---
templateId: T-509
slug: /templates/cash-flow-forecast-template/
title: "13-Week Cash Flow Forecast Template"
parentNode: O-509
parentSlug: /finance/cash/
author: Suman Pandit
format: markdown table (copy into any spreadsheet; one column per week)
version: 1.0 · 2026-08-30
---

# 13-Week Cash Flow Forecast Template

*This template is general information for people who run a business, not accounting, tax, or financial advice. The worked figures are an illustrative joinery workshop, invented for teaching; they are the same business whose statements appear on the Finance section's balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement pages.*

## The method in four rules

1. **Weeks, not months.** A month hides the day the rent, the payroll, and the tax fall in the same week. Thirteen weeks is one quarter, far enough ahead to act and near enough to be honest.
2. **Only cash.** Receipts are money that will land in the bank that week, not invoices raised. Payments are money that will leave, not bills received. Depreciation never appears.
3. **Known before likely.** Fill in the payments you already know (rent, loan, payroll, tax dates) first, then the receipts you are fairly sure of (invoices due from customers who pay on time), then the rest at the rate they usually arrive.
4. **Roll it every week.** Drop the week that has passed, write in the actual figures, add week 14, and note the difference between forecast and actual for the week just gone. The differences are where the method learns.

The basis is the cash budget as OpenStax describes it: "the combined budget of all inflows and outflows of cash", which "should be divided into the shortest time period possible, so management can be quickly made aware of potential problems resulting from fluctuations in cash flow" (*Principles of Accounting, Volume 2*, §7.3, checked 30 August 2026).

## The blank template

| Week | Week beginning | Opening cash | Receipts: customer payments | Receipts: other | Total in | Payments: materials | Payments: wages | Payments: rent | Payments: loan | Payments: tax | Payments: drawings | Payments: other | Total out | Closing cash | Minimum buffer | Above / below buffer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | | = last bank balance | | | | | | | | | | | | = opening + in − out | | |
| 2 | | = week 1 closing | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 3–13 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

Set the minimum buffer once, as the largest single payment that could fall in any one week (for most small businesses, the monthly payroll). The last column is the only one that needs reading.

## Worked example: the joinery, weeks 1–13 from 1 January

Opening cash 14,000 (the balance sheet's cash line at 31 December). Minimum buffer 3,000 (the monthly office payroll). Quarterly rent of 4,500 falls in week 1; the tax instalment of 4,000 in week 4; office wages, loan, and drawings on the first working day of each month (weeks 4, 8, 12); workshop wages weekly.

| Week | Opening | Receipts | Payments | Closing | Above / below 3,000 buffer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 14,000 | 5,000 | 9,200 | 9,800 | +6,800 |
| 2 | 9,800 | 3,500 | 3,900 | 9,400 | +6,400 |
| 3 | 9,400 | 6,000 | 3,700 | 11,700 | +8,700 |
| 4 | 11,700 | 2,500 | 11,400 | **2,800** | **−200** |
| 5 | 2,800 | 7,500 | 3,600 | 6,700 | +3,700 |
| 6 | 6,700 | 4,000 | 3,800 | 6,900 | +3,900 |
| 7 | 6,900 | 5,500 | 3,500 | 8,900 | +5,900 |
| 8 | 8,900 | 3,000 | 8,400 | 3,500 | +500 |
| 9 | 3,500 | 8,000 | 3,700 | 7,800 | +4,800 |
| 10 | 7,800 | 4,500 | 3,600 | 8,700 | +5,700 |
| 11 | 8,700 | 5,000 | 3,900 | 9,800 | +6,800 |
| 12 | 9,800 | 4,000 | 8,600 | 5,200 | +2,200 |
| 13 | 5,200 | 6,500 | 3,800 | 7,900 | +4,900 |
| **Total** | | **65,000** | **71,100** | | |

Check: 14,000 + 65,000 − 71,100 = 7,900.

What the sheet shows that a monthly forecast does not: January as a month is fine (opening 14,000, closing 2,800 after week 4, then recovering), but week 4 ends 200 below the buffer, because the tax instalment, the office payroll, the loan, and the drawings all fall in the same five days while the customer receipts that week are the quarter's lowest. Seen in week 1, that is three weeks' notice: one invoice chased into week 3, or the drawings moved to week 5, closes the gap. Seen on the day, it is an overdraft conversation.

## Reading the rolled forecast

- **The lowest closing figure** is the number to act on, not the total.
- **Weeks 4, 8, and 12** are the pattern for any business that pays monthly costs on the 1st; move what can be moved out of those weeks.
- **Receipts that slip** by a week show up as a lower actual than forecast; two slips from the same customer are a collection problem, which the accounts receivable page covers.
- **Payments that can be timed** (supplier bills within their terms, equipment purchases, drawings) are the levers; the accounts payable page covers the first.

## Pending owner input

The Finance section's plan calls for this template to be worked on Businessman Talk's own anonymised cash figures alongside the illustrative example. Those figures are not in the project inputs as of 2026-08-30 and have not been invented; when the owner supplies a quarter of actual weekly receipts and payments, a second worked table is added here and the parent page's Operator's note is updated.