Improving cash flow is a smart move for any business. It doesn’t matter how great yourbusiness modelis, how profitable you are, or how many investors you have lined up. If you’re looking for one area to focus on to make a dramatic impact on your business, this is it.
New and growing businesses often don’t have a buffer of extra cash to get them through shortfalls, because they’re always reinvesting. Years with the most significant growth—including the first few years of a business’s lifespan—are also challenging when it comes to cash flow.
现金流管理是其中之一of many reasons it’s so hard toget a new business off the ground.
Table of Contents
What is cash flow management?
Cash flow management is the process of monitoring, analyzing, and optimizing the inflow and outflow of cash within a business. It involves ensuring that a company has sufficient funds available to meet its financial obligations, such as paying bills, salaries, and loan repayments.
Cash inflow is the money comingtoa business—this includes sales, interest earned on investments, and any credits paid to the company. Cash outflow is the money goingoutof a business. For example, expenses like website maintenance and hosting, inventory purchasing, rent, shipping fees, and more. A cash flow statement records these inflows and outflows so you can see it all at a glance and dive deeper where needed.
To calculate cash flow, a business takes note of how much cash is available at the beginning and at the end of a specific period. This time period may be a week or a month. The business will have a positive cash flow if there’s more in the account at the end of the period than when the period began; it will have a negative cash flow if there’s less cash at the end.
Getting good atcash flow managementis one of the best things you can do for your business. Not only that, it’s a skill you can carry over into other ventures, as well as your personal finances.
Try our free cash flow calculator
Give your business a financial health check and master your finances in five minutes or less with our free cash flow calculator.
Learn moreThe difference between cash flow and profitability
Cash flow isn’t the same as profitability. Cash flow is shown on the cash flow statement, whereas profit is shown on theincome statement, or profit and loss (P&L) statement.
Learn more:What Does It Really Cost to Start a Business?
A profitable business can still be unable to pay its bills. Similarly, just because a business is meeting all of its financial obligations doesn’t mean it’s profitable. You may be profitable over the course of a month or a year, but not over a specific day or week. If your bills are due at the beginning of the month but you won’t have any money in the bank until the end of the month, you’ve got a cash flow problem, even if at the end of the month you made more than you spent.
If you’re not profitable on paper, you need to either increase your revenue or decrease your expenses to be able to stay in business.
In relation to small business cash flow management, the problem with income statements is that they don’t show your whole business. A few essential pieces of information are missing:
Debt repayment
If you have any business loans or other startup capital to repay, it won’t show up here. Only the interest on those loans is included on a P&L, even though debt repayments can eat up a lot of cash.
Equipment payments
Similarly, if you make a significant equipment purchase, the entire cost will not show up in this section. Instead, that cost will get spread out over the lifetime of the equipment. If you spend $100,000 on a canning line and you think it will last you 10 years, your income statement will show an expense of $10,000 per year for 10 years, even if you had to pay all of it upfront.
Taxes
Note thatyour net profit isn’t taxedat this point, which means it will shrink even more. Even if all of your profit is available in cash, you won’t be able to spend it all in one place.
Cash received
Many businesses useaccrual accounting, which records revenue even if you haven’t received the money yet. On paper, you might have $200,000 in sales, but if no one has paid you yet, you’re still going to have a hard time paying your bills.
Further, if you carryinventory, all that product has value and gets included on your income statement as well. Of course, to extract cash from your inventory, you need to sell it first.
Forecast your cash flow with this template
We've put together a cash flow forecast template to help streamline the process and save you time and stress. Download and read on to learn how to use it.
Get the forecast templateThe four steps of cash flow management
The best way to keep control of your money is with cash flow statements. In small business cash management, a cash flow statement is an account of the cash flowing into and out of a business over an accounting period, such as a month, quarter, or year, although you can track cash flow for any time period that helps you see where your money is going. Try this out inShopify’s cash flow calculator.
Most businesses work best by planning week to week. However, some may need to plan daily, while others only need to plan monthly. It’s also up to you if you want to include every single expense or just categories of expenses. These decisions will depend on the scale and complexity of your business.
Similarly, some businesses will be able to project their cash flow accurately for six months, others for only two weeks. In general, try to project four to six weeks with reasonable accuracy. A good rule of thumb for small business cash flow management is the farther you look into the future, the less accurate your predictions will be.
Now let’s get into the steps of cash flow management. You can usethis free cash flow templateto follow along. Just make a copy to your own Google Drive.
Step 1: Forecast expenses
The first step is to lay out all of your ongoingfinancial obligations. Start by making a list of everything you have to pay for—rent, salary, advertisements, software fees, loan repayments—anything that comes out of your bottom line.
Write down what the expense is for, how much it is, and when it’s due. You’ll likely forget a few things, so review your bank and credit card statements to see what other expenses you find.
Step 2: Forecast revenue
Next, it’s time to forecast your weekly revenue. Many businesses experience fluctuations in sales, so it can be a bit of an art. Try to be as accurate as possible. The more established your business becomes, the easier it will be.
Start by writing down any guaranteed revenue. If yousell subscriptionsor have long-term contracts, you’ll have a good idea of what’s coming up. You can estimate if those numbers are going to go up, down, or stay the same. If a large portion of your sales come from first-time customers, it will be more difficult to estimate. Still, you should have a good idea of what to expect over the coming weeks and months. The closer you can get to reality, the better.
One best practice in small business cash management is looking at past data to assist projections. In many cases, your sales from this week one year ago will be more accurate than your sales last week, because historical data takes annual cycles and seasonality into account. If you believe your sales will grow over last year’s, you can increase the amount, but it’s important to be conservative to avoid ending up in a bad situation.
As you forecast revenue each week, be mindful of any dips in sales due to holidays or the time of month or year, as well as anypromotions or major dealsthat will positively impact your revenue.
Step 3: Plug in your data
Now comes the fun part—filling in your data. First, grab your自由现金流预测模板的副本. You can customize a row for each expense and each revenue source—be as detailed or broad as you need to be.
Take a look at this business cash flow management example below.
If you sell a bunch of products on one website, you may only have one source of revenue. If you use multiple channels, such as web, retail, and trade shows, you might want to have a line for each, because it will be easier to predict.
Make sure you add revenue to the week it will become available to you. Keep in mind that it may take a few days to end up in your bank account.
Similarly, fill in your expenses. Some will be weekly, some bi-weekly, some monthly, some variable. You’re also going to have a lot of miscellaneous expenses popping up. Use the row labeled “Other” to work these into the spreadsheet.
Add your opening cash balance for the first week. The following weeks will be predicted automatically based on your revenue and expense projections.
Step 4: Update your projection spreadsheet
Your cash flow spreadsheet is a living document. If you keep it as a Google Sheet, it will be available anytime, anywhere. You’ll also be able to easily share it with someone else, such as your accountant or another employee.
A good cash flow spreadsheet is updated on a regular basis. Once a week, log in and update your closing cash balance. If it doesn’t match your previous calculations, it’s a good idea to figure out why. Sometimes expenses you forgot about pop up, or you realize you may have been too optimistic in your revenue projections.
Next, hide last month’s column. You won’t need it anymore since it’s in the past.
Finally, add a new week of projections in the last column. You always want to have a minimum of four to six weeks laid out so you can plan ahead.
Any time you’re projecting a shortfall, the closing cash balance will alert you by turning red, which prompts you to make some changes. In the template provided, you can see that a shortfall is predicted in the second month.
Cash flow management tools
From spreadsheets to dedicated financial management platforms, there are many options for cash flow management tools to help you get a better handle on your business.
Google Sheets
For some businesses, the free tool is the best one: Google Sheets. Anyone can use a Google spreadsheet to createcash flow statements. Although it’s a manual process, it doesn’t take long to set up, and it’s easy to track. More importantly, it’s easy to customize on the fly and adapt to your specific needs or situation. You can be as broad or as specific as you want. And the time you spend creating and updating your spreadsheet is valuable for gaining a clearer picture of your situation.
Thecash flow spreadsheetis an outline of where your cash is going. It shows you when cash will be coming in and when it will be going out, and it’s a great way to visualize cash flow management and adjust your approach.
Cash flow management
You can use thisfree cash flow projection templateto get a head start. Simply make a copy and save it to your own Google Drive. There are sections for cash balance, revenue, gross profit, and more. The cells are already formatted with formulas, so you just have to plug and play.
Tesorio
Tesorio现金流管理提供了先进的工具。它s Total Cash Flow Dashboard integrates with your banking and accounting platforms to provide real-time insights into your cash flow. It notes patterns and makes recommendations and forecasts based on that data.
Kolleno
Kollenooffers features for cash flow management, accounts receivable (AR), and reconciliation. It will help you analyze current cash on hand and predict future cash flows, as well as automate for efficiency.
Jirav
Jiravis a comprehensive financial management platform with dedicated features to analyze and optimize cash flow. It specializes in integrating yourcash flow analysiswith the overall financial picture of your business. It also includes automation and integrations with many major platforms.
Causal
Causalis a dedicated financial modeling tool for businesses. It includes a long list of features that go beyond just cash flow management. Causal also visualizes the data to make it easy to understand and share.
How to improve cash flow
- Focus on inventory control
- Lease, don't buy
- Send out and pay invoices right away
- Look for alternative revenue streams
- Check if suppliers offer early pay discounts
- Use a high-interest savings account
1. Focus on inventory control
With cash flow management in mind, consider updating inventory to reflect current supply-and-demand levels in your business. Do a frequentABC analysisof your products to determine what’s selling and what’s not. Then, you can keep more inventory on hand that’s likely to move fast, and get rid ofdead stockat a discount.
2. Lease, don’t buy
Small business financeis always tricky, especially during challenging times. You don’t want to get into muchdebt, but sometimes you need to invest in equipment or inventory that will pay off in the long run. Good cash management practices would be to lease rather than buy. When you lease, you can make small payments over time and keep cash flow for your day-to-day operations. It’s also a business expense, so you can write it off on your taxes.
3. Send out and pay invoices right away
One key part of small business cash flow management is getting paid as soon as possible. If yousend out invoicesimmediately, receivables will come in faster.
If you typically operate on a monthly billing cycle, talk with your vendors to let them know you’ll be moving to an invoice-on-demand model. Bonus points if you offer them an early pay discount.
TIP:UseShopify Bill Payto easily view, upload, pre-schedule, and pay vendor invoices via credit, debit, or ACH transfer without paying subscription fees.
4. Look for alternative revenue streams
If your scenario is changing and putting pressure on your current revenue streams, look for alternative ways tomake money online. You may be able to temporarily, or even permanently, replace less profitable revenue streams with easier, more effective ones.
For example, many brick-and-mortar businesses were forced to close during theCOVID-19pandemic due to mandatory shutdowns. A main source of cash flow for these businesses was foot traffic. To combat the drop in revenue, they aremoving their business onlineand offering different shopping experiences, likebuy online, pickup in-store (BOPIS)andlocal deliveryoptions.
This can help make managing your cash flow easier and take pressure off your top line.
5. Check if suppliers offer early pay discounts
One way to preserve working capital and cash flow management is to pay suppliers less. Somesuppliersmay have early pay discounts you aren’t aware of. Paying your suppliers early can help you save cash and even improve the integrity of your supply relationships, especially if other vendors are delaying payments in abnormal business conditions.
6. Use a high-interest savings account
To maximize your cash flow, put money into a high-interestbusiness savings account. Find an account that gives you more than 1% for leaving your cash in it, with a low minimum deposit. This can improve your cash position month by month and help you prepare for any unforeseen impacts on your customers or suppliers.
Learn more:How to Use Financial Statements for Your Ecommerce Business
Benefits of cash flow management
1. Predict shortfalls
Find an account that gives you more than 1% for leaving your cash in it, with a low minimum deposit. This can improve your cash position month by month and help you prepare for any unforeseen impacts on your customers or suppliers.
For example:
- Call your landlord and ask them to cash your check a few days later
- Delay a shipment by a couple of weeks to put off paying duty at customs
- Run a promotion to drive additional sales quickly
- Go on a collection to spree to clear up outstanding bills
2. Reduce stress
Believe it or not, managing cash flow will alleviate a lot of stress. Much of the anxiety entrepreneurs experience around paying bills comes from not knowing what’s going on and worrying about whether or not things will work out.
它’s much better to know what’s coming, even if the outlook isn’t good. When you know where you stand, you’ll feel prepared. More importantly, you’ll be equipped to deal with it.
3. Know when to grow
当你管理现金流,你知道how much money you have to spend on growth. Remember, just because your P&L tells you there’s extra money lying around, doesn’t mean it will materialize in real life.
Similarly, just because you have $20,000 in the bank doesn’t mean you can spend it. You might need it to pay for upcoming expenses. When you look at your cash flow over weeks and months, you’ll know how much to keep on hand and how much you can stash away or spend on growth.
4. Gain leverage
Effective cash flow analysis gives you leverage. If you need to borrow money from the bank via aline of creditto get you through a shortfall, or want to get a supplier to give you a break for a few weeks without interrupting service, a good cash flow management system will back you up and establish trust.
Financial institutions generally like to see this kind of planning, especially if you can clearly show when you’ll be able to repay the funds. Suppliers are much more likely to be flexible if you can tell them exactly how you’ll pay and when—rather than cutting communication like most businesses do during tough periods. These people want your business and will be more willing to work with you through the ups and downs if they can trust you.
5. Improve budget accuracy
Cash flow is significantly more accurate than a budget. Budgets tell you what you want to happen. They’re wishful thinking, andentrepreneursare optimistic by nature. Cash flow projections tell you what is actually happening so you can deal with it—even if it’s not what you planned at the beginning of the year.
Business owners would often rather not think about managing cash flow and just hope it all works out. But it’s not worth the risk. You really will feel better by staying on top of your money.
Get a free cash flow projection template
Most companies can’t survive without proper cash flow management. But anyone can do it. Take the time to get organized now and it’ll be easy to stay on top of it.
If you haven’t already, don’t forget to grab your free cash flow template. You can access the spreadsheet in Google Drive. You’ll need to be logged in to your Google account to make a copy.
Illustration by Till Lauer
Cash flow management FAQ
What do you do with cash flow?
Positive cash flow in financial management shows that a business’s liquid assets are increasing. With a positive cash flow, you can settle debts, reinvest in your business, pay expenses, and create a hedge for financial challenges in the future. Inbusiness financing, a company with strong cash flow can take advantage of lower interest loans and more profitable investments.
How do you start a cash flow projection?
To start a cash flow projection, you’ll need to sell more than you’re spending. You can predict cash flow by preparing aseasonal forecast:
- Step 1:Create a list of assumptions based on sales growth estimates, price increases from suppliers, seasonality, general cost increases, and wage increases.
- Step 2:Write down anticipated sales income based on industry trends, internal price changes, and economic factors.
- Step 3:List out estimated cash inflows, including government grants, tax refunds or GST rebates, loan proceeds, royalties, or equity contributions.
- Step 4:Write down estimated expenses, including supplier payments, wages for staff, asset purchases, and loan repayments.
- Step 5:Combine all this information by adding cash inflows and deducting outflows. This will give you a better idea of what your cash position is.
What is the main objective of managing cash flows?
The main objective of managing cash flow is to track and analyze the amount of cash received minus business expenses. This helps estimate what you’ll make and spend in the future and maintain your business during emergencies.
Why is cash flow important in cost management?
Cash flow is important in cost management because it helps plan and control the budget of a business. An accountant can better forecast if you can make payment for assets that help your business run, such as raw materials, stock, employees, rent, and other related expenses.