Quick Guide for Quick Cash Flow Plan / Basic Budget

Nori -

In this article, the basic functionalities in the Quick Cash Flow Plan and Basis Budget (hereafter referred to as Budget).

You may also play around with your Budget in CaFE. 

Don't worry, you can create multiple Budgets, and you can delete unnecessary Budgets at any time.

So, let's start!

 

Table of Contents

 


 

Analyse a budget

In the Budget, you may see what has happened, as well as what will happen in "View Mode".

If you see the following text in the header area, then you are in this mode:

SimpleBudgetViewMode.PNG

 

If you see the following button, then you are now in "Edit Mode", which shows the budget amounts:

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See Cash Flow

Your cash flow can be seen in Quick Cash Flow Plan or "Cash Flow" tab in Basic Budget, it looks like this:

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To see detailed numbers, click the ’Show details’ link below the chart.

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To see the past or future, move the scroll bar. You can also expand ‘Sales’, ‘Cost of Sales’, and ‘Total’ to see more details by clicking the arrow icon on the left of each category name.

 

The monthly amount is shown in each "cell". Its overview pops up when hovering the cursor over each cell:

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  • Budget: Planned cash flow amount
  • Actual: Paid amount
  • Outstanding: The amount consists of;
    • Authorised: Awaiting payment amount
    • Draft: Invoices/Bills to be issued
    • Overdue: Awaiting payment amount, which is past due

When you have any overdue amount, the (!) icon will be displayed on the cell.

The amount in a cell is either:

  • Past months: Actual amount
  • Current month: Actual (left) and Budget (right) amount
  • Future months: Budget amount

 

When clicking the link on a cell, related transactions are shown below.

  • Past months: Actual and Overdue transactions
  • Current month: Actual and Overdue transactions
  • Future months: Authorised and Draft transactions

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TIP!: "Right-Click" on a number cell 

(This function is not available for Bank Transfer, Total, or Balance)

When you "Right-Click" on any number cell, you will see several useful options. 

If "Show actuals in current/previous period" is selected:

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then simple overview report pops up:

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TIP!: "Bank Transfer"

The transfer transaction among bank accounts (including credit cards) can be seen in a budget under "Bank Transfer" in Cash Flow.

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If there are any bank transfer transactions, the link is set to the grid, as above, while the amount is 0. If the link is clicked, then transfer transactions are shown as in the screenshot below.

 

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At the bottom of the Cash Flow Plan, the summary data is shown.

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In the "Total", the cash flow summaries are shown.

In the "Balance", the bank balances are shown.

  • Budget (Edit mode only): Bank Balances based on Budget amounts. The starting balance is taken from the actual starting balance in the current fiscal year.
  • Actual & Budget: Bank Balances based on Actual and Budget. The actual closing balance is set until the end of the previous month (for example, actual bank balances are set until Jul 2021 when today is 02/Aug/2021 ). For the current month, Actual amounts (see above) are added to the actual bank balance of the previous month. Budget amounts are added afterward.
  • Actual & Outstanding (View mode only): Bank Balances based on Actual and Outstanding. In similar to Actual & Budget, the actual closing balance is set until the end of the previous month, and Outstanding amounts are added up afterward instead of Budget.

 

See Sales Plan

In the Basic Budget, you will find one special report for invoices/bills, which are related to sales and cost of goods sold, as below:

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If you click the "Cash Flow Plan" tab, then the cash flow report, which is almost identical to Quick Cash Flow Plan, will be displayed.

 

The fundamental difference between the "Sales Plan" tab and the "Cash Flow Plan" is that the "Sales Plan" uses the Accrue Date, which is the date of issuing the invoices or bills. For example, if an invoice was issued on 01/Jul/2021, and paid on 01/Aug/2021. Then, the invoice is found in "July 2021" in "Sales Plan", while in "Aug 2021" in "Cash Flow Plan".

Thus, the definition of each amount in the Sales Plan is slightly different from the Cash Flow Plan.

  • Budget: Planned invoice/bill amount
  • Actual: The amount consists of;
    • Paid: Issued and paid amount
    • Authorised: Issued and awaiting payment amount
    • Overdue: Issued and awaiting payment amount, which is past due

 

See Monthly Budget Analysis

By clicking any part of the chart, or on the month label in the chart or table, you can see the monthly budget analysis.

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In the monthly budget analysis, you can compare Actual and Budget in the target month.

When you click ‘Show breakdown’, detailed information will be displayed.

By clicking the link on the top, you can quickly switch from Sales Plan to Cash Flow Plan in the same month or vice versa.

You can also change the target month by clicking the arrow icons on the left/right of the month label.

 

Edit a budget

Here, the basic functions are explained by modifying future sales figures.

 

Edit sales amounts in Quick Cash Flow Plan

Firstly, please click the "Edit" button in the View mode, then you will be in the Edit mode.

And the value in each cell shows the Budget Amount, which you can edit. Now you are ready to update your budget!

 

Update a single amount

Let's increase the sales amount in Aug 2021 for "C Winter Sports Shop".

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After clicking on the cell, you can directly input your updated amount. Say, 12,000. Please note that this amount includes VAT

By hitting the enter key, the new amount is set, and related amounts are automatically updated, which are marked as small triangles on the left-top of the cell, as seen below:

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The VAT is also automatically updated.

You can simply continue editing other cells.

Please note that you need to click the "Save Changes" button to save your changes.

The small red triangles will disappear when the saving is done.

If you want to view the actual data, click the "Back to View Mode" button.

 

TIP!: Keyboard navigation 

When you edit a single amount in the table, you can use the keyboard instead of the mouse like a classic spreadsheet.

[Move between cells]

You can move between cells with arrow/tab/enter keys in the main table in the edit mode as below.

Arrow keys: Move up/down/left/right

Tab/Shift + Tab: Move left/right

Enter: Move right

 

[Edit in the cell]

Sometimes, you may want to update a particular digit of a number instead of updating a whole number. When you double-click or press the F2 key (Windows only) on a number cell, it will be locked on the cell (the locked cell will be highlighted) and you can use the left/right key to move the cursor in the cell.

Single click

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Double click / F2(Windows only)

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To exit the lock mode, simply press the Enter or Tab key, or just click any other cell.

 

Update a single amount with the quick calculator

You can also update an amount with the quick calculator.

When you enter the edit-in-cell mode (See the above tip), the quick calculator will also appear in the right-hand side.

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You can enter an additional amount in the second field, then CaFE will calculate the total and update the target cell with the result for you.

To deduct any amount, you can simply enter any negative amount.

 

Update multiple amounts at once

If you "Right-Click" a cell in edit mode, the following options appear:

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When you select the "Edit multiple cash flow amounts", then a special update screen pops up:

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If you want to increase sales amount from August 21 to December 21, set values as follows, then click "Simulate". This looks like this:

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If you are happy with this, click "Apply changes to the plan", then those values are set in the main report.

Please click the "Save changes" button to save all changes.

 

TIP!: Add, Subtract or Overwrite

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If you click the "+" sign, several options appear:

  • Add: add an input amount to the current budget amounts for the specified period
  • Subtract: subtract an input amount from the current budget amounts for the specified period
  • Overwrite: overwrite the current budget amounts for the specified period with an input amount

 

Edit sales amounts in Sales Plan

The sales amount in the Sales Plan can be also after the "Edit" button is clicked.

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Two sections, "Invoices/Bills" and "Cash Flows", are in the "Sales Plan" tab above.

Invoices/Bills:

The amount of issuing invoices/bills is set here. Note that this does NOT contain the VAT amount. It also shows the "Gross Profit" and "Gros Margin".

- Gross Profit: This is calculated by subtracting the sum of the issued amount in "Cost of Sales" from that of "Sales". Note that it may be different from the gross profit in Profit & Loss, as the depreciation and certain accounting handling of cost of sales, if any, are not considered. 

- Gross Margin: This is calculated by dividing Gross Profit by the sum of Sales. If the sum of Sales is 0, then set to 0.

 

Cash Flows

The resulting cash flows from the "Invoices/Bills" are automatically calculated. Let's see how it is done in an example of the invoice amount on August 2021 of "C Winter Sports Shop":

1. payment timing of the invoice amount of 5,785 is calculated with "Due (+Months)", which is one month. In this case, the payment appears on September 2021.

2. VAT amount is added to the invoice amount to create the payment amount. The used VAT rate is shown in the "VAT Rate(%)", which is 20% for this customer, and the resulting amount is 6,942.

 

There are 3 editing options to update amounts in Invoices/Bills.

Update a single amount

This is the same as the Quick Cash Flow Plan. Please refer here.

 

Update multiple amounts at once

Use "Edit multiple budget amounts" by "Right-Click" on a number cell.

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It is almost the same as the one in the Quick Cash Flow Plan.

Related amounts are updated automatically, and changed cells are marked with a red triangle.

 

Schedule payments

Sometimes, you need to set up the payment schedule for certain invoices/bills in detail, such as separate payments, etc. This can be done by the "Schedule monthly payments", which is available in option lists upon "Right-Click" the target cell:

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In the list below, you can set the cash flow amount separately. 

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The "Day" specifies the day of the month the cash flow. 

Hit the "Update" button and the cash flows will be updated.

Note that this can be done when all the other changes in the budget are already saved.

 

Manage contacts

When you create a new budget, you can select contacts that you would like to manage in your budget individually. (Up to 10 each)

The rest will be managed together as ‘Others’ in the Sales and Cost of Sales.

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Add contacts

When you would like to add more contacts after the creation, you can still do that by switching to the Edit mode and clicking the + icon in the Sales Plan in the Basic Budget or the Quick Cash Flow Plan, or selecting ‘Add new contacts’ from the option menu in the Edit mode as below.

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In the Add Contacts view, you will see a list of your contacts. If it is already included in the current budget, it will be greyed out.

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The amount in the table shows the total of actual transaction amounts in the past year for your reference.

To add contacts, you can just select any contacts (up to 10 in total), and click the Add button, then the budget will automatically be recalculated.

 

Create a new contact

Sometimes, you may want to simulate your budget in the case that you acquire new customers, or switch to new suppliers.

In this case, those contacts might not exist in your accounting system yet and you probably do not want to make any change in the accounting system only for this purpose.

Even in this scenario, you can still create a new contact in CaFE by clicking the Create new contact above the contact list.

For creating a new contact, simply enter a contact name and click the Create button, then it will be added to the contact list.

After that, click the Add button, then it will be included in the current budget.

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Please note that any contacts created inside CaFE will be displayed with the unlink icon. This means it is NOT linked with your accounting system. Therefore, when you add the contact in your accounting system later on, they will be treated separately. For now, there is no way to link those contacts so the unlinked contact needs to be removed from the budget but we’ll improve this feature soon.

 

Reorder Contacts

When more than two contacts have been added, you can reorder the display sequence of these contacts. In view mode, expand Sales or Cost of Sales and click the icon to the left of the first contact name. In edit mode, click the icon to the right of the add icon. Alternatively, in either view or edit mode, select "Reorder budget items" from the options menu and click on Sales or Cost of Sales.

Once the reorder list for budget items is displayed, click the arrow in the direction you wish to move the item to reorder them. Items that have had their order changed will be displayed in bold.

After making changes, click the "Save" button to confirm the changes.

 

 

Delete a contact

When you don’t need to manage any contact in your budget, you can remove the contact in the Settings by clicking the name in the Edit mode.

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To remove the contact from the budget, there are two options;

- Delete

When the contact is no longer related to your business, simply click the Delete button, then it will be completely removed from the current budget, although it still exists in the contact list.

Please note that this action will affect only future budget amounts but any actuals in the past.

- Merge with Others

If you just would like to manage it as a part of Others, then select the ‘Merge with Others’ option, and click the Delete button. In this case, all the budget amounts will be merged with Others in the same category (Sales or Cost of Sales).

 

 

Manage Other Incomes and Expenses

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This cash flow can be found in the Cash Flow tab in the Basic Budget, and the main screen in Quick Cash Flow Plan. All cash flows, which are not categorized in other categories, are shown here.

- Incomes (Cash-ins): cash-in transactions, which are NOT sales, loans, or VAT, are set here. (Positive number only)

- Expenses (Cash-outs):  cash-out transactions, which are NOT the Cost of Goods Sold, loans, VAT, or corporation tax, are set here. A typical example is an operational cost, such as rent and salary.

 (Negative number only)

 

Add an expense item

The budget for Other Expenses is by default created only for one line. But you may want to plan it in detail, such as rent, salaries, etc. It is possible in a Quick Cash Flow Plan or a Basic Budget!

You can add the expense of up to 10 items.

Firstly, open your budget (not a Full Plan) and click the Edit button, changing the budget to Edit Mode.

Then find the Other Expenses (if the plan is Basic Budget, it is in the Cash Flow tab).

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Click the plus button as red marked above, opening the setting screen as below.

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Please select the account, for which you want to make a budget. If you set focus on the box on Target Expense, or type some keyword, the candidates are listed up.

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If any related transactions are found in the transaction list below, it is automatically filtered, and the budget setting is automatically filled based on the latest target transaction.

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(If no transaction is found, the settings are filled with default values.)

Payment Ban A/C: The bank account for the cash flow.

Frequency: Select from Monthy or Annually. You may adjust budget values in the budget grid after this budget is added.

Timing: The day of the cash flow of the budget, when the Frequency is Monthly. In the case of Annually, set both the month and the day. 

Amount (inc. VAT): The amount of the budget including VAT. Only a number can be set, which will be automatically changed to negative in the grid in the Budget. The amount is deducted from the Others in Other Expenses for future budget amounts.

VAT Rate: VAT rate for the transaction.

 

Click the Add button, then the budget is created in the budget.

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You may change the values in the budget in the grid.

 

Delete an expense item

You may delete added items in Other Expenses.

In the edit mode, click the link on the account under Other Expenses to open the settings.

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You will find the Delete button at the bottom of the settings. 

If Merge with Others is selected, the amounts of the Other Expenses item are added to Others when the Delete button is clicked.

Otherwise, the item is simply deleted when the Delete button is clicked.

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Set the budget creation setting for Other Expenses

The budget amounts in the future are calculated based on the budget creation setting:

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- monthly average of actuals: the average of the plan start and previous month are calculated and set to future budget

- actuals: set the actual amount in the previous year

Please note that dividend payments are also set here while fixed asset purchases are excluded from Expenses

 

Those can be modified in the same manner as for the Sales in Quick Cash Flow Plan.

 

Manage fixed assets

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This category is used to manage purchases of fixed assets. Upon creation of a budget, the lines for the fixed assets are automatically created, when there are purchase histories in the past.

If you plan to purchase a fixed asset again in the future, you may simply update the cash flow. For example, if you plan a purchase a laptop, which costs 1,000.00 GBP + VAT in April 2022, then you put -1,2000.00 under the account in April 2022.

On the other hand, you may plan a fixed asset purchase, which is not listed in the "Fixed Asset" category. In this case, you may add the account and set the cash flow. 

 

There are 2 ways of creating new Fixed Asset:

  • "Enter Asset Purchase Details"
    • Create budget with detail settings, such as amount, date, VAT..
  • "Add Blank Budget Item" 
    • Create budget with 0 amount. Amounts are input in the grid

You can select those types by clicking the plus icon next to "Fixed Asset".

Add fixed assets with "Enter Asset Purchase Details"

Set data

 - Fixed Asset Account: select the account you want to manage. If you want to use a new fixed asset, which does not exist in your accounting system, you can create one inside CaFE. Please refer to the next section.

Please also see the link if you still cannot find it.

 - Purchase Price: The purchase price will be input here. If the amount does not include VAT, tick off the "VAT inclusive".

 - VAT Rate: The VAT rate is set.

 - Payment Bank A/C: Your default payment bank account is set here. If you want to select a specific one, please select it.

 - Payment Date: the actual payment date from the payment account is set.

In case of an installment payment, you may set it up afterward.

Then click "Add this asset to the plan"

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3. Adjust payment schedule

After adding a budget, you may adjust payment in edit mode.

For example, you split the payment of 250 into two 125 GBP payments. In edit mode, simply split the payment, and save the budget.

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Add fixed assets with "Add Blank Budget Item"

You can set select a existing fixed asset account, or create new ones, which are not in the accounting system.

 

Add a new fixed asset

During adding fixed assets with "Enter Asset Purchase Details", you may add a fixed asset budget, whose account is not in your accounting system.

In the "Add a new fixed asset" screen, click "Create new asset for budgeting".

In "New asset name", you can set the asset name as you want. After clicking the "Create" button, the newly created account is set to the "Fixed Asset Account".

The rest is the same as described previously.

Note that, this account is not created in your accounting system, but exits only inside CaFE.

A "broken link mark" is shown in its name to easily identify it.

 

Delete a fixed asset budget

To delete a fixed asset budget, click the name, which you want to delete to open a setting screen.

When you click the "Delete" button, the budget will be deleted.

Note that amount from actual past transactions will be merged to "Others / Expenses (Cash-out)", and the planned amount is simply removed.

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Manage loans

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This category is specific loans and repayments. Upon the creation, entries for loans, which have the past transaction in the budget period, are automatically created, as in the example below. The related costs, such as interests, are also included.

For existing loans, you may update the cash flow in the same manner as "Other incomes/ expenses".

You can add a loan budget as follows:

If you want to plan a new loan, click the plus icon in the Loan + Interest section below in the Edit Mode, or select ‘Loan Simulator’ from the options menu as below.

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Then following screen pops up.

 

Add a loan budget with "Use Loan Simulator"

1. Input the loan amount, starting date, repayment months, and interest rate

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- Amount you wish to borrow: please note that this does NOT include the interest or other related costs.

- from: the day, when you plan to receive the money. This is used for the following repayments

- months: the duration of the loan in months.

- Interest Rate: this amount can be found in the information by the loan provider. Sometimes it contains other fees than the interest, and is referred to as "APR".

 

2. Click the "Simulate" button, then the repayment schedule is created based on the conditions.

LoanSimulatorRepaymentSchedule.PNG

 

We simulate the repayment so that the monthly payment amount is constant.

- Loan: the cash flow amount, which is related to the loan. You can see that the cash-out amount increases as time goes on. This is because the interest payment is higher than that in the following period. 

- Interest: the cash flow amount, which is related to the interest. You can see that the cash-out amount decreases as time goes by.

- Cash Flow: the total cash flow for each month.

- Balance: this shows the remaining loan balance. It decreases slowly at first, then sharply as time goes by.

You can change your loan conditions, and simulate again.

 

3. When you are happy with the repayment plan, then set:

- Loan Account: an item in your Chart of Accounts, which is linked to the loan. If you need a new Chart of Account item, please create one in your accounting software as required. Then do the sync-all in CaFE. We recommend putting "Loan" as a part of the name of the item.

You can also create a loan account, which does not exist in your accounting system. Please see the next section.

Please also see Cannot find my loan account if you still cannot find it.

- Receiving/Repayment Bank A/C: select the bank account, with which cash flows are set.

 

4. Click the "Add this loan to the plan" button, then this loan plan will be added to your budget.

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You can also edit a cash flow amount in each cell, or update multiple amounts at once by using Edit multiple cash flow amounts feature afterward.

Note that currently, the loan simulator works only for your home currency base.

 

Add loan budget with "Add Blank Budget Item"

This can be done in the same manner as fixed asset with "Add Blank Budget Item".

 

Add a new loan account

During adding a loan budget with "Use Loan Simulator", you can add a loan account, which does not exist in your accounting system, which is useful to temporarily plan a loan.

In the loan simulator, click "Create new loan account for budgeting".

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In the "New loan account name", put the name as you want, then click "Create". The newly created account will be set in the loan account.

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Please note that the newly created loan account is not automatically created in your accounting system. The "broken link icon" is shown to easily identify it.

 

Delete a loan budget

You can delete the budget for the loan. Click the name of the budget in edit mode to open the setting screen. Then click the "Delete" button. 

Note that amount from actual past transactions will be merged to "Others / Expenses (Cash-out)" and "Others / Incomes (Cash-in)", and the planned amount is simply removed.

 

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Edit Corporation Tax

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Upon creation of a budget (Quick cash Flow Plan / Basic Budget), the corporation tax for the future is simply repeated from the past. That is, if you have paid corporation tax on December 2020 with the amount of 2,000, then the amount for 2021 is simply set to 2,000.

The actual amount, which is sent from the tax authority, can be input into the budget.

Please note that this cannot be automatically updated as business goes by.

 

 

Edit Settings

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In "Edit Mode", you can change several settings for cash flows.

Basically, you can set the following:

- Payment Bank A/C: The bank account, where the cash flow occurs in our Cash Projection (explained later in this document). 

- Payment Day: The day of the month, when the cash flow occurs in our Cash Projection 

- VAT Rate: Applied VAT rate. This is estimated from past transactions. For "Others/Incomes, Others/Expenses", this is the average value from the past. This is because the VAT rate might differ among transactions. You can see how the value is calculated in the "How was this rate calculated?" section for those cash flows. You may change this value as you want.

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Create/Recreate the next period

Create the next period

On the next day of your fiscal year-end, the time scope of your budget is moved forward.

For example, if your fiscal year-end month is January and today is 31/01/2021, the plan shows from 01/02/2020 to 31/01/2022, but on the next day, it is from 01/02/2021 to 31/01/2023.

It looks like this:

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Note that the plan cannot be edited until the next period is created, but don't worry, it is quite simple!

Firstly, select the "Create next period" button.

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Now you can set the % changes, as is done upon the first budget creation.

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And that is all! Now you are able to edit the budget as before.

 

Recreate the next period

You may want to update the plan based on the current actual business situation.

It can be easily achieved by recreating the next period.

This function will recreate the budget in the next fiscal year.

For example, if your fiscal year ended in March and today is 01/09/2021, then the budget from 01/04/2022 to 30/03/2021 will be recreated, without changing anything in the preceding budgets.

Firstly, select "Recreate next period" from the list as below:

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Then the following screen pops up. You may change the assumption as needed.

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Click the "Create" button, then the budget for the next fiscal year is recreated.

 

 

Create a new scenario (Copy & Update)

Sometimes, you may want to simulate your budget in any different scenarios under certain conditions. If you use a classic spreadsheet, you would probably copy the sheet with a new name and update the copied sheet.

You can simply do that by creating a new scenario so that you do not need to create a new budget and update all amounts from the beginning again.

To do this, go to any budget that you would like to copy from, then select ‘Create new scenario’ from the menu in the View mode.

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Then the following screen will be displayed. As you can see, this is almost the same as ‘Create/Recreate next period’ mentioned earlier.

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Export a budget

This feature might be useful when you would like to share your budget with any external people or play with your budget more freely.

To export your budget, select ‘Export budget’ from the option menu in either the View mode or Edit mode.

You can export two types of files.

  • Actual & Budget (In View mode): Actual amounts are shown in the past and current months, Budget amounts are shown in the future months
  • Budget (In Edit mode): Only budget amounts are shown in all the months

 

Change the category of cash flows

Our Budget categorise the cash flows from your accounting system automatically, based on the chart of account in your accounting system.
But sometime you might need to see some transactions in different category.
For example, you want to see the transactions with account “IT Software and Consumables” under Cost of Sales, not under “Other Expenses”.

(Note that, this change affects all the Quick Cash Flow Plan and Basic Budget!)

 

This can be done in Budget settings, or Account list.

 

Use Budget Settings

By clicking “Budget settings” from the menu in view mode, you may access the setting screen.

 

Now you can click inside the Cost of Sales, and select the account.

 

 

After hitting the Save button and going back to Budget, the transaction can be seen under the Cost of Sales.

 

Use Account List

Go to account list by clicking the gear icon and select “Accounts”.

 

Click the Budget item category of the target account, then select the correct category.

 

After hit the “Save changes” button, and going back to the budget, the transaction is now under the newly selected category.
(Note)
If the target account is already used in the detail of the Other Expenses, Fixed assets or Loan in the Budget (except Full Budget), the category cannot be changed ("lock mark" is shown as below). 

If you want change it, please delete the budget line.

 

About VAT

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VAT is either automatically calculated, or manually input in CaFE, when your company is registered for VAT return. As default, VAT is automatically calculated.

 

Manual mode

You may change it to manual input mode in Edit Mode, by clicking the link on VAT as below, then change the setting and hit the Update button.

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If VAT is set to manual mode, then you may input the VAT return cash flow just like other cash flow items.

 

Automatic mode

NOTE: Some limitations in the VAT function:

- Cash-based only: you may know that there are 2 types of VAT calculation: Cash-based or Invoice-based (or Accrual-based, Issue-based, etc..). As Quick Cash Flow Plan and a part of Basic Budget does not consider the issuing timing, we simply use the Cash-based, no matter how it is set in your accounting system.  

- VAT settings may not be correct: while the accounting systems allow limited information about VAT, the VAT settings might be different from the actual. This discrepancy may happen mostly in the Closing Timing. The account closing timing for your VAT might be at the end of March, June, September, and December. But April, July, October, and January may be set in CaFE.

In this case, you can set the correct one from Budget settings.

These settings can be accessed in "View Mode", as follows

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Check your Close Timing, and simply select the correct one, if it does not the actual one.

 

Submit Timing means that when cash flows for the VAT occur. If the return cash flow occurs 1 month and 7 days after the closing timing, then set as above. For example, suppose that you have the VAT return of +500(receive from the tax authority) at the end of March. Then this amount will be paid to your bank account on the 7th of May.

Please set the values based on your business procedure to see the realistic VAT return cash flows.

 

 

See the cash flows in our Cash Projection

One of the most powerful features in CaFE is that the cash flows in the budget are integrated to the daily Cash Projection.

The cash flow amount will be shown with the "In Budget" state as above.

If some actual transactions are already issued for the planned cash flow, it is automatically deducted, as below.

In this sample, you have a planned sales budget of £6,000 (£5,000 + VAT £1,000) and actual sales of £4,200 (£3,500 + VAT £700) have been recorded, the system will show the remaining £1,800 (£1,500 + VAT £300) in your forecast as a Gap.

Note that "actual amount" contains both the ones, which are already paid in the planned month, and ones, which are issued, and cash flow is expected in the planned month. 

If the gap between the actual amount and the planned amount is not 0, then the gap will appear even after the planned payment date is passed. We call this "Gap Tracking", and this can be deactivated. See "How to change the individual monitoring setting in the Budget" for more details.

 

How to monitor a Budget

Firstly, please select a budget, which you want to monitor in the cash projection.

In "View Mode", the following button is shown.

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Simply click it, then it is ready to monitor. Then go to the "Forecast" from the header menu and click the Recalculate projections:

 

Now you can see the planned cash flow in your cash projection!

 

TIP!: Auto budget monitoring

When you create a budget and there is no active monitored budget yet, then the budget will be set to monitor automatically.

 

How to change the payment timing and monitoring setting in Cash Short Predictor

You can change the individual payment timing in the "Cash Short Predictor".

Please read this article about budget monitoring.

 

How to change the individual monitoring setting in the Budget

Monitoring settings can be changed in the "View Mode" in the monitored Budget.

 

When you click the link in the cash flow name, the monitoring setting appears.

If a planned cash flow of this budget item should be shown in cash projections only when there is no relevant forecast in a target month from your accounting system, check "Ignore gaps" and click the Save button.
Any gaps (remaining amounts) won't be displayed in the Cash Short Predictor.

Note: After this change, "Recalculate Projection" is required in the "Cash Short Predictor" to reflect the change.

 

How to manage foreign currency payments

If you have a foreign currency bank account and want to see the cash flow from the budget in the cash projection, it can be simply done by selecting "Payment Bank A/C" to the foreign currency bank account.

1. Click the "Edit" button in the budget.

2. Open the setting screen by clicking the name or category, then set the foreign bank account.

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3. Go to Cash Short Predictor, then click "Recalculate Projection". Then select the CCY to the corresponding currency, then the cash flow is shown, as below:

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Exchange Rate

The amount in foreign currency is calculated by using the exchange rate inside the CaFE.

The exchange rate is in the "Currencies" tab in Budget Settings.

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It is currently estimated from the bank statements and balance sheet data from your accounting system:

Exchange Rate = (Yesterday's closing balance of the bank account - Unreconciled bank statement lines in last one month) / Amount in the Balance Sheet.

If the estimated exchange rate is not properly calculated, we set 1 instead.

This exchange rate is updated upon sync, but you may fix the exchange rate with your value:

1. Input your exchange rate

2. Set "Lock" to on, as below.

3. Save

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The change will be reflected after the "Recalculate Projection" is clicked in the Cash Short Predictor or sync.

 

 

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