Your 6 Step Guide To Covid-19 Cash Flow Forecasting with Float
Now more than ever, cash flow forecasting is at the forefront of most finance conversations. Understanding how much cash you might have in the future is paramount to informed decision-making, especially amidst this global pandemic.
We want to keep businesses in business.
As a small business ourselves, we’re in a position of uncertainty as to what will happen in the coming months to our team and to our business. But we also find ourselves in an unexpected and special position where we can really help other businesses through a very tough time.
The ‘What If’s’ in business are the things we always keep a lookout for, the things that keep us awake at night, the things we plan meticulously for and try to navigate with scalpel-like precision, right?
No one could have planned for this ‘What If’. Literally no one.
We can do this. Together.
We want to give you the best possible experience with Float whether that’s being a new user signing up for a free trial, to being a loyal Float partner with multiple clients.
No matter where you are along your Float journey, these 6 steps are here to help you put your best Float foot forward.
How Float can help you plan for COVID-19
1. Reconcile
First things first, for Float to be accurate, your bank reconciliation or matching needs to be as up-to date as possible. We recommend you do this weekly, if not every couple of days.
2. Don’t have Float forecast for you
If you’re new to Float, in these unprecedented times we don’t recommend that you use Float’s auto-forecasting option. It’s great in regular circumstances to predict the future based on an average of the past 3 months’ actuals, but right now, we’re not in a business as usual time. Choose the option to go straight into your forecast.
3. Update the payment dates on invoices and bills
Once in Float, head straight over to your Invoices Due tab and exclude all invoices except the ones that are definitely going to be paid. Do the same for bills that you owe, pushing the expected date back on bills you’ve agreed to pay later.
4. Ignore any budgets for cash in and out that may not be paid
If you’re an existing Float user, go to your Cash Flow tab, and in your base forecast, ignore any budgets you had previously created that may not be paid – both for cash in and cash out.
5. Create budgets for cash you will pay and receive
In your Base forecast, create budgets for only cash you you will definitely receive and pay for the dates you expect the cash to move.
6. Create scenarios
You can create any different scenarios that you’d like to see in Float – such as not losing as much business as you had previously thought, securing government funding, or managing to delay some big payments. We recommend that your Base scenario is your realistic forecast, you can then create any additional scenarios on top of that.
Go to our Float COVID-19 Hub for the latest resources
