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Things One Should Know About Cash Flow Forecasting

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Mike Milan
Things One Should Know About Cash Flow Forecasting

Cash flow forecasting refers to a process of estimating the flow of cash in a specific business or project. It helps businesses to predict future cash positions and avoid crippling cash storages. Many businesses prefer to outsource cash flow forecasting services if they don’t have their built-in finance team. The process of building a forecast requires multiple stakeholders and data sources.


If you want your business to explore more opportunities it is very important to have a strong marketing and finance team. That’s why it is crucial to have a finance analyzer and a marketing consultant for small businesses. This article helps to build a strong cash forecast that offers your organization optimum visibility to utilize capital and investment effectively.



Determine a Forecasting Objective


To ensure actionable business insight from cash flow forecasts, one should have a clear business objective. Organizations should follow the following steps to determine their forecasting objectives:


 • Short-Term Liquidity: managing the day-to-day cash to ensure the business can meet short-term obligations.


 • Interest And Deduction: Make sure your business has enough cash on hand to make the payments for loans and debts.


 • Liquidity Risk Management: it suggests creating visibility into potential liquidity that can arise in the future so you have enough time to address them.


 • Growth Planning: Make sure your business has enough working capital and hand to fund activity to help the revenue grow in the future.


Choose a Suitable Forecasting Period


Once you are sure of your business objective – the next thing you should consider is how far the future forecast will look. Here is a list of suitable forecasting periods:


Short-Period Forecast


Typically, short-term forecasting looks two to four weeks into the future and contains a daily breakdown of cash payments and receipts. Well, short-term forecasts are ideal for short-term liquidity planning.


Medium Period Forecast


It typically refers to two to six months into the future and is extremely used for interest and debt reduction and liquidity risk management.


Long-Term Forecast


Longer terms generally look 6 to 12 months into the future and are often the starting point for annual budgeting processes. It is also an important tool for assessing long-term growth strategies.


Choose Forecasting Method


There are typically two primary types of forecasting methods: Direct and Indirect. While direct forecasting uses actual flow data and indirect forecasting relies on projected balance sheets and income statements.


The ideal forecasting method depends on the cash flow forecasting window and the kind of data you have to build your forecasting models.


Wrapping Up


With cash flow forecasting services you can easily get out of the debt faster. In fact, it enables businesses to grow more predictably. 

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