The 13-week cash flow forecast, explained

One quarter, week by week: what is coming in, what is going out, and the week cash gets tight. For a growing business it is the single most useful page in the finance stack.

Why weekly, not monthly

Months are round and cash is not. Payroll lands twice or three times, tax weeks arrive on their own schedule, and one big customer payment can move a whole month from red to black. A monthly cash summary averages all of that into a number that looks fine. The weekly view shows the dip the average hides.

What goes in

Opening cash. Real balances, reconciled, not the accounting cash line.

Receipts by week. When customers actually pay, not when you invoice them. If a customer pays in 45 days, their money belongs six weeks out, whatever the invoice says.

Disbursements by week. Payroll, rent, suppliers, loan payments, taxes, owner draws. The recurring ones are easy; the quarterly and annual ones are the ambush, so they go in the week they hit.

A minimum cash line. The balance you refuse to fall below. Without it the forecast is a chart; with it every week is a pass or a fail.

How to read it

Find the lowest week first. That week is the whole document. If it sits above your minimum, breathe and check direction. If it sits below, you have a decision with a date on it, and the earlier you are reading this, the cheaper the decision is.

A composite example, the kind we see often: a services company runs the forecast and week 9 dips under the minimum. Nothing is wrong today. But payroll lands in week 9 and the two receipts that cover it land in week 10. Seen from week 2, the fix is small: one invoice pulled forward with a deposit, one supplier payment shifted a week. The dip never happens. Found on the Friday of week 9, the same problem is a scramble and a phone call to the bank.

Keeping it honest

Every week, actuals replace estimates, the window rolls forward one week, and a line notes what changed. A forecast that is not maintained weekly decays into fiction in about a month.

The forecast ships inside every ClarIQ monthly close, updated on rhythm and tied to your books. It pairs with the monthly close and lands beside the monthly memo. The sample memo shows the cash view in context.