Build a four-week cash-flow forecast before your next spending decision
An original weekly cash worksheet with a worked example, delayed-payment scenario and decision rules for owners weighing inventory, hiring or a large new order.
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Start with the week cash must leave
A busy month can still contain a week when the bank balance cannot cover scheduled payments. A signed proposal, an invoice and collected cash are different events. Before ordering materials or adding a recurring expense, put receipts and payments on the dates you reasonably expect them to clear.
SBA's financial-management guidance emphasizes bookkeeping and responsibility for receivables, payables, available cash, bank reconciliation and payroll. The four-week worksheet below is BGA's original planning method. It is a near-term decision aid, not a replacement for financial statements, a tax-accounting method or a prediction that collections will arrive on time.
SBA's business-plan guidance also asks owners to explain financial projections and connect them to funding requests. A lender may require a longer outlook; this four-week view answers the narrower question of whether an immediate operating commitment fits the expected cash timing.
Create one row for each real cash movement
Begin with reconciled operating cash. Identify outstanding checks, pending transfers and amounts that are restricted or committed. Keep those distinctions visible so the opening figure does not suggest that every dollar can fund a new purchase. Ask your bookkeeper to help reconcile discrepancies before using the forecast.
Use these columns: item; customer or payee; expected amount; expected clearing date; evidence; responsible person; and confidence or unresolved question. Group the rows into four weekly buckets. Retain exact dates underneath them: a receipt on Friday cannot pay a bill due Tuesday unless other available cash covers the gap.
For receipts, separate already collected money, invoices with a confirmed payment expectation, and possible future sales. A quote in the pipeline belongs in a separate opportunity scenario until there is a defensible collection assumption. Record deposits, refunds and partial payments only once.
For outflows, include wages, vendor payments, rent, debt payments, planned owner withdrawals and other actual cash commitments. Include tax-related payments based on your records and professional guidance; this article supplies no tax rates or deadlines. A noncash accounting expense does not create a bank withdrawal merely because it appears in a profit report.
Use a roll-forward you can explain
For each week calculate opening cash plus expected receipts minus expected payments equals closing cash. Carry that closing amount into the following week. Keep borrowing and owner contributions separately labeled; financing can increase cash without making the underlying work profitable.
Worked example, entirely hypothetical: opening available cash is $8,000. Week one brings $4,000 in receipts and $6,000 in payments, closing at $6,000. Week two brings $5,000 and pays $7,000, closing at $4,000. Week three brings $8,000 and pays $5,000, closing at $7,000. Week four brings $4,000 and pays $6,000, closing at $5,000.
Across the example, receipts total $21,000 and payments total $24,000. The $3,000 net cash reduction reconciles the $8,000 opening balance to the $5,000 ending balance. These are illustrative inputs, not business benchmarks or expected customer results. The weekly low is $4,000, which matters separately from the month-end balance.
Move one uncertain receipt and see what breaks
Suppose the $5,000 expected in week two arrives in week four instead. With all other assumptions unchanged, closing balances become $6,000, minus $1,000, $2,000 and $5,000. The ending balance looks identical, but week two contains a funding gap. A monthly total would conceal the timing problem.
Now test a proposed $2,000 equipment purchase in week two against the original scenario. Its closing balances become $6,000, $2,000, $5,000 and $3,000. If the owner had independently chosen a $3,000 operating cushion for this fictional business, the purchase would push week two below it. That cushion is an assumption for the example, not a universal minimum.
A negative projected balance is a warning that the plan cannot be executed as written. It is not permission to miss wages, taxes or contractual payments. Confirm collection expectations, discuss lawful payment arrangements before deadlines, revise discretionary spending, or investigate financing with enough time to understand its cost and conditions.
Give each uncertainty an action and an owner
Attach evidence to large receipts: the invoice, the customer's stated payment date and any unresolved acceptance issue. Assign someone to clarify the uncertainty. Do not quietly change the date just to make the worksheet balance. Preserve the old assumption and note why it changed.
For a large new job, model the materials and labor cash required before the customer pays. Compare the resulting low balance with existing obligations and your chosen cushion. A profitable quoted margin may still need more working capital than the business can responsibly commit.
Separate an operational repair from a financing decision. Faster accurate invoicing or resolving an acceptance dispute addresses a collection process; a loan creates repayment obligations. BGA's microloan guide can help frame lender questions, while the quote follow-up guide addresses proposals that have not yet become orders. Neither substitutes for the timing worksheet.
Refresh weekly and judge the forecast honestly
At the same time each week, replace the completed week with actual cleared movements, explain material differences, and add a new fourth week. Compare estimated receipts with actual collections and estimated payments with actual outflows. Repeated misses point to assumptions worth repairing.
Keep the first version simple enough to maintain. The useful output is a decision: proceed, reduce the commitment, renegotiate timing, or obtain qualified advice. Start today with the next four weeks of known obligations and your five largest expected receipts. A maintained imperfect forecast is more useful than a precise-looking spreadsheet nobody updates.
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