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12-Month Cash-Flow Plan Template (Excel) — Free

Twelve months of cash in and cash out, with the opening balance carried forward automatically. Type in what you expect to receive and to pay, and read the month your balance gets uncomfortable off the bottom row.

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Download: 12-month cash-flow plan

Cash in split into revenue received and everything else
Cash out on its own rows: goods, payroll, rent, marketing, tax
VAT and tax payments on their real quarterly dates, not spread flat
Opening balance, net cash flow and closing balance, all formulas

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The sheet itself

Cash in split into revenue received and everything else
Cash out on its own rows: goods, payroll, rent, marketing, tax
VAT and tax payments on their real quarterly dates, not spread flat
Opening balance, net cash flow and closing balance, all formulas

foreqast-12-month-cash-flow-plan.xlsx

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Calibri11€

B19=B17+B18

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M
1	12-month cash-flow plan
2	Fill in the blue cells — every other cell is a formula and works itself out. foreqast.app
3		Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
4	Cash in
5	Revenue received (net)	€42,000	€39,000	€46,000	€44,000	€47,000	€51,000	€48,000	€43,000	€49,000	€54,000	€61,000	€58,000
6	Other cash in	€1,500	€1,500	€1,500	€1,500	€1,500	€1,500	€1,500	€1,500	€1,500	€1,500	€1,500	€1,500
7	Total cash in	€43,500	€40,500	€47,500	€45,500	€48,500	€52,500	€49,500	€44,500	€50,500	€55,500	€62,500	€59,500
8	Cash out
9	Cost of goods / services	€16,800	€15,600	€18,400	€17,600	€18,800	€20,400	€19,200	€17,200	€19,600	€21,600	€24,400	€23,200
10	Payroll incl. employer costs	€19,500	€19,500	€19,500	€19,500	€19,500	€19,500	€19,500	€19,500	€19,500	€19,500	€19,500	€19,500
11	Rent & utilities	€2,400	€2,400	€2,400	€2,400	€2,400	€2,400	€2,400	€2,400	€2,400	€2,400	€2,400	€2,400
12	Marketing	€4,000	€4,000	€5,000	€5,000	€5,000	€6,000	€6,000	€4,500	€5,000	€6,000	€8,000	€7,000
13	Software, insurance, other	€2,100	€2,100	€2,100	€2,100	€2,100	€2,100	€2,100	€2,100	€2,100	€2,100	€2,100	€2,100
14	VAT & tax payments	€0	€0	€7,200	€0	€0	€8,100	€0	€0	€7,600	€0	€0	€9,400
15	Total cash out	€44,800	€43,600	€54,600	€46,600	€47,800	€58,500	€49,200	€45,700	€56,200	€51,600	€56,400	€63,600
16	Liquidity
17	Opening balance	€38,000	€36,700	€33,600	€26,500	€25,400	€26,100	€20,100	€20,400	€19,200	€13,500	€17,400	€23,500
18	Net cash flow	€-1,300	€-3,100	€-7,100	€-1,100	€700	€-6,000	€300	€-1,200	€-5,700	€3,900	€6,100	€-4,100
19	Closing balance	€36,700	€33,600	€26,500	€25,400	€26,100	€20,100	€20,400	€19,200	€13,500	€17,400	€23,500	€19,400

Sheet1

The blue cells are yours to fill in. Every other cell is a formula and works itself out.

How to use it

1
Put today's balance in the first opening cell
Every month after it reads the one before, so this is the only balance you ever type. Use what you can actually spend across all accounts — not invoices you have sent.
2
Fill the blue rows with payments, not invoices
A cash plan counts the day money moves. An invoice sent in March with 30 days' terms belongs in April, and a customer who always pays late belongs in May.
3
Put tax on its filing dates
VAT, corporation tax prepayments and the annual settlement land on specific days, in large amounts. Spreading them evenly across twelve months is the single most common way a plan looks fine and the account does not.
4
Read the bottom row, not the middle
The closing balance is the whole point. Find its lowest month, and you have found the decision you actually have to make this year.

A worked example

A company at €38,000, trading profitably on paper

Opening balance in January: €38,000
Cash in, January: €43,500
Cash out, January: €44,800
Net cash flow, January: €-1,300
Closing balance, March (VAT quarter): €26,500

January loses €1,300 — barely worth noticing. March loses €7,100, because a €7,200 VAT payment lands in a month that was otherwise fine. Three ordinary months take a third of the cash off the account, and nothing in the profit and loss shows it.

The mistakes that break it

Booking revenue in the month it was invoiced
The most common error, and the most expensive: it moves every euro one to two months earlier than it arrives and makes a tight quarter look comfortable.
Smoothing tax across the year
€28,800 of VAT split into twelve €2,400 rows is a plan that never dips. The same amount on four dates is a plan that shows you March.
Forgetting the founder's own pay
A plan that only works because nobody is paid is not a plan. Put your own drawings in the payroll row at the amount you actually need.

Where the template stops

A month is an average, and cash is not

A month that ends positive can still go below zero on the 14th, when payroll leaves before the biggest invoice arrives. Column totals hide exactly that.

It is only as current as your last evening with it

Every number in here is typed in. The month you skip is the month the sheet quietly stops describing your business — and it never says so.

One column, one future

The sheet holds exactly one version of next year. Testing a hire, a price change or a slower quarter means a copy of the file — and from the second copy on, nobody knows which one is current.

Scenario planning template

What comes after the spreadsheet

Calculate runwayThe plan says when the money gets tight. This says how many months you have, from your own accounting data, updated daily.

Calculators

Runway calculatorHow many months of cash you have left, and the date it runs out.Burn rate calculatorWhat a month of trading really costs you, gross and net.Payment terms & late payment calculatorHow much cash your payment terms tie up — and what late payers cost you.

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