Use the cash flow planner in QuickBooks Online

Learn how to use the cash flow planner in QuickBooks Online to track your income and expenses.

Through the cash flow planner, you can easily see the money that comes in and out of your business. This way, you can keep track of your cash flow. Here’s how to set up the planner and create, edit, or delete items.

Changing transactions won’t affect your books. This helps you make informed decisions about when to save, spend, borrow, and transfer money. Here’s how to set up the planner, and create, edit, or delete transactions.

Note: The cash flow planner isn’t available in QuickBooks Online Accountant and in all other versions if Multicurrency is on.

Set up your account

To set up your planner, connect your bank and credit card accounts. This way, you can use the data from your accounts in all QuickBooks.

Manage transactions

Add, edit, or delete items in the planner for potential income and expenses. You can also create repeating items to make planning even easier. Here’s how.

Note: Items in the planner aren't actual transactions. They won’t appear in your books.

Add a transaction

You can manually add transactions for potential income and expenses. You can also create repeating transactions to make planning even easier. Here’s how.

1. Go to Dashboards and select Planner (Take me there).
   Note: If it’s your first time, select Start planning, then select Let’s go.
2. Select Add Transaction.
3. Select Money in if the transaction is income, or Money out if it's an expense.
4. Give the transaction a name and enter an amount.
   Note: If it’s a recurring transaction, select Repeating. Then select how often the transaction repeats.
5. Select Save.

If you want to export your cash flow details, from the Download Report ▼ dropdown, select Export as CSV or Save as PDF or Export to Excel.

Edit a transaction

You can easily edit or delete transactions to see how that changes your cash flow display.

To edit or delete transactions:

1. Go to Dashboards and select Planner (Take me there).
2. Select the transaction you want to edit.
3. Edit the info.
4. Select Update to save your changes.

Note: Changing transactions won’t affect your books. This helps you make informed decisions about when to save, spend, borrow, and transfer money.

Delete a transaction

1. Go to Dashboards and select Planner (Take me there).
2. Select the transaction you want to delete.
3. To delete a non-repeating transaction, select Remove, then Remove to confirm.
4. To delete a repeating transaction, select Remove, then
   • Select Only item to delete that single transaction in the series
   • Select Entire series, then Confirm to delete all repeating transactions

Customise your planner

If you want to select the data you want to see in your planner, you can customise it. Here’s how you can change your planner’s preferences.

1. Go to Dashboards, then select Planner (Take me there).
2. On the planner page, select the gear ⚙ icon.
3. Select your preference.
   • In the Select linked accounts section, you can select accounts that will show in the cash balance and in the money in and money out chart. If you don’t see an account listed, select the plus + icon to link the bank account. 
   • In the Threshold section, you can keep a cash buffer of a certain amount on hand that will appear on the chart to help you visualise your cash threshold.
4. Select Save.