What Will Your Cash Balance Look Like Over the Next 13 Weeks?
A free Excel template that takes your opening cash, revenue, collection and payment terms, and recurring costs — and returns a week-by-week cash forecast for the next quarter, including the exact week your balance hits bottom. Built by experienced finance professionals.
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- Used by US small & mid-sized businesses
- Excel format
- No credit card required
- Updated 2026
An Excel file with three sheets and one job: show you the next thirteen weeks.
One input page, one output page. Fifteen inputs to fill, thirteen weeks to read.
Cover sheet
Entity name, usage notes, and an index that links straight to the input and output pages. Open it once, read it once, you are done.
Inputs sheet
Seven assumptions — start date, opening cash, monthly revenue, growth, COGS %, AR days, AP days — plus eight recurring expense lines, each set to monthly or bi-weekly. Yellow cells with blue text are the only ones you edit.
Output sheet
Seven key metrics and the full 13-week grid: revenue, COGS, gross margin, AR collections, vendor payments, recurring expenses, net cash flow, and opening and ending cash for every single week.
Seven assumptions. Eight expense lines. Thirteen weeks out.
The three inputs that do the real work are COGS %, AR days and AP days — they decide when money moves, not just how much. Every recurring expense carries its own frequency, so payroll can run bi-weekly while rent and loan payments run monthly. That single detail is what produces the sawtooth in your cash line, and it is exactly what a monthly forecast averages away.
A 55% gross margin business, $116,000 down in one quarter.
Nothing in the sample scenario is broken. Revenue grows 2% a month, gross margin is 55%, every bill is one a real business has to pay. The business is profitable on paper across all thirteen weeks. Its cash balance still falls by six figures — because revenue and cash are two different events separated by your collection terms.
That is the mechanism behind almost every solvent business that misses a payment: not a margin problem, a timing problem — and telling those two apart matters, because financing a timing gap is sensible while financing a structural one only deepens it. And it is invisible on a monthly view. The sample quarter ends at $133,505, which looks perfectly comfortable, while the real low point is $129,677 in week five — after two payroll runs and before the first collections arrive. A monthly forecast reports the comfortable number and never mentions the tight one.
Thirteen weeks is the horizon where timing becomes visible and still actionable (why thirteen, specifically). Far enough out to see the trough coming, close enough that you can still do something about it — pull a collection forward, move a payment run, draw on the line before you need it rather than the week you do.
What a 13-week cash flow forecast is — the six ideas behind it.
New to this? Start here. Each idea links to the article that covers it properly.
Cash is not profit
Profit counts a sale the day you make it. Cash counts it the day the money lands — a month later on 30-day terms. That gap is why a profitable business can still run short.
Thirteen weeks is one quarter
Far enough ahead to see a tight week coming and still act on it; close enough to list real payments instead of averages. Why thirteen, specifically →
It lists the money itself
A 13-week forecast is a direct forecast: receipts and payments on the dates they move. The cash flow statement in your accounting software works back from profit instead. Direct vs indirect →
Receipts go on the bank date
Each receipt goes in the week the customer will actually pay, not the week the invoice is due. That one habit is where most forecasts are won or lost. How to forecast cash receipts →
It rolls forward every week
Each week, replace the week just finished with what actually happened, add a new week thirteen, and compare forecast with actual. How to build the model →
Weekly runs the business
The weekly view tells you whether Friday clears. A monthly view tells you whether you can afford the hire or the equipment. Most businesses need both. Weekly or monthly? →
Six signs you need a 13-week view now, not next quarter.
None of these means the business is in trouble. Each one means cash timing is doing something your P&L will not show you — and a weekly forecast will.
Profitable, but you check the bank before payroll
The P&L says the business made money; the bank balance says be careful. That is a timing gap, and it is exactly what a 13-week forecast is built to show. Why it happens →
Some pay months are harder than others
On a biweekly payroll there are 26 pay runs a year, so two months each year carry three paydays instead of two. If those months catch you out, your forecast is averaging them away. The input most often missed →
Customers are paying later than their terms
Receivables growing faster than sales, or a large customer that used to pay on time now running a week or two late. Both move cash out of the week you were counting on. Shortening DSO →
You are choosing which suppliers to pay
Paying some bills late to cover others, or asking for extensions again and again. Find out whether it is a one-off gap or a recurring one before you finance it. Temporary or structural? →
The credit line never gets paid back down
Drawing on a line is normal. Never clearing it between cycles usually means cash is stuck in receivables, stock or supplier terms. Working capital inefficiency →
Decisions wait on “do we have the cash?”
A hire, a stock order or a piece of equipment is on hold because nobody can say which week the money leaves, or whether that week can take it. See the tight week before you reach it →
13-week cash flow checklist: what to gather once, and what to do every week.
The template runs on averages. A full forecast runs on the items below — and the weekly routine is what keeps either one honest.
Gather once, before you start
- Reconciled bank balances — if the books are behind, fix that first
- AR aging detail, by invoice — not the summary
- How your top ten customers actually pay, not what their terms say
- AP aging detail, plus purchase orders not yet invoiced
- Payroll calendar, with every pay run on its real date
- Loan, lease and credit card payment dates
- Tax dates — payroll, sales tax, estimated tax
- Known one-offs: insurance renewals, annual software, bonuses, owner distributions
Do every week
- Replace last week’s forecast with what actually hit the bank
- Compare forecast receipts with actual, customer by customer
- Move any invoice that is slipping into its realistic week
- Add a new week thirteen, so you always see a full quarter ahead
- Find the lowest cash week, and what has to happen before it
- Decide now — collect, delay a payment or arrange funding — not in that week
Every input, with where it lives in QuickBooks and who has to supply it, is in the cash flow forecast data checklist. To see them assembled into a real weekly grid, read how to build a direct cash flow forecast.
How to use the 13-week cash flow template: four steps, twenty minutes.
Then a ten-minute refresh each week as actuals come in. Not sure what to gather before you start? Work through the cash flow forecast data checklist first.
Cash & revenue
Start date for week 1, cash in the bank today, current monthly revenue, and the growth rate you would defend to a lender.
Timing terms
COGS as a percentage of revenue, AR days, AP days. Use your actual averages, not your stated terms — the gap between the two is usually the whole story.
Recurring expenses
Eight lines with amount and frequency. Set payroll and payroll tax to bi-weekly if that is how they run; keep rent, insurance and debt service monthly.
Read the 13 weeks
Total inflows, total outflows, net cash flow, ending cash — and the lowest cash week. Start with that week and work backwards.
Honest qualification. No fluff.
This template is for you if:
- You are a new business, or launching a new project, and need a forward view of cash for the coming quarter.
- You want a fast, high-level 13-week cash flow picture — a ballpark, not a fully built forecast.
- You want to see your tightest week before you reach it, not on the day.
- You know your revenue, collection and payment terms, and recurring costs well enough to enter them.
This is not for you if:
- You need invoice-level AR aging — this models average AR days, not customer by customer.
- You need daily treasury, multi-bank sweeps, or intraday positioning.
- You need multi-entity consolidation or FX-aware forecasting.
- You are pre-revenue with no billing cycle — the burn rate calculator fits better.
- You only need to decide who to pay this Monday — that is a one-week question.
This is a high-level 13-week cash flow calculator. If you want a rolling forecast built and maintained from your bank statements and accounting software, call us and we'll set it up for you.
Everything we have written on 13-week cash flow, in reading order.
Start at the top if the idea is new, or jump in wherever your question is. The last card is our service, if you would rather we built and ran it for you.
13-week cash flow template questions, answered honestly.
What format is the template?
Why does the forecast show no collections in the first few weeks?
Does it handle bi-weekly payroll?
Do I still need a monthly forecast as well?
Why 13 weeks instead of a monthly forecast?
Is this the same as the cash flow statement in my accounting software?
How do I decide what goes in each week?
Is this really free? Any catch?
What if I want this built and updated every week for my business?
Need a finance team maintaining this against actuals every week?
A 13-week forecast is only useful while it is current. EasePro's Cash Flow Management Services include the rolling forecast updated weekly against your bank and ledger, a weekly decision brief, working capital optimisation, and the lender-ready pack that comes out of it.
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