Why Every Business Needs a Cash Flow Forecast Worksheet (and a Free Template to Get You Started)
Profit doesn’t always equal cash—and that’s where many business owners get caught off guard.
Even healthy, growing companies can find themselves struggling to make payroll or cover expenses because they didn’t anticipate a short-term cash crunch. That’s why one of the most valuable tools I recommend to every client is a cash flow worksheet that tracks incoming and outgoing cash over a 13-week period.
This isn’t just an accounting exercise. It’s a real-time dashboard that gives you visibility into your business’s financial health. A weekly cash flow worksheet helps you plan for large expenses, manage the timing of receivables and payables, and avoid surprises that can derail momentum.
When you’re running lean—or trying to scale—every dollar counts. A 13-week cash flow worksheet gives you the foresight to make smarter decisions, from hiring and inventory to debt payments and owner distributions. It’s also a powerful tool for managing seasonality or navigating periods of uncertainty.
As the longest-serving fractional CFO in Atlanta, I’ve used this exact tool with dozens of small and mid-sized businesses to reduce risk and increase financial confidence.
To help you get started, I’m sharing a free editable cash flow worksheet template that you can download and start using today. It’s simple to customize and designed to give you clarity right away.
And if you need help customizing it for your business, let’s talk.
