A cash forecast shouldn’t be a spreadsheet you refresh on Friday and file away. Its job is to make the next few decisions visible while there is still time to change them.

Thirteen weeks is a useful horizon because it is long enough to see a meaningful pattern—payroll, collections, vendor terms, a hiring plan—and short enough that someone can own each assumption. It is not a substitute for an annual plan. It is the operating view that connects the plan to the bank balance.

Start with what moves cash

Build from the current cash balance, then map the timing of receipts and payments week by week. Revenue recognition is not a cash receipt. A signed contract is not a collection date. Use expected payment behavior and actual vendor terms rather than smoothing everything into a monthly average.

At minimum, make these items visible:

  • Customer collections, grouped by expected deposit week
  • Payroll, benefits, taxes and recurring contractor commitments
  • Vendor payments and one-time obligations already in motion
  • Financing proceeds or repayments, with timing called out explicitly

Make assumptions discussable

The forecast becomes useful when the team can name its assumptions. If two large customers routinely pay 20 days late, the base case should reflect that. If a planned hire can move by a month, show what changes when it does. Keep a base view and a small number of clearly labeled alternatives—not a dozen cases nobody can maintain.

A weekly review should take 20 minutes: compare last week’s forecast with what happened, update the few assumptions that moved and identify the decision with a deadline. This is how a variance becomes information instead of blame.

Put an owner next to the next step

If the forecast shows a cash pinch in week nine, the answer is not “watch cash.” Name the lever: delay a discretionary hire, ask about terms, accelerate a collection or bring a financing decision forward. Set an owner and a date to revisit it.

A dependable 13-week forecast does not predict the future exactly. It gives the leadership team a shared, honest view of what would have to be true—and enough lead time to respond when reality changes.

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