13-week cash flow forecast

A worked example: the lowest point isn’t the last week

A shop opens the quarter with $10,000. For the first seven weeks it runs at a small loss — about $1,000 net out each week — then a big client invoice lands and weeks 8–13 run $2,000 net in.

That is the whole point of a weekly forecast: the closing balance can look fine while a mid-quarter dip quietly breaches zero. The planner surfaces the lowest point and the first negative week directly, and the best/worst scenarios show how much slack you have. Assumes the figures you enter; not a guarantee of future cash.

Questions people actually ask

Why 13 weeks?

Thirteen weeks is one quarter, week by week — long enough to see a cash crunch coming, short enough that the numbers are real rather than guesses. It is the standard horizon lenders, boards and turnaround advisors ask for, which is why the "13-week cash flow" is its own named artifact in corporate finance.

How is this different from the Excel templates everywhere else?

Every top-ranking 13-week template wants your email address before you get a spreadsheet you still have to wire up yourself. This one runs here: type your numbers, and the closing-balance chart, scenario views and crunch detection update as you type. Nothing to download, nobody to unsubscribe from.

Is it safe to put our cash position into a website?

Your figures stay in this browser — the tool works entirely client-side and uploads nothing. That is the default. If you sign in with Google, and only then, forecasts are backed up to your private account row so they sync across your devices; you can delete that data any time from My profile.

What do the Best and Worst scenarios do?

They re-read your one grid through multipliers: the default worst case assumes customers pay 15% less (or later) while costs run 10% over, and best assumes the reverse. You can set the percentages yourself. One grid to maintain, three futures to read — including whether the worst case runs out of cash when the base case does not.

Direct or indirect method?

Direct. A 13-week forecast tracks money actually entering and leaving the bank account — receipts and payments — not accounting profit. That is what makes it useful: profitable companies go under mid-quarter because cash timing, not P&L, is what pays the payroll.