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13-week cash-flow forecast
When does cash get tight, and which assumptions drive the outcome?
Start with verified cash, then add receipts and subtract payments each week. Include customer collections, supplier payments, payroll, taxes and debt. Keep base, better and worse scenarios separate.
Records you need
- ✓Starting cash
- ✓Dated receipts and payments
- ✓Scenario assumptions
What you get
- ✓Weekly cash table
- ✓Lowest-cash point
- ✓Chart for the owner’s review
Checks performed
- ✓Weekly balances add up
- ✓Recorded amounts versus assumptions
- ✓Scenarios kept separate
From finding to decision
Which receipt date causes the first cash shortfall?
Separate invoiced revenue from expected cash receipts. Keep forecast assumptions distinct from confirmed obligations. The date a customer pays changes the cash answer.
- Start from a verified bank balance and obligations with payment dates.
- Label receipt dates as confirmed, assumed or overdue. Keep scenarios separate.
- Change one collection assumption, recalculate the lowest cash balance and assign a specific action.
Evidence ready for review
The forecast shows the lowest cash point, the assumptions causing it and the owner of each action.
Who makes the next decision?
Management chooses a collection, payment-timing or financing response using the supported scenario.
Collect the supporting records from your software
Level diagnostic method reviewed . Apply it to the selected records and accounting policy; the teaching example does not resolve a live account.
Financial evidence in practice
Why can a profitable customer cohort still leave cash tight?
Cohort profit recovery is not bank cash recovery. Inventory funding, unsettled processor balances, debt and dated obligations can consume cash before repeat purchases arrive. Forecast actual receipts and obligations separately from acquisition profitability.
For a customer deposit, retain the contract, bank receipt and costs still required to deliver the promised work. Under accrual revenue accounting, advance cash generally remains a liability until the relevant work or delivery is fulfilled. Confirm the applicable basis with the accountant. Decide what cash must remain available to finish that obligation before committing it elsewhere.
Run the check
- Start with verified bank balances and available restrictions.
- Date expected collections and payroll, tax, vendor and debt obligations.
- Separate actual cash, planned receipts and uncertain assumptions.
- Compare realized results to the forecast without treating missing periods as zero.
Fictional example: Payment to bank totals bridge
Fictional $10,000 gross payments less $1,000 refunds, $250 fees and $1,750 not yet settled produce a $7,000 deposit. The totals tie; transaction identity still needs review.
Invented teaching inputs in USD cents.
Inspect the expected output
{
"fictional": true,
"unit": "USD cents",
"id": "payment-bank-bridge",
"expectedDepositCents": 700000,
"differenceCents": 0,
"totalsTie": true,
"transactionReconciliation": false,
"limitation": "This is teaching arithmetic from supplied invented inputs, not source authenticity, financial assurance or authority to post."
}Reproduce this calculation
Download the code and input into one folder, then run:
node reproduce.mjs payment-bank-bridge.input.jsonThe code checks declared units and identities and refuses unsupported inputs. No browser or customer account is used. Source authenticity and accounting approval require separate evidence.
Accounting standard reference: IFRS 15: advance payments and revenue recognition
Reviewed 2026-10-09. Level financial-control guidance, with visibly fictional teaching examples. The example shows a control boundary, not a measured customer outcome or industry benchmark.
Read this content revision history
Continue with the related financial decision →Guided synthetic example
See the check from input to decision
In this independent synthetic 13-week base forecast, collections slow in week five while payroll and a tax payment fall in the same period. The management cash buffer is an assumed $100,000; every inflow and outflow is fictional forecast input.
How review effort might be shared
An illustrative allocation is 15% collecting records, 20% applying checks, 10% flagging results, 25% investigating reasons, 20% finance review and 10% choosing an action. These percentages were not measured across engagements. Actual effort varies with data quality, complexity and the issue found.
Start with the source records
| Week | Starting cash | Inflows | Outflows | Ending cash |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $180,000 | $95,000 | $82,000 | $193,000 |
| 2 | $193,000 | $80,000 | $95,000 | $178,000 |
| 3 | $178,000 | $85,000 | $90,000 | $173,000 |
| 4 | $173,000 | $78,000 | $95,000 | $156,000 |
| 5 | $156,000 | $48,000 | $121,000 | $83,000 |
| 6 | $83,000 | $100,000 | $82,000 | $101,000 |
| 7 | $101,000 | $95,000 | $88,000 | $108,000 |
| 8 | $108,000 | $110,000 | $85,000 | $133,000 |
| 9 | $133,000 | $90,000 | $94,000 | $129,000 |
| 10 | $129,000 | $105,000 | $89,000 | $145,000 |
| 11 | $145,000 | $80,000 | $91,000 | $134,000 |
| 12 | $134,000 | $98,000 | $90,000 | $142,000 |
| 13 | $142,000 | $88,000 | $76,000 | $154,000 |
Apply the documented check
Roll each week's ending cash into the next week. This synthetic table contains forecast inputs only; in a live forecast, separate booked amounts from timing assumptions and scenarios.
Surface the flagged result
Needs review
Base-case cash reaches a low of $83,000 in week five, below the $100,000 management buffer.
Use recorded finance judgment to analyze possible reasons
At Level, we record the review logic, known explanations, and questions our finance professionals use in this situation. AI applies that documented human judgment to organize the most plausible reasons, without pretending it knows which reason is true.
Possible reasons to investigate
The trough may be solved by collections timing, payment scheduling, a credit facility, or lower spending, but the forecast alone does not choose the action.
Make the final human judgment
In a Level engagement, a Level finance professional validates the source evidence, challenges the AI-assisted analysis, and decides which explanation is supported.
Make the operating decision
Assign collection and payment-timing actions now, then refresh the forecast weekly against actual cash.
Each skill uses an independent synthetic scenario. Shared month labels do not mean the examples describe one company or a single financial period.
Use this system
Start with the example, then inspect the structure
The JSON download is a sample record file to inspect with an AI assistant or developer. It is not a file to upload into your accounting software.
- Download the invented input and expected output.
- Replace one field at a time with a safe test value.
- Compare the result with the expected structure.
- Have a finance professional review every exception before acting.
Website example JSON and registry: CC BY 4.0 (attribution required). Downloadable toolkit ZIP: MIT. Each version identifies its own frozen examples.
Developer preview: AI-assistant helper (MCP)
This tool call returns fixed, invented sample records only. It does not connect to your books. Read the setup instructions.
run_synthetic_example {"slug":"cash-flow-forecast"}Human review is part of the system
This check organizes evidence and surfaces exceptions. A person with finance domain expertise still needs to interpret the result, validate the source records, and discuss the operating decision.
Open source does not mean open client data. We publish reusable finance tools, checks, templates, and playbooks. Client records, workpapers, credentials, communications, and private configurations remain confidential.
Use it yourself, or bring us the messy part
Get a one-page plan for checking your records
Tell us where the records stop making sense. We will reply with the first check to run, the records it needs, and the decision that still needs human finance judgment.
Install the free skills yourself