A realistic cash flow forecast is vital for all businesses, but it is generally very time-consuming work. CaFE can create a realistic cash flow forecast in very simple steps with few inputs, and it can be monitored in real-time without any extra inputs!
If you already have your budget in CaFE, you will promptly see the realistic cash flow forest. Just click here for the instruction.
If you have no budget yet, please follow the instructions below.
[Setting up cash flow timings in your budget]
There are three types of budgets available in CaFE.
Please see here for more details if you are not sure which budget type fits your business.
Once you create a budget, you set up cash flow timing of each budget item for cash flow plan as well as cash projections.
Quick Cash Flow Plan
In the edit mode, click one of your budget items, then the Settings screen will appear.
You can specify the payment day of each month, which will be used to set a value date of planned cash flows based on the budget.
If you want to set a different date on any particular cash flow, you can change it in the Cash Short Predictor page later. (Please refer here)
Basic Budget
In the edit mode, select the Sales Plan tab, then click one of your budget items (or Due).
You can specify the payment due and day of each month. The cash flow plan will be calculated based on the sales plan and its payment due settings.
Alternatively, you can also schedule payments to allocate budget amounts separately.
Please see here for more details.
Full Budget
The due date of cash flows for each item can be set in the Business Rule screen, which appears when clicking Change business rule in the edit option menu in the Cash Flow tab.
The setting contents will vary based on the type of cash flow item. Please refer the following related articles.
- General
- Wages
Please click the "Recalculate" button to reflect the change, and then authorise it once your budget is ready to monitor.
[Monitoring your budget]
1. Select your budget to be monitored
In the Budget List, select any budget, which you want to monitor in the Cash Projections and Cash Short Predictor. Please note that Full budget has to be authorised to monitor.
Multiple Full budgets can be monitored as the same time, as long as there is no overlapping period among them.
Alternatively, you can go to the individual budget page and click the Start Monitoring button.
2. Monitor the budget(s) on the Cash Short Predictor
Go to Cash Management -> Cash Short Predictor, then click "Recalculate Projection" button. Then planned cash flows will be reflected in the report.
The cash flows from the budget(s) are shown with "Planned" status and you can jump to the budget from the link in the Reference field.
Planned cash flow amounts will be automatically adjusted by cash flow forecasts, which are already issued in the month. For example, if you have 120 GBP cash flow in January 2022 for Entertainment in your budget, and you have already spent 24 GBP (cash flow forecast) in the month, then remaining 96 GBP will be shown up as a planned cash flow in January 2022.
Planned cash flows will be generated each month. For example, even if you still have the remaining 96 GBP for Entertainment in January 2022, new cash flow with a full planned amount (120 GBP) will be created on 17th February 2022. The gap in January can be seen in the Budget Planner.
The due date for the "Planned" cash flow will be decided based on the Due Timing setting in the Business Rule in the Budget Planner. However, if the date is already passed, then today's date will be set. You can adjust the due date of each cash flow manually.
You can stop monitoring remaining amounts or stop monitoring all cash flows per cash flow item if you don't want to monitor any cash flows on the item any longer. Please see here.
[Changing how you monitor the budget]
1. Stop monitoring budget(s)
Simply uncheck the budget in the Budget List, then click "Recalculate Projection" in the Cash Short Predictor. You can set monitoring budget again, whenever you want.
2. Adjust due dates
- Click the small triangle on the left column in the "Planned" cash flow which you want to edit, then click the "Change Date" button.
- Simply select the date, then save.
- If you want to update the date of future cash flows for the same item too, check "Apply the...". In this case, the value date of all future cash flows also will be updated based on the selection. If you prefer the end of each month, then select "The last".
- When changes are made, please click the "Recalculate Projection" button to refresh the cash projection.
3. Change the monitoring option for each cash flow
- If you do not want to see the remaining cash flow amount, please click "Stop Gap Tracking" button. Please note that the remaining cash flow amount for the item will not be monitored for the upcoming future cash flows too.
- If you do not want to monitor certain cash flow item, please click "Stop Monitoring" button. Please note that the cash flow amount for the item will not be monitored for the upcoming future cash flows too.
4. Change the monitoring option for each budget item
Those settings can be done in each budget item level in the Budget Planner as well. Go to Reporting -> Budget Planner, and select the Cash Flow tab, then click the budget item name which you want to update, then select the option. Please note that the settings will be shown only for the monitored budget(s).
[Current limitations]
- Currently, splitting a Planned Cash Flow into multiple ones inside a month is not possible
- Amount in a Planned Cash Flow in a Full Budget cannot be manually adjusted once it is authorised unlike a Quick Cash Flow Plan and Basic Budget. In order to do this, you need to copy the budget, adjust cash flow amount in the draft Cash Flow Plan, authorise it, then monitor it.
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