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Cash Forecast Worksheet

This template can help a nonprofit organization accurately forecast its future cash positions, including determining when cash will be received and when it is needed to meet payroll, pay vendors, and make necessary fixed asset purchases. The organization can then anticipate and address potential problem periods (for example, decide whether to pursue temporary financing or delay certain cash disbursements in times of cash shortages), as well as identify opportunities to invest idle cash.

Entering Data

Enter forecasted amounts into the appropriate input area, considering when these amounts will be received or expended during the 12-month period. Do not just divide the annual budget by 12. Use grant documentation, historical experience, or your best guess to determine the appropriate timing of amounts. Nonshaded cells are intended for manual input, but cells that are not intended for manual input (such as cells that have formulas) have been shaded yellow to differentiate them from the input cells. If a “forecast beginning date” is entered, this workbook will automatically populate the 12-month forecast headings based upon the date entered.
Generally, the input items should be entered as positive numbers. This is true for all of the revenue and expense items (unless there is a net refund or return for a miscellaneous revenue or expense item). However, depending on the circumstances, other line items may either be positive, negative, or both. For instance, “fixed asset purchases” should be entered as a negative number and “net draws (payments) on lines of credit” can be either a positive number or a negative number, depending on whether there has been a total net draw (positive) or a total net payment (negative) for a given month. These line items have comment boxes to remind the user of the appropriate sign to use.

Inserting Additional Line Items

Within the Revenues and Expenses sections, there are three blank line items to insert “miscellaneous” revenues and expenses. It is possible to add more rows if additional miscellaneous revenues or expenses line items are needed. When adding more line items, place the cursor in the middle miscellaneous input row and use the menu path Insert | Rows. Do not place your cursor on the first or last miscellaneous input line item (or any other sections of the worksheet) when rows are inserted. This is to ensure that the formulas and most of the formatting remain intact.  

Updating Data

Each month (or more frequently whenever the organization has severe cash flow problems), update the cash forecast for any changes in the expected timing of cash receipts or disbursements. A cash forecast is helpful only if it is accurate. As each month passes, the cash forecast should be “rolled forward” so that it always covers the upcoming 12-month period.  This can be accomplished by clicking the Roll Forward One Month button. This function moves the forecast beginning date forward one month, deletes the data from the “oldest month” (Month 1), and moves the other 11 months of data one column to the left. Thus, the user will have to fill in the forecast data only for the “newest month” (Month 12) at the far right of the spreadsheet.