Forecast cash across inventory and growth plans.
The cash low point, seen weeks ahead across purchase orders, receipts and growth plans, while the order can still change.
The winter order can still change for 10 days
The low point, week by week, against the buffer. Week 9 is the one that needs a decision.
Sound familiar?
- Inventory deposits, payroll and ad spend are planned in three different files.
- You find out cash is tight when the supplier invoice arrives.
- A lender or board asks for a scenario, and it takes a week to build.
A forecast that arrives after the purchase order is signed can be right and still be useless.
What changes.
- Horizon
- This month’s bank balanceA 13-week view, refreshed every week
- Commitments
- Stock, ads, payroll and tax planned apartOne view of every dated commitment
- Scenarios
- A copy of the spreadsheetNamed scenarios, with their assumptions beside them
- The outcome
- A forecast nobody acts onA low point, a buffer, and an owner with options
How it works. 6 steps, 5 stages.
- AI1
- Rules and automation4
- Your team1
- Approval
1Gather
Rules and automation
Pull balances and commitments
Bank balances, receivables, payables and open purchase orders, each with a date.
- QuickBooks
- NetSuite
- Shopify
2Model
Rules and automation
Run the 13-week schedule
Code calculates every week from dated receipts and payments. No model guesses at the arithmetic.
AI
Structure the assumptions
Turns notes and emails into dated assumptions, and explains what changed since last week’s version.
3Test
Rules and automation
Stress the plan
Slower receipts, higher freight, a later launch: each one saved as a named scenario.
4Decide
Your teamApproval
Choose the move
Finance and supply pick: change the deposit, split the order or collect sooner. Nothing moves until an authorized person acts.
5Review
Rules and automation
Freeze each version, compare with actuals
Every forecast is kept as it was, so you can see how it missed and why.
Actual timing sharpens next week’s assumptions
What you get. Real work, every week.
- Version 14 · this weekFreight quote up $60,000$205,000Under by $45,000
- Version 13 · last week$100,000 of receipts slip$265,000Over by $15,000
- Version 12 · base caseThe plan as approved$365,000Over by $115,000
Each forecast is kept as it was, so a change in the number comes with its reason.
- Opening cash $500,000, from the bank
- Receipts of $180,000, dated by customer and channel
- Payroll $90,000 and tax $25,000, on their due dates
- Winter order deposit, $200,000Changeable for 10 days
- Freight quote, +$60,000Forwarder to confirm
Each version is saved as it was
Every assumption written down with its source, and the ones still waiting to be confirmed.
How you’ll know it’s working.
Weeks of notice before a breach
A warning inside the supplier’s change window is a decision. After it, it’s a report.
Time to refresh, and time to decide
Hours to update the view, and days from a flagged risk to a decision.
Financing actually avoided
Counted only when a draw or loan didn’t happen, never when a model says cash was freed.
Baselines agreed before we build.
- Opening cash
- $500,000
- Receipts
- +$180,000
- Payroll
- −$90,000
- Tax
- −$25,000
- Winter order deposit
- −$200,000
- Cash at week 9
- $365,000
If $100,000 of receipts slip and freight rises $60,000, the low point is $205,000, which is $45,000 under a $250,000 buffer. Illustrative figures. The order can change for 10 more days, and that is when the forecast earns its keep.
Works with what you have.
Accounting
- QuickBooks
Commerce
- NetSuite
- Shopify
Planning & BI
- Excel or Sheets
- Pigment
- We configure first
- A rolling 13-week schedule in the spreadsheet or planning tool you already use. A plain, well-kept schedule often does the job.
- We build when
- Purchase orders, growth plans and payment timing live in different files, and a scenario takes days to build.
What a first build includes.
Built in your accounts, around your team. Scope, fee and baseline agreed before we start.
- 1Design
- 2Build
- 3Run it, or hand it over
We build
- A 13-week cash schedule joined to open orders and receipts
- Named scenarios with their assumptions
- A weekly log of every forecast version
- A decision packet for each purchase order
We start from
- Bank, receivables and payables balances
- Open purchase orders and their terms
- Growth and promotion plans
From your team
- Owner
- Finance lead
- Involves
- Finance
- Supply chain
- Growth
Questions teams ask.
Do we need a planning platform?
Often not. A deterministic 13-week schedule in a spreadsheet can be enough. We check what your current tools do first, and we’d only recommend a planning platform if scenarios still take too long.
Is this a sales forecast?
No. It’s a schedule of dated cash in and out, with the sales assumptions written down. Where we do forecast demand, we compare it with a simple baseline and your own team’s numbers before relying on it.
Does it move money or change the order?
No. It prepares the numbers and the options. The deposit, the order and any payment are changed by the people authorized to change them.
Who owns it once it’s running?
You do. It’s built in your accounts, documented, with training for the people who run it. Ownership usually sits with your finance lead. We can keep running it with you, or step back.
How do we start?
Usually with a finance review: two to four weeks, a fixed fee credited to the build, and a plan that’s yours. If the job is already clear, we can scope the build directly.
Part of your finance engine. One of 11 use cases, in 5 parts.
See the whole finance engineIn cash & commitments
- Cash scenariosYou’re here
- PO cash checkTest a purchase order against your cash buffer
Works with
See the low point before it arrives. Start with a finance review.
We reply within one business day.