Enter your cash today plus what comes in and goes out each month. You get a full 12-month projection, the month your balance turns negative, and a CSV you can keep.
Faster than a spreadsheet template: no formulas to wire up, and one-off items like an annual insurance bill can be dropped onto the exact month they land.
| Month | Opening | Money in | Money out | Closing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 26 | $25,000 | $8,000 | $7,500 | $25,500 |
| Nov 26 | $25,500 | $8,000 | $7,500 | $26,000 |
| Dec 26 | $26,000 | $8,000 | $7,500 | $26,500 |
| Jan 27 | $26,500 | $8,000 | $7,500 | $27,000 |
| Feb 27 | $27,000 | $8,000 | $7,500 | $27,500 |
| Mar 27 | $27,500 | $8,000 | $7,500 | $28,000 |
| Apr 27 | $28,000 | $8,000 | $7,500 | $28,500 |
| May 27 | $28,500 | $8,000 | $7,500 | $29,000 |
| Jun 27 | $29,000 | $8,000 | $7,500 | $29,500 |
| Jul 27 | $29,500 | $8,000 | $7,500 | $30,000 |
| Aug 27 | $30,000 | $8,000 | $7,500 | $30,500 |
| Sep 27 | $30,500 | $8,000 | $7,500 | $31,000 |
This forecast is a snapshot. FlowingPulse keeps it current as real transactions come in — runway, burn rate and tax buffer, always up to date.
Get the dashboard — $19 lifetimeImport your bank CSV once and your burn rate, tax buffer, and 12-month runway stay up to date automatically — plus budget alerts, recurring spend, and monthly reports. One payment, no subscription.
It projects your bank balance forward month by month: opening balance, plus money in, minus money out, equals the closing balance that opens the next month.
Start with cash on hand, add recurring income, subtract recurring expenses, then layer one-off items — an annual insurance bill, a large client payment — onto the month they actually land. Repeat twelve times.
A template still leaves you building and maintaining formulas. This applies the same maths instantly, flags the month you go negative, and exports a CSV if you want the numbers in a sheet anyway.
Want the theory behind the numbers? Read the burn rate & runway guide
A forecast is only as good as month zero. Use the cleared bank balance, not the accounting balance: subtract cheques and card charges that have not settled, and exclude money you hold on behalf of someone else, such as sales tax collected.
Opening balance (month 1) = cleared cash today
Every month in the projection is the same one-line recurrence: what you started with, plus what came in, minus what went out. The closing balance becomes the next month's opening balance, which is why an error in month 2 quietly shifts every month after it.
Closing[n] = Opening[n] + Cash in[n] − Cash out[n] Opening[n+1] = Closing[n]
Annual insurance, a tax bill, a hardware purchase or a large milestone payment should not be spread evenly. Adding them to the specific month is what makes a forecast reveal a temporary dip that an average would hide.
Cash out[n] = recurring costs + one-off items due in month n
The number that matters is the first month where the closing balance goes below zero — that is your funding deadline. A forecast that ends positive in month 12 can still dip negative in month 5, and the dip is what breaks payroll.
Break month = first n where Closing[n] < 0
A small team wants to know whether a $6,500/mo hire in month 6 is affordable without new revenue.
Before the hire the balance falls slowly to about $132,000 by month 6. Adding $6,500/mo from month 6 turns the slope steep: closing balance around $93,000 at month 12 — affordable, but it converts a 4-year cushion into an 18-month one.
A profitable consultancy pays tax quarterly and wants to check that each payment clears without an overdraft.
The balance grows $3,000 a month but drops $11,000 four times a year. Month 3 closes at $20,000 — safe — and the trough deepens only if income slips, so the buffer to watch is roughly two months of income.
An e-commerce shop earns most of its money between September and December and wants to see the spring gap.
The balance falls $9,000 a month through spring and crosses zero in month 5. The forecast turns an abstract worry into a specific ask: about $30,000 of credit line or pre-orders needed before May.
Profit records revenue when it is earned; a cash flow forecast records it when the money arrives. A profitable business with 60-day payment terms can still run out of cash, and only the cash view shows it.
Twelve months is the common horizon: long enough to include annual bills and seasonality, short enough that the assumptions are still credible. Re-forecast every month rather than trying to be precise about month 11.
Build the base case on money you have contracted or reliably repeat, then test a downside where income falls 20% and a key payment lands 30 days late. If the downside still clears payroll, the plan holds.
Yes — the twelve-month table downloads as CSV, so you can drop it into a spreadsheet or share it with an accountant or investor without recreating the numbers.