual bank movements, explain material differences and add a new week 13. Keep the prior forecast snapshot; otherwise the accuracy of collection and payment assumptions disappears. Check opening-to-closing carryover, duplicate receipts, tax dates and payments made on weekends. The CashFlow 13 planner can support the rolling view, while the bank and bookkeeping records remain the financial source of truth.
Check formulas and explain actual variances
Protect formula cells from accidental typing. Label the currency and week-ending dates, and check every opening-to-closing carryover. Keep an invoice identifier when moving a collection to a later week so the same receipt cannot appear twice.
Suppose week 1 actually closes at $5,900 instead of $6,300. Reconcile the $400 difference to individual bank movements, then label it as timing, amount or a missing item. An invoice received later is a timing change; a disputed amount may require a separate downside assumption. Retain the original forecast beside the revised dates. Supporting transaction records belong outside the planning worksheet.
Week-end totals can hide an earlier shortfall. If payroll falls on Tuesday and a customer payment arrives Friday, check the dated movements inside that week with the free Weekly Cash Commitments Planner. Its seven-day view supplements the 13-week plan; it does not update this table automatically.
Connect the forecast to your operating plan
Compare planned receipts and supplier payments with your business budget and actual costs. If client work depends on available delivery hours, use the agency capacity example to check the workload behind the revenue assumption. Keep those assumptions separate from confirmed collection dates.
Put supplier payments on their actual due dates
A purchase order is a commitment record, not proof that cash has left the bank. Suppose a fictional $800 order requires a $200 deposit in week 1 and a $600 balance in week 3. Put those two payments into their expected weeks. If the supplier agrees to cancel five $8 units, confirm the revised invoice and payment terms before reducing the forecast by $40; the remaining due date may still be unchanged. Keep payment evidence outside the quantity calculation. A purchase order tracker shows accepted units and unresolved replacements, while the forecast shows when the agreed payments affect cash. At Friday review, reconcile the deposit and balance to actual payment records and carry any unresolved amount into the next review.
Use a weekly check beside the longer forecast
The 13-week spreadsheet gives the wider view. Use the Weekly Cash Commitments Planner to inspect the opening and day-end balances inside one seven-day window. A fictional $1,000 supplier quote paid as $300 this week and $700 next week belongs on those two cash dates, not entirely on the quote date.
Keep the original forecast, reconcile actual cash at the period boundary and carry forward only outstanding movements. Use the Invoice Collection Schedule to investigate customer receipts before revising their dates. The worksheets and downloadable forecast do not synchronize; record each manual update so the same payment is not counted twice.