Free template
Free 13-week cash flow template for Excel
A 13-week cash flow template shows, week by week for the next quarter, the cash coming in, the cash going out and what is left in the bank at the end of each week. Download it below: it is free, you only need to give your email address, and it works in any currency.
Type your cash in the bank today, then what you expect to receive and pay each week. The template adds it up and shows your lowest week. Any week where cash goes below zero turns red.
Fine for nine weeks, then a quarterly tax payment in week 10 takes cash below zero in weeks 11 and 13. Gold bars are weeks below zero. This is what the template shows you before it happens.
What is in the template
- Your cash in the bank today, and the date week 1 starts
- Money in: customer payments and other money in, week by week
- Money out: payroll, rent, suppliers, loan repayments, tax, software and other costs
- Net cash flow, opening cash and closing cash for every week
- Your lowest closing cash, and the week it happens
- A summary page with the figures that matter and two charts: closing cash by week, and money in against money out
- Blue cells are the ones you type in; everything in black calculates, so a formula cannot be typed over by mistake
How to fill it in
- Money in is what customers will actually pay that week, not what you invoice. If a customer usually pays 45 days late, put the payment 45 days out.
- Money out is every payment, in the week it leaves the bank. Quarterly tax and annual insurance go in the week they are paid.
- Replace the grey example figures with your own. Everything else calculates.
- Each week, move the start date on by a week and replace last week's estimates with what really happened.
How to read it
Look at the closing cash row first. The lowest figure is the number that matters: it is how close the next quarter comes to running out. A red week is a week you would be overdrawn on these figures, and the time to act is now, while there are still weeks to move a payment, chase a customer or arrange a facility.
The limit of any spreadsheet forecast
A template is only as good as the figures typed into it, and it does not check them. The usual mistakes are counting invoices as cash, forgetting a quarterly bill, and starting from a bank balance that does not match the books.
Big4CFO builds the same 13-week forecast automatically on every monthly plan, from books checked to the cent, with a second line for what happens if customers pay more slowly. To check where you stand right now, a one-time report starts at $49.
Questions
- Is the template really free?
- Yes. We ask for your email address and nothing else, and you choose whether we may send you one free money tool a week. It is an Excel file you can keep, change and share.
- Does it work in Google Sheets or Numbers?
- Yes. It uses ordinary formulas (sums and a lowest-value lookup), so it opens in Google Sheets, Apple Numbers and LibreOffice as well as Excel.
- What currency is it in?
- Yours. The template has no currency symbol: type figures in the currency your business banks in.
- Why thirteen weeks?
- A quarter covers most payment cycles, such as monthly wages, quarterly tax and supplier terms of 30 to 60 days, and weekly steps show the low point a monthly view averages away.
See it on your own figures
One-time reports from $49, delivered within minutes. Monthly plans from $349. Every payment carries a 14-day money-back guarantee.