Cash Flow Management Software

Yes, the Cash Flow planner is available for all QuickBooks customers.

Yes, the Cash Flow planner is available for all QuickBooks customers.

The Cash Flow planner is an interactive tool that forecasts your cash flow, the money going in and out of your business. It looks at your financial history to forecast future money in and money out events. You can also add and adjust future events to see how certain changes affect your cash flow.

You can change events in the planner without affecting or changing your books. This helps you make informed decisions about when to save, spend, borrow, and transfer money.

The cash flow planner chart uses historical data from your bank accounts connected to QuickBooks Online to forecast future recurring income and expenses. This includes categorised and uncategorised transactions. You can also manually include data to forecast cash flow by adding events that may occur in the future.

The cash flow planner chart does not include:

• Credit card transactions
• Transactions you’ve entered manually into QuickBooks
• Multi-currency enabled files

Note : If you disconnect a bank account, the data won’t appear on the chart anymore.

You can manually add events for potential income and expenses. For example, if you have a big sale coming up, add it as an event so it’s part of the forecast.

Important: Events aren’t actual transactions and won’t affect your finances in QuickBooks.

1. Select the Add Event button.
2. Select Money in if the event is income, or Money out if it’s an expense.
3. Give the event a name and enter an amount, then select Continue.
4. Select the date when the event will occur.
5. When you’re done, select Save.

To edit or delete an event:

1. Select and open an event.
2. Select the Date, Name, or Amount field, or change whether it’s Money in or Money out.
3. When you’re done, select Save.

they have due dates or expected dates in the future, this notification will prompt users to update the expected date so that the transaction will show up as a future event in the Planner. Any changes to the expected dates will not change the due dates on the QuickBooks transactions.

The Cash Flow Planner does save all manual user input. If the user makes updates in both the Planner and outside of the Planner in the rest of QuickBooks Online, the Planner will use the last updated amount or date. Here’s an example of how this works:

• A customer creates a $100 invoice in QuickBooks. She will see this invoice with an expected amount of $100 in the Planner.
• She edits the expected amount to be $90. Next time she visits the Planner, she will see the “due amount” is still $100 but the “expected amount” is $90. The Planner will assume she will receive $90 on the due date.
• She then edits the invoice to be $110. Next time she visits the Planner, she will see the “due amount” is now $110 and the “expected amount” is $110. The Planner will assume she will receive $110 on the due date.

Cash flow management is the process of monitoring how much cash is flowing in and out of your business over time. This helps you estimate how much cash will be available in future, and whether you’ll be able to cover expenses like overheads and staff.

Cash flow management also helps you identify any potential cash shortfalls before they happen, so you can make adjustments accordingly. For example, if you know you’re going to be short on cash in a few months’ time, you might decide to run a special offer to boost sales and inject more cash into your business for when you need it.

A cash flow statement can provide the insights needed to make necessary business adjustments – such as cutting expenses or seeking additional funding – to sustain positive cash flow.

Cash flow management is important because it helps ensure your business always has enough cash on hand to pay for ongoing expenses. In other words, it helps keep your business running. Many businesses fail due to poor cash flow management, which is why tracking your cash position is so critical.

Effective cash flow management means you can keep operations running regardless of fluctuations in revenue or profit.

Improving your cash flow depends on your business, but there are some general ways you can help maintain positive cash flow:

• Reduce outgoings: Look for areas of wastage in your recurring monthly, quarterly and annual expenses. Can you reduce the cost of utilities, rent, payroll, subscriptions or other unnecessary expenses?
• Increase income: Look at ways to increase revenue by exploring new sales channels, expanding your offering or selling off assets you no longer need for a quick cash injection.
• Review stock levels: Practice lean stock control to free up cash that can be used in other areas of the business.
• Tighten your invoicing process: Make sure your terms of payment are clearly defined and streamline your invoicing process to avoid delays.
• Review your profit margin: Consider revising your pricing or supplier costs to increase your profit margin.
• Use a cash flow statement: A cash flow statement tracks money in and money out of your business. It’s useful for providing insights into expenses and income, how business changes impact your cash flow, and areas of wastage or costs that can be reduced.

1. Gather data and receipts of your income and expenses.
2. Use a self-created spreadsheet or a template to organise your data into a cash flow statement. Your entries will show cash incoming and outgoings each month for the reporting period of your cash flow statement.
3. Record the totals of your cash incomings and outgoings over your reporting period.
4. Total your total money going out and subtract from your total money going in. You’ll be left with an accurate view of your company’s cash flow for the period you’ve set.

Download our free cash flow statement template

Yes, dividends are included with cash flow from financing activities. This section of a cash flow statement provides an overview of all your business’s financing activities, including equity, debt and dividends.