Accounting
Financial Management
13-Week Cash Flow Forecast: How to Build One, With a Template
Last updated: October 8, 2026 · Independent guide · We do not sell rankings or coverage.
A 13 week cash flow forecast is a weekly, direct-method projection of the cash you will actually receive and pay out over the next quarter, starting from today’s bank balance. Each week you replace the oldest week with actuals, explain the variance, and add a new week 13, so you always see a full quarter ahead. Controllers and CFOs use it to spot a covenant breach, a revolver draw or a payroll shortfall weeks before it happens. The template below gives you the rows, formulas and weekly routine to build one in a spreadsheet today.
How to use this template
Set up one sheet with a label column on the left, then thirteen weekly columns (Week 1 to Week 13, each headed with its week-ending date) and a Total column on the right. Copy the rows in the template table in the order shown. Rows marked “Input” are values you forecast each week; rows marked “Formula” are calculated and should never be typed over. Add a second sheet for the weekly variance report using the layout further down the page.
Pick a fixed week-ending day and bank cut-off time. Every number should be a cash movement through a bank account in that week; accruals and depreciation do not belong here.
The 13-week cash flow template
Each row below becomes one line of your spreadsheet. The weekly columns sit to the right of these labels.
| Row | Type | Source data | Formula or rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Opening cash | Week 1: input. Weeks 2-13: formula | Bank balances at cut-off, all operating accounts | Week 2 onward = prior week row 17 |
| Receipts | |||
| 2. Collections on existing AR | Input | AR aging by customer, payment history | Open invoices by expected pay week, not due date |
| 3. Collections on new sales | Input | Sales forecast, billing schedule, terms | Forecast invoices shifted by average days to pay |
| 4. Other receipts | Input | Tax refunds, asset sales, rebates, interest | Only items with a known amount and date |
| 5. Total receipts | Formula | Rows 2 + 3 + 4 | |
| Operating disbursements | |||
| 6. Payroll and benefits | Input | Payroll calendar, headcount plan, benefit invoices | Net pay on pay dates; benefits on billing dates |
| 7. Payroll tax deposits | Input | Payroll register, IRS deposit schedule | Week the deposit leaves the bank |
| 8. Vendor and AP payments | Input | AP aging, open POs, payment run calendar | Invoices by planned payment run date |
| 9. Rent, leases and occupancy | Input | Lease schedule, utility history | Contractual amounts on contractual dates |
| 10. Income, sales and other taxes | Input | Tax calendar, estimated payment plan | Due dates adjusted for weekends |
| 11. Other operating payments | Input | Card statements, insurance, software renewals | Run rate from last 8-13 weeks of bank data |
| 12. Total operating disbursements | Formula | Sum of rows 6 to 11 | |
| 13. Net operating cash flow | Formula | Row 5 − row 12 | |
| Non-operating and financing | |||
| 14. Capital expenditures | Input | Approved capex list, supplier milestones | Entered as a negative number |
| 15. Debt service, interest and fees | Input | Loan agreements, amortization schedules | Principal and interest as negatives; include advisor fees here |
| 16. Revolver draws (repayments), equity, intercompany | Input | Treasury plan | Draws positive, repayments negative |
| 17. Ending cash | Formula | Row 1 + row 13 + rows 14 to 16 | |
| Liquidity check | |||
| 18. Minimum cash target | Input (fixed) | Board policy or lender covenant | Same value in every week unless policy changes |
| 19. Headroom over minimum | Formula | Row 17 − row 18; flag any negative week | |
| 20. Undrawn revolver availability | Input | Borrowing base certificate | Availability after reserves, not the facility size |
| 21. Total liquidity | Formula | Row 17 + row 20 | |
Illustrative example: the first three weeks
The figures below are an illustration for a company with about $30 million in annual revenue, a biweekly payroll and a $750,000 minimum cash policy. They show how the rows link together.
| Line (USD) | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opening cash | 1,200,000 | 1,440,000 | 1,195,000 |
| Total receipts | 655,000 | 585,000 | 610,000 |
| Payroll, taxes and benefits | 0 | (410,000) | 0 |
| Vendor and AP payments | (280,000) | (265,000) | (300,000) |
| Rent and other operating | (135,000) | (35,000) | (38,000) |
| Net operating cash flow | 240,000 | (125,000) | 272,000 |
| Capex and debt service | 0 | (120,000) | (185,000) |
| Ending cash | 1,440,000 | 1,195,000 | 1,282,000 |
| Headroom over $750,000 minimum | 690,000 | 445,000 | 532,000 |
Week 2 is the one to watch in this illustration. Payroll and a capex milestone land in the same week, so headroom drops by $245,000 even though the business is profitable.
Walking through each part of the template
Opening cash
Start from bank balances, not the general ledger cash account, which lags the bank by outstanding checks and unrecorded deposits. Include every account that can fund payments, and show restricted cash such as escrow on a separate memo line.
Receipts
Customer collections are usually the largest and least certain line. Build them from your AR aging report, placing each invoice in the week the customer actually tends to pay, not the due date. Forecast your largest customers individually and group the rest with an average days-to-pay figure. Collections on sales not yet invoiced matter more in weeks 6 to 13: apply terms plus the observed delay to the billing forecast. Leave one-off receipts out until the amount and date are confirmed.
Operating disbursements
Payroll is the most predictable outflow, so put it in exactly by pay date. Payroll tax deposits follow IRS rules that differ by employer size. Employers that reported $50,000 or less in the lookback period deposit monthly, by the 15th of the following month. Larger employers deposit semiweekly: taxes on a Wednesday, Thursday or Friday payday are due the following Wednesday, and taxes on a Saturday to Tuesday payday are due the following Friday. If you accumulate $100,000 or more in taxes on any day, the deposit is due the next business day (IRS Topic 757, last reviewed September 24, 2026).
Map each approved vendor invoice in your AP aging to the payment run it will go out in, then add open purchase orders that will be invoiced and paid inside the 13 weeks.
Non-operating and financing
Keep capex, debt service and financing below net operating cash flow so you see what the core business generates before funding decisions. Leave the revolver row at zero on the first pass, see which weeks breach the minimum, then plan draws to cover them.
If you are in a restructuring, this section carries more weight. In Chapter 11, lenders usually approve a 13-week budget prepared on a cash basis and can treat line-item or overall variances above an agreed limit as a default (Lowenstein Sandler, April 4, 2020, a law firm that advises in these cases). Professional and advisor fees then need their own line.
Liquidity check
Headroom over the minimum is the line management reads first. Set the minimum from a written policy or the tightest covenant, and use revolver availability from the latest borrowing base certificate, not the facility size.
How to roll the forecast forward each week
The forecast stays useful only if you update it on the same day every week. A typical sequence for a controller or treasury analyst looks like this:
- Pull bank balances and transactions at the cut-off time and confirm that opening cash matches the bank.
- Copy last week’s Week 1 forecast to the variance sheet and enter the actuals beside it.
- Delete or hide the completed week, so last week’s Week 2 becomes the new Week 1, and add a new Week 13 at the right.
- Refresh receipts from the current AR aging and disbursements from the current AP aging and payment run plan.
- Update payroll, tax, debt and capex lines for any changes in dates or amounts.
- Review the weeks that breach the minimum and decide on actions: collection calls, holding a payment run, or a revolver draw.
- Save a locked copy of this version with its date, so you can compare forecasts made in different weeks.
Saved versions are what let you measure accuracy, for example whether your week 8 forecasts are consistently too optimistic.
Variance tracking
The Association for Financial Professionals lists timely, consistent variance analysis as one of its 10 best practices in cash forecasting and advises focusing on the variances that matter most to cash flow (AFP, April 27, 2022). Use a simple layout that shows each line as favorable or (unfavorable) to cash.
| Week 1 line (USD, illustration) | Forecast | Actual | Variance fav/(unfav) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Collections and other receipts | 655,000 | 613,000 | (42,000) |
| Vendor and AP payments | 280,000 | 301,000 | (21,000) |
| Rent and other operating | 135,000 | 131,000 | 4,000 |
| Net cash flow | 240,000 | 181,000 | (59,000) |
Label each material variance as timing or permanent. If the $42,000 shortfall is one customer paying a week late, move it into Week 2; if the invoice is disputed, remove it. Set a materiality threshold for explanations and apply it consistently.
Over time, track cumulative variance by line and the error at different horizons (how far off your Week 1, Week 4 and Week 13 forecasts were for the same week). A line that misses in the same direction every week has a bias you can correct.
Common mistakes
- Using the indirect method. Starting from net income and adjusting for working capital hides the timing of individual receipts and payments, which is the whole point of a weekly forecast.
- Typing over formulas. A hard-coded ending balance breaks the chain from week to week. Protect formula rows.
- Missing lumpy payments. Annual insurance premiums, software renewals, bonuses, property taxes and estimated income tax payments are easy to miss in weeks 6 to 13. Keep a calendar of non-routine payments and check it at every roll.
- No saved versions. If you overwrite the file each week, you cannot measure accuracy or show a lender how the forecast has performed.
- No input from the business. Sales, procurement and operations know about deals and purchases before finance does. Get a short weekly input from each.
When to move from a spreadsheet to software
A spreadsheet works for a single entity with a few bank accounts. It strains when you add entities, currencies and bank accounts, or when the weekly roll takes half a day of data gathering. Watching the right AP and AR cash health KPIs also becomes harder when the data sits in several systems.
Your options fall into three groups. For a wider comparison of approaches, see our guide to cash flow forecasting in accounting software.
Native ERP features. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central has a Cash Flow Forecast chart and a Cash Flow Worksheet that adds receivables, subtracts payables and draws on sales and purchase orders (Microsoft Learn, May 2, 2025). Oracle NetSuite’s Cash 360 SuiteApp forecasts from AR, AP, sales orders, purchase orders, ad hoc lines and general ledger history, with periods set in days, weeks or months (Oracle NetSuite documentation, no date shown). Both use ERP data, but neither replaces the judgment rows or keeps a full variance history without extra work.
Forecasting apps for small and mid-sized companies. Float connects to QuickBooks and Xero and includes a 13-week cash flow view on every plan. It lists USD prices from $105 to $130 per month for its Essentials plan (for companies under £2 million revenue) and $215 to $265 for Growth, depending on billing term (Float pricing, no date shown, checked October 8, 2026). Agicap connects to banks and accounting systems but does not publish prices and requires a minimum 12-month subscription (Agicap pricing, no date shown).
Treasury and cash forecasting platforms. Trovata publishes a Base Package at $24,000 per year with one bank connection, 10 users and machine-learning forecasts from bank data; it includes a NetSuite integration, and other ERP integrations such as SAP S/4HANA are add-ons quoted separately (Trovata pricing, no date shown). Kyriba describes automated variance analysis that compares forecast versions with actuals from bank statements and ERP ledgers (Kyriba, no date shown), and HighRadius describes forecast-versus-actual variance grids and connections to more than 20 ERPs (HighRadius, no date shown). Neither Kyriba nor HighRadius publishes pricing, and HighRadius’s accuracy figures are its own claims, not independent results.
How we researched this
We reviewed the pages that currently rank for this search, including guides from Atlar, Numeric, DebtBook and Financial Edge Training. Most are published by companies that sell forecasting software or training, and most describe the categories without giving a full row-by-row template, a weekly roll procedure, a variance layout, or published prices for tools. We built the template from standard direct-method practice, checked tax deposit rules against IRS pages, and took every product capability and price from the vendor’s own documentation or pricing page on October 8, 2026. All dollar figures in the examples are illustrations.
Related guides
Frequently asked questions
What is a 13-week cash flow forecast used for?
It shows weekly receipts, disbursements and ending cash for the next quarter so you can spot shortfalls early. Finance teams use it to plan revolver draws, time vendor payments, test covenants and report liquidity to lenders. In a Chapter 11 case, lenders typically approve one as the budget.
Why 13 weeks and not a month or a year?
Thirteen weeks is one quarter: long enough to capture payroll cycles, tax deposits and debt payments, and short enough to forecast individual invoices with reasonable accuracy. Longer horizons usually switch to monthly periods.
What is the difference between the direct and indirect method?
The direct method lists actual cash receipts and payments by category and week. The indirect method starts from net income and adjusts for non-cash items and working capital changes. A 13-week forecast uses the direct method because it needs the timing of each cash movement.
How often should I update a 13-week cash flow forecast?
Update it weekly, on a fixed day, using bank balances at a fixed cut-off time. Each update replaces the completed week with actuals, records the variance and adds a new week 13.
How accurate should a 13-week cash forecast be?
There is no universal standard, so agree on an accuracy measure and tolerance internally or with your lender. Expect the near weeks to be much more accurate than weeks 10 to 13. Track variance by line and by horizon to see where your assumptions are biased.
Can I build a 13-week cash flow in Excel or Google Sheets?
Yes. The template above works in either. Software becomes worth the cost when gathering bank, AR and AP data each week takes most of a day or you manage several entities and currencies.
Sources
- Internal Revenue Service, Topic no. 757, Forms 941 and 944: deposit requirements, last reviewed September 24, 2026. irs.gov
- Association for Financial Professionals, 10 Best Practices in Cash Forecasting, April 27, 2022. financialprofessionals.org
- Lowenstein Sandler, Filing for bankruptcy? Understand your lenders’ leverage, April 4, 2020. lowenstein.com
- Microsoft Learn, Business Central cash flow analysis documentation, May 2, 2025. learn.microsoft.com
- Oracle NetSuite, Cash 360 (NetSuite Applications Suite help), no date shown. docs.oracle.com
- Float, Pricing (vendor), no date shown, checked October 8, 2026. floatapp.com
- Agicap, Pricing (vendor), no date shown, checked October 8, 2026. agicap.com
- Trovata, Pricing (vendor), no date shown, checked October 8, 2026. trovata.io
- Kyriba, Cash forecasting (vendor), no date shown. kyriba.com
- HighRadius, Cash forecasting software (vendor), no date shown. highradius.com
Sherman Hsieh
Independent analysis of enterprise software — ERP, CRM and more
