FREE TOOL · 13-WEEK CASH FORECAST
Free 13-week cash flow forecast template + calculator.
See where your cash runs tight, before it does. Plug in seven numbers, get your runway, your tightest week, and what changes when customers pay a few days sooner. Or download the full 8-tab Excel for customer-level detail.
Skip to the 8-tab Excel template ↓Cash in the bank today
USD
Money customers owe
Open invoices (AR)
USD
Days they take to pay
Average (DSO)
days
New money in each week
From new sales. Excludes the open invoices above
USD
Money out each week
Rent, vendors, software (no payroll)
USD
Payroll per cycle
USD
How often
Lowest cash you want to keep
Anything below this triggers a warning
USD
Your cash, week by week
Next 13 weeks. Red zone is below your floor.
● Ending cash
● Floor
Now
+4 wk
+7 wk
+10 wk
+13 wk
How long your cash lasts
13 weeks
At your current pace
Your tightest week
$350k
Week 6, $150k below your floor
How this works: The first 4 weeks come from invoices already on your books, so confidence is high. Weeks 5 to 13 use your weekly run-rate as an estimate. Download the 8-tab Excel below to plug in real customer-by-customer numbers. That's how the early-week confidence extends across the full quarter.
Why 13 weeks?
90%+
AFP 2025 Treasury Survey
Top treasury teams hit 90% accuracy at the 1-week mark. That's why we split the forecast into a high-confidence first month and a run-rate estimate after.
13 wk
CFO standard
A full quarter of payroll cycles plus quarterly tax payments. Long enough to spot cash crunches early, short enough to stay accurate.
5–10
Days saved
Typical DSO improvement when AR teams move from manual collections to a 100%-coverage workflow. The slider above shows exactly what those days are worth to you.
A peek at what's inside
Free 13-week cash flow forecast Excel
Customer-by-customer detail. Variance tracking that sharpens your forecast every week.
✓ Customer-level AR schedule with editable collection probabilities
✓ Three-scenario fan chart: best, today, worst, all on one toggle
✓ Variance-vs-actuals tracker. Log actuals weekly, forecast self-corrects
✓ DSO reduction modeler that targets your slowest payers, not just aggregates
Frequently asked questions
What is a 13-week cash flow forecast?
A 13-week cash flow forecast is a weekly view of money coming in and going out over the next quarter. It uses the direct method, meaning actual customer payments, payroll dates, and vendor invoices rather than accrual accounting, so it shows real cash timing. Each week you drop the past one and add a new week ahead, keeping the rolling 13-week window. It's the standard tool finance teams use to spot cash shortfalls early enough to do something about them.
For the full step-by-step methodology, see How to Build a 13-Week Cash Flow Forecast (Free Template).
Why is a cash flow forecast 13 weeks specifically?
A 13-week cash flow forecast covers a full fiscal quarter. That's long enough to see major events like quarterly tax payments, board commitments, and debt covenants, but short enough that recent history is still a reliable predictor. Daily forecasts are too noisy; monthly forecasts hide weekly cash crunches. Restructuring practitioners standardised on 13 weeks because it covers a complete payroll cycle plus quarter-end events while keeping accuracy high in the early weeks.
Direct method vs indirect method for cash flow forecasting: which is better?
Use the direct method for weekly cash flow forecasts. It lists actual cash inflows (customer collections by week) and outflows (payroll, AP, rent) at the dates they hit your account, which matches how short-term liquidity actually behaves. The indirect method starts from net income and adjusts for non-cash items. Better for monthly profit planning, worse for catching a Tuesday payroll squeeze. Direct method = liquidity forecasting. Indirect method = profitability planning.
How accurate is a 13-week cash flow forecast?
Top treasury teams hit 90%+ accuracy in weeks 1–4 of a 13-week cash flow forecast, dropping to around 60–70% by week 13. The drop-off is why this tool splits the forecast into a high-confidence early month (driven by invoices already on your books) and a run-rate estimate after. The point isn't perfect prediction. It's spotting which week is tight and what would move it: faster AR collection, delayed AP, or a line draw.
How often should I update my cash flow forecast?
Update your cash flow forecast weekly. Every Monday: drop last week, log what actually came in and out, add a new week 13 at the far end. This rolling cadence is the single biggest accuracy lever. Forecasts reconciled against actuals get sharper every week, while static templates drift further from reality. The Excel template below includes a variance sheet built exactly for this loop.
Cash flow forecast: Excel template or software, which is better?
Excel cash flow forecast templates work for steady-state businesses with a single entity and a treasurer who can refresh them weekly. They're free, flexible, and good enough up to ~$50–100M revenue. Cash flow forecasting software pulls live AR/AP/ERP data automatically, runs ML on customer payment patterns, and handles multi-entity and multi-currency rollups. Necessary at enterprise scale, where manual reconciliation breaks down. Start with the Excel below, scale to CashPulse when the model can't keep up.
