Free Cash Flow Forecast Template for Small Business (13-Week)

A cash flow forecast answers one question: will there be enough money in the account each week to pay what's due? Your profit and loss statement can't answer that, because profit and cash arrive at different times. This page gives you a simple 13-week template you can build in a spreadsheet in about an hour. If you want the reasoning behind each step, read our guide to building a 13-week cash flow forecast.

What the template looks like

Columns: Week 1 through Week 13, plus a Total column.

Rows, top to bottom:

1. Starting cash

The bank balance at the start of the week. Week 1 is today's real balance; every later week is last week's ending cash.

2. Cash coming in

• Customer payments you expect to collect (by when you'll actually be paid, not when you invoice)
• Card and online sales deposits
• Other cash in (refunds, owner deposits, a draw on a line of credit)
• Total cash in

3. Cash going out

• Payroll and payroll taxes
• Rent and utilities
• Suppliers and materials
• Loan, lease and other financing payments (include daily or weekly remittances on their own row)
• Insurance, software, subscriptions
• Estimated and sales taxes
• Owner pay
• One-off items (equipment repair, annual renewals)
• Total cash out

4. Net cash flow

Net cash flow = Total cash in − Total cash out

5. Ending cash

Ending cash = Starting cash + Net cash flow

6. Minimum cash you want on hand

A floor you choose, for example two weeks of payroll and rent.

7. Gap

Gap = Ending cash − Minimum cash. A negative number is your early warning.

How to fill it in

1. Start with what you know for sure: payroll dates, rent, loan and lease payments.
2. Add expected customer payments using how fast customers really pay. If they usually pay 45 days after invoice, put the money in the week it will land.
3. Be cautious: put money coming in a week later than you hope and bills a week earlier.
4. Every Monday, replace last week's guesses with the real numbers and add a new week 13.

How to read the result

• Gap stays positive: you have room. Consider building a reserve.
• One or two short weeks: often fixable by moving a payment date, collecting an invoice sooner or timing a purchase.
• Gap gets worse every week: the business is spending more cash than it brings in. Outside funding can bridge a timing gap, but it doesn't fix a business that loses cash every week, and repayments become a new row in this sheet. Read why business funding isn't fixing your cash flow problem.

If you're comparing funding offers

Put each offer's payments into the "financing payments" row, using its real schedule (daily, weekly or monthly), and see what happens to the gap. Our guides to repayment structures and reading a term sheet explain what to look for.

Common mistakes

• Using profit instead of cash.
• Forgetting quarterly and annual bills.
• Counting invoices as cash before they're paid.
• Building it once and never updating it.

Want a second set of eyes?

If you'd like, we'll go through your forecast with you in a free, confidential review. Talk to an advisor.

This article is general education, not individual financial, tax or legal advice.