Use the cash flow forecast grid to track past cash activity and plan for future income and expenses. The forecast uses your QuickBooks data and tracks when you receive or spend money, not when you create invoices or bills.
The cash flow forecast grid is available in QuickBooks Online Simple Start, QuickBooks Online Essentials, QuickBooks Online Plus, and QuickBooks Online Advanced. It shows your cash flow by account group over 13 weeks.
Review your cash flow forecast
The forecast grid organizes your cash activity into four main rows:
Beginning cash balance: Your cash balance at the start of each period.
Money in: Cash you've received, organized into account groups such as sales revenue and other income.
Money out: Cash you've spent, organized into account groups such as payroll, facilities, and supplies.
Ending cash balance: Your expected cash balance at the end of each period.
Select the arrow next to Money in or Money out to expand or collapse account groups.
Manage your account groups
QuickBooks automatically organizes your accounts into groups based on your industry. You can customize these groups to match your business needs.
Above the forecast grid, select Manage account groups.
Choose what you want to do:
Create a new account group.
Rename an existing account group.
Move accounts between groups.
Delete an account group. QuickBooks moves its accounts to Others.
Select Save.
Keep in mind:
New accounts appear in Others until you assign them to another group.
Inactive accounts keep their past activity but no longer generate future forecasts.
Review transaction details and predictions
Select any cell in the forecast grid to review the transactions that make up its total.
Depending on the period, you can review:
Past activity: Completed transactions included in the total.
Future activity: Open invoices, recurring bills, and manual projections, including expected dates and source details.
AI predictions: Predicted dates or amounts based on past activity. Select a predicted item to learn how QuickBooks calculated it.
You can also update expected dates or exclude individual transactions from your forecast.
These changes affect only your forecast. They don't change your original invoices or bills.
Find accounts in the forecast grid
Use the search bar to find specific accounts or account groups. As you search, matching account groups expand automatically.
View the forecast grid in full screen
Select the full-screen icon on the forecast grid toolbar.
To return to the standard view, press Esc or select the full-screen icon again.
Understand why an account group doesn't appear
The forecast grid only shows account groups with activity during your selected date range. If an account group has no past transactions or expected future activity, it won't appear.
To find the group, expand your date range or check again when new activity occurs.