13-Week Cash Flow Forecaster
A week-by-week cash forecast that shows your cash low point, the week it hits, and how much cushion you need.
Example scenario—not a forecast or verified benchmark. Enable JavaScript to edit inputs, view charts, save locally and export your analysis.
Example inputs
- Cash in the bank today
- 150,000
- Typical weekly customer collections
- 77,000
- Weekly change in collections
- 0
- Typical weekly vendor & operating payments
- 33,000
- Payroll per pay run (incl. taxes)
- 55,000
- Pay frequency
- biweekly
- Monthly fixed payments (rent, loan payments, insurance)
- 30,000
- Minimum cash buffer you want to keep
- 75,000
- One-off items by week
- [{"week":3,"description":"Quarterly estimated tax payment","amount":-60000},{"week":6,"description":"Truck / equipment down payment","amount":-45000},{"week":8,"description":"Annual insurance premium","amount":-25000},{"week":10,"description":"Large customer retainage released","amount":40000}]
Example results
Cash bottoms at $51K in week 9, $24K below your $75K buffer, and ends the quarter at $157K.
- Cash low point
- $51,000
- Week of low point
- 9
- Cushion needed to hold buffer
- $24,000
- Ending cash (week 13)
- $157,000
- Net cash change
- $7,000
- Weeks below buffer
- 2
- Low point in weeks of outflows
- 0.6 wks
What stands out
Below your $75K buffer for 2 week(s)
First breach in week 7; low point $51K in week 9. You need $24K more cushion to stay above the buffer.
Net cash build of $7,000 over 13 weeks
Collections of $1M against payments of $1M; ending cash $157K.
Largest one-off: Quarterly estimated tax payment (-$60K, week 3)
Moving it past the week-9 low point or financing it is the fastest lever on the low point.
Low point covers 0.6 weeks of outflows
Average weekly outflow is $80K. Below ~2 weeks, a single late customer payment can cause a missed payroll.
Next actions
- Line up $30K of liquidity (credit line draw, deposit or progress billing) before week 7; sizing at ~1.25x the gap leaves room for slippage.
- Run a collections sprint in weeks 1–8: every 1% lift in weekly collections adds about $6,930 by the week-9 low point.
- Update this forecast every Monday with actual bank balances and roll it forward one week; variance vs. forecast is the early-warning signal.
Model assumptions & limitations
- Receipts, vendor payments and payroll are spread evenly; real weeks are lumpier (month-end collections, card statement dates).
- Monthly fixed payments fall in weeks 1, 5 and 9 (4-4-5 quarter). Biweekly payroll runs in odd weeks.
- One-off items and the minimum buffer are your inputs; no seasonality is modeled beyond the weekly trend.