On Monday, you need to decide whether to confirm a payment to a supplier for Thursday, but the invoice you were counting on to cover it still has not been paid. Looking at the month\u2019s sales does not resolve that decision: you need to know how much money will be available on Thursday if the customer pays on time, and how much will be available if they pay late. A weekly cash flow forecast helps you put dates, amounts and uncertainties on the table before committing to a payment. It does not eliminate uncertainty; it helps you see it in time and decide which conversation or check needs to happen.<\/p>\n
Income may be recorded even though you have not yet received payment for the invoice. Likewise, a business can show a profit and still need cash to meet upcoming payments. The CNMV defines cash flow<\/a> in terms of payments actually received and made during a period, and notes that it does not necessarily coincide with accrued income and expenses. For this forecast, the practical question is not how much you have sold, but what money you expect to come in or go out, and when. Profit and your bank balance answer different questions.<\/p>\n The Acelera pyme guide to cash management<\/a> presents payment schedules, reconciliation, budgeting and forecasting as good practices. It also describes directly estimating money coming in and payments to plan for the short term and consider scenarios. The procedure that follows is an operational proposal for adapting those ideas to your business, not a mandatory timeframe or a guarantee of results.<\/p>\n Choose how many weeks to look ahead.<\/strong> Eight weeks can be a useful starting point if your money coming in and payments generally fall within that period; it is only a suggested example, not a legal standard. If you have work that will be paid for later, extend the view. If the volume of transactions is high, keep your chosen horizon but also review the days in the coming week. The important thing is to be able to make decisions before a payment falls due, without filling the forecast with figures nobody can justify.<\/p>\n Set a realistic opening available balance.<\/strong> Choose a date and check the balances of the accounts you will include. Account for transactions already completed and those not yet reflected in the accounts so you do not count them twice. Record available credit separately: it is not money received from customers. Also separate debts and funds already committed to identified payments. An amount appearing in an account does not mean it is free to use for anything.<\/p>\n Before you start, define which accounts go into the spreadsheet. If you manage more than one, you can calculate each separately and then produce a combined view. This prevents an aggregate balance from obscuring the account from which a payment must be made. Write down that rule so someone else can update the forecast in the same way.<\/p>\n My proposal is to dedicate one row to each expected amount coming in or payment. Include the description, total actual amount expected, date of receipt or payment, confirmation status, reference document and person responsible<\/strong>. Depending on the case, the document could be an invoice, an accepted quote, an agreed schedule or a communication that allows the date to be checked. The person responsible is the one who will verify the transaction and update its status, not necessarily the one who authorises it.<\/p>\n Distinguish a confirmed payment from a budgeted one. The former is backed by a specific obligation or agreement; the latter is an estimate that may still change. Do the same for money coming in: an invoice sent is not the same as a confirmed payment from a customer. If a date depends on a customer\u2019s response, mark it as estimated and note when you will check it again. Use the date on which you reasonably expect the transaction, not a date chosen to make the balance positive.<\/p>\n When you receive payment for an invoice, record the actual transaction and remove or mark as completed the corresponding expected receipt. Do not leave both entries adding to the total. If you receive a partial payment, split the forecast between the amount received and the amount still outstanding, with their respective dates. This small discipline prevents the spreadsheet from showing the same money twice, precisely when you need to trust the balance.<\/p>\n For taxes, coordinate amounts and dates with your adviser according to your circumstances, rather than inventing due dates to fill in cells. The total amount of an invoice should not automatically be treated as the taxable base. Nor should you count a tax twice when recording related payments: check what each amount represents before adding it. If you need professional support to organise this information, you can consult the tax advisory service in Tenerife and the Canary Islands<\/a>.<\/p>\n Identify transfers between your own accounts as internal transactions, not as income from customers. In a combined view, an outgoing transfer from one account and an incoming transfer to another do not create new money. If you receive a loan, classify it as financing and also record the expected repayments as outgoing payments when appropriate; do not mix it with sales. This classification is intended to show where the cash comes from without confusing it with commercial activity.<\/p>\n For each week, apply the same calculation: opening balance + expected money coming in \u2212 expected payments = forecast closing balance<\/strong>. One week\u2019s closing balance becomes the next week\u2019s opening balance. Keep track of dates within each week: a positive balance on Friday does not resolve a payment due on Tuesday if the money comes in on Thursday. When that difference matters, review the order of transactions day by day.<\/p>\n This example is fictional and does not constitute financial advice<\/strong>. You start a week with 5,000 euros available, expect to receive 3,000 and pay 6,000. The forecast closing balance is 2,000 euros: 5,000 + 3,000 \u2212 6,000. If the receipt of 3,000 moves to the following week, that week\u2019s scenario ends at \u22121,000 euros: 5,000 + 0 \u2212 6,000. In the following week, you would include that receipt only if its new date is still reasonable. The comparison shows which figure you need to verify; it does not prove that you will run out of funds.<\/p>\n When the margin is tight, start by confirming the status of the payment with the customer and documenting what they tell you. Then review which discretionary expense you have not yet committed to. If you need to change a payment date, explain the situation and seek an agreement with the other party; do not assume an extension has been granted. The forecast does not justify unilaterally delaying obligations, wages or taxes. Its value lies in making pending decisions visible while you can still talk to the people involved.<\/p>\n If your sales are seasonal, prepare scenarios for periods when money coming in usually changes, but base them on your own data and commitments. Seasonality does not affect all self-employed people and small businesses in the Canary Islands in the same way. An alternative scenario may change a payment receipt date or an estimated volume; make clear which assumption you have changed so it is not confused with the main forecast.<\/p>\n Set aside a regular time each week and record the update date<\/strong>. First, reconcile transactions with the accounts and mark what was actually received or paid. Then compare forecast and actual figures: amount, date and status. Finally, explain significant differences. \u201cCustomer has yet to confirm the date\u201d is more useful than \u201cpayment delayed\u201d, because it identifies the next check. Keep a history of changes or a dated copy so you know what was expected before the outcome was known.<\/p>\n End the meeting with a short follow-up list: transaction, outstanding question, person responsible and date for checking again. If money coming in is delayed, update the subsequent weeks as the balance carries forward; do not correct only the cell where the problem appeared. If an expected payment disappears because it has already been made, retain the reference that explains the change. The meeting is over when someone knows what to check before the next one, not when all the figures look comfortable.<\/p>\n A shared spreadsheet with appropriate permissions, or a system that suits the way you work, may be enough. Limit access to those who need to view or edit it, protect customer data and keep recoverable copies. Define who can change dates and who reviews the changes: too many versions of the same forecast create more confusion than an imperfect estimate. If you also want to use your records for other decisions, this guide to accounting as a management tool<\/a> provides complementary context.<\/p>\n Record the money coming in and payments that affect your chosen horizon, with enough detail to identify and review them. An invoice that has already been paid should not remain as a future receipt. For small, recurring amounts, you can use a grouped estimate if you document what it includes and subsequently check the difference against what actually happened.<\/p>\n Use an estimated date you can explain and indicate that it is awaiting confirmation. Assign someone to ask the customer and set a date for reviewing the response. If the date changes, move the expected receipt and recalculate the subsequent balances; do not keep the old date just to preserve a favourable result.<\/p>\n Review the forecast weekly and add a new week when the first one ends, if your chosen horizon remains useful. Change its length when your actual payment receipt or payment terms indicate that you need to look further ahead or work in more detail in the near term. Updating it consistently matters more than choosing a fixed number.<\/p>\n You do not need to reconstruct the whole year to get started. Set the available balance, record the transactions for the coming weeks and check which payments depend on money coming in that is still uncertain. If you would like to review how to organise this monitoring in your business, you can contact Advixy<\/a> and explain which decision you need to prepare for.<\/p>\n Consulted on 9 October 2026: the CNMV cash flow glossary and the executive summary of Acelera pyme\u2019s cash management guide, linked in the text.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A practical procedure for forecasting money coming in and payments by week, checking the available balance and reviewing what changes when a customer pays late.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5909,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118,136],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-budgeting-en","category-business-consulting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/advixy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/advixy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/advixy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advixy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advixy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5912"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/advixy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5915,"href":"https:\/\/advixy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5912\/revisions\/5915"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advixy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/advixy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advixy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advixy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Set a horizon you can review<\/h2>\n
Record transactions, not vague expectations<\/h2>\n
Calculate the balance and test a delay<\/h2>\n
Turn the update into a short meeting<\/h2>\n
Frequently asked questions<\/h2>\n
Do I have to record every invoice in the forecast?<\/h3>\n
What if I do not know the exact date a payment will come in?<\/h3>\n
How often should I change the horizon?<\/h3>\n
Start with your next payment decision<\/h2>\n
Sources consulted<\/h2>\n