Your first cash flow forecast: a 13-week template for beginners

If you’ve ever looked at a healthy profit figure and wondered why the bank account still felt tight, this guide is for you. Profit tells you whether the business makes money over time. Cash flow tells you whether there’s money in the account when the bills are due. A simple forecast is how you see the difference coming.

You don’t need to be good with numbers. You need a spreadsheet, your bank statements, about two hours and a cup of tea.

What is a cash flow forecast, in plain English?

business.gov.au describes a cash flow statement as tracking all the money flowing in and out of your business. A forecast does the same thing, but looking forward instead of back. It’s your best guess at:

• how much money will come in each week
• how much will go out each week
• what your bank balance will be at the end of each week

That last line is the magic one. It shows you, weeks ahead, when the account might dip lower than you’d like.

Why is 13 weeks a good place to start?

Thirteen weeks is one quarter. That’s handy because:

• it includes a full BAS cycle, so your GST payment shows up
• it’s long enough to see a gap coming
• it’s short enough that your guesses stay realistic

Once you’re comfortable, you can roll it forward each week so you’re always looking a quarter ahead.

Step 1: Set up the columns

Open a spreadsheet. Across the top, put the week-starting dates for the next 13 weeks. Down the left, you’ll have four blocks:

1. Opening balance (what’s in the bank at the start of the week)
2. Money in (a few rows for each type of income)
3. Money out (a row for each type of cost)
4. Closing balance (opening + money in − money out)

Each week’s closing balance becomes the next week’s opening balance. That’s the whole engine.

business.gov.au has a free cash flow statement template if you’d rather start from theirs.

Step 2: List the money coming in

Look back over your last few months of bank statements. What money typically arrives, and when?

• Customer payments. For daily-takings businesses, use a weekly average. For invoice-based businesses, list big invoices in the week you realistically expect payment, not the week they’re due.
• Card and platform settlements. Note the delay between the sale and the money landing.
• Anything else regular. Rent from a sublease, a regular contract payment.

A tip from experienced forecasters: be a little pessimistic about income. If a customer usually pays ten days late, forecast it ten days late.

Step 3: List the money going out

This is where first forecasts usually fall short, because some costs are lumpy and easy to forget. Go through this list:

Type	Examples	Timing tip
Regular weekly	Wages, casual staff, fuel	Weekly or with each pay run
Super	Employer super contributions	From 1 July 2026, with each pay run (see below)
Regular monthly	Rent, software, phone, loan repayments	Note the exact day of the month
Suppliers	Stock, materials	When the invoice is actually due
Tax	BAS (GST, PAYG withholding, PAYG instalments)	On the BAS due date
Quarterly or annual	Insurance, registrations, licences, accountant’s fees	The month they fall due
Owner’s drawings	What you take to live on	Be honest

Super under Payday Super. From 1 July 2026, the ATO says employers must pay super so it reaches the employee’s fund within 7 business days of payday, rather than quarterly. If you have staff, super now belongs next to wages in your forecast, every pay run.

BAS. The ATO’s quarterly due dates are 28 October, 28 February, 28 April and 28 July (lodging online or through a registered agent can sometimes give extra time, but check before relying on it). Our guide to your first BAS explains what goes into it.

Step 4: Calculate the closing balance

For each week:

Closing balance = opening balance + money in − money out

Copy the closing balance into the next week’s opening balance. Your spreadsheet can do this with one simple formula dragged across.

Now look along the closing balance row. Are there any weeks where it drops below zero, or below the buffer you’d feel comfortable keeping?

A worked example (illustrative)

Here’s a simplified four-week slice for a small landscaping business, starting in early October. All figures are illustrative.

	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4
Opening balance	$12,000	$9,800	$7,300	$3,900
Customer payments	$6,500	$7,200	$5,800	$9,400
Wages and super	−$4,200	−$4,200	−$4,200	−$4,200
Materials and fuel	−$2,600	−$3,100	−$2,100	−$2,400
Rent, phone, software	−$1,900	$0	$0	$0
Loan repayment	$0	−$1,200	$0	$0
Insurance renewal	$0	$0	−$2,900	$0
BAS payment (due 28 Oct)	$0	$0	$0	−$6,800
Closing balance	$9,800	$7,300	$3,900	−$100

Week four dips below zero because the BAS payment lands in the same week as normal costs, just after the insurance renewal. It’s not a crisis. It’s a gap you can now see four weeks in advance, which means you can do something about it calmly.

Step 5: What do you do when you spot a gap?

Start with timing and habits. business.gov.au suggests several ways to improve cash flow, including collecting payments faster, reviewing costs and managing stock. In practice:

1. Invoice sooner and chase anything overdue.
2. Move a purchase a week or two later if it isn’t urgent.
3. Talk to suppliers about terms before the bill is due, not after.
4. Put tax aside weekly into a separate account, so BAS doesn’t arrive as a surprise.
5. Trim small recurring costs you’ve stopped using.

If a gap remains after that, and especially if it’s one that comes back every season, that’s when finance can make sense. A line of credit is designed for exactly this kind of repeating, short-term gap. If you’d like to talk it through, you can check your options in about 60 seconds, with no credit check to ask.

How does a forecast help when you want to borrow?

A forecast is one of the most useful things you can bring to a lending conversation, even if nobody asks for it.

• It shows how much you actually need, instead of a round guess. See how much to borrow.
• It shows when you need it, which helps choose between a loan and a line of credit.
• It lets you test whether repayments fit in your tightest weeks, the method in can you afford the repayments.
• It shows a lender you understand your own business, which builds confidence.

Our illustrative online shop story shows a forecast deciding the size and timing of a line of credit.

How do you keep it up to date?

Once a week, ideally on the same day:

1. Replace last week’s forecast figures with what actually happened.
2. Add a new week at the end, so you’re always looking 13 weeks ahead.
3. Adjust any guesses that now look wrong.
4. Glance along the closing balance row.

It takes ten minutes once it’s set up, and it’s often the ten minutes that saves you the most stress all week.

Common beginner mistakes

• Using invoice due dates instead of real payment dates. Forecast when money actually arrives.
• Forgetting annual costs. Insurance, registrations and subscriptions love to cluster.
• Leaving out tax. BAS, PAYG instalments and income tax are real cash outflows.
• Leaving out your own drawings. You need to live; include it.
• Never updating it. A forecast from three months ago is a history lesson.

Seen a gap coming? Let’s talk about it early

The best thing about a forecast is time. A gap you can see four or eight weeks out is a gap you can plan for calmly, whether that’s by changing timing or arranging finance before you need it.

If your forecast has turned up a gap, a real person can help you work out whether finance is the right answer and which kind. The enquiry takes about a minute, there’s no credit check to ask, and your details aren’t passed around a list of lenders. Bring your forecast numbers with you and answer the form accurately, so the conversation starts from the real picture.

Talk through the gap in your forecast →