Cash Flow Template
The Cash Flow Template to get you out of a tight spot. Have this template ready when you need it, not the week you need it.
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Profitable businesses run out of cash
Profit is an opinion about a period. Cash is a fact about a date. You can close a record month on paper and still miss payroll, because the invoice went out on net-30 and the team gets paid on the 1st.
Almost every cash crunch we've walked a founder through was visible weeks earlier. Not in the P&L, which looked fine, but in the timing, a big vendor bill, a tax payment and payroll all landing in the same week, against a client who had quietly slipped to net-45.
The fix isn't complicated. It's a weekly view of what comes in and what goes out, far enough ahead that you still have options. Move a payment, pull an invoice forward, pause spend, draw on a line. All of those work with three weeks' notice. None of them work on the morning payroll fails.
Build it while things are calm. A cash flow forecast is worth the most on the day you'd least feel like making one.
What's inside
- A 13-week rolling view, the horizon that actually matters when cash is tight
- Opening balance, money in, money out, closing balance, per week
- Separate lines for payroll, ad spend, vendors, tax and loan payments
- A running low-point so you can see the week you run dry before you get there
- Scenario rows to test a delayed client payment or a paused ad account
How to use it
- 1
Start from your bank balance
Not your P&L, not your invoices. The number in the account today is the only honest starting point.
- 2
List what leaves, by week
Payroll dates, card autopays, vendor terms, tax. Timing is the whole game, a bill due Friday and one due in three weeks are different problems.
- 3
Only count cash you'd bet on
Invoiced isn't collected. Put money in the week it will actually land, and be pessimistic about the client who always pays late.
- 4
Watch the low point, not the average
You don't go under on an average month. You go under in the single worst week. That's the number to manage.
Want us to run these numbers with you?
A template tells you where you stand. A finance team tells you what to do about it, then helps you do it.