Cash Flow Forecast
The Credit Control module keeps track of how long every invoice has been outstanding and calculates the average debtor days for each of your Customers. This information enables the production of a Cash Flow Forecast report.
The report starts with your actual bank balance and then projects your future bank balance, based on outstanding invoices and the anticipated payment days for each outstanding invoice.
The Cash Flow Forecast report will take in to account unallocated receipts, as these directly affect your cash flow, however unallocated account adjustments will be ignored as it is not possible to know if they will affect the cash flow until they are allocated; it will be assumed that full account balance will be received.
You can forecast daily, weekly, monthly or as far into the future as you require. You can also select a break point for subtotals.
Running the report
From the Credit Control menu, select the Reports menu and then Cash Flow Forecast. This will display an output selection window, with options to change the format of the report.
Select the method of forecasting from the drop-down menu. You can select to forecast by Days, Weeks or Months.
Enter the number of periods that the report should cover.
Look at Old Transactions - Tick this option if you wish to include transactions that have a Due Date that is earlier than the current system date. The report will assume that all of these transactions will be paid immediately.
Show Transactions - Tick this option to include the transactions that make up the totals on each part of the forecast. This option enables you to analyse your forecast in greater detail. If selected, you will also have the option to include Full Descriptions and Notes for the transactions.
Select the output for the report: Screen, Printer or File. You can select a printer by pressing the Select Printer button.
Click Print to produce the report. A working message will be displayed while the system compiles information from the Sales Ledger transaction file and the Purchase Ledger transaction file. The time taken will depend on the number of transactions in each file and how far forward you have selected to forecast.
When the report shows transactions, the following information is included:
Anticipated Pay Date; Account Code; Type (the ledger from which the transaction originated); Reference; Gross value; Outstanding value and Audit number.