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    • Action plan

    Creating a cash flow forecast to navigate unpredictable times

    Medium effort

    High impact

    It’s crucial to have a tight handle on cash when your trading environment becomes unpredictable. Knowing what kind of financial buffer you have gives you a better understanding of your position and ensures you can make decisions effectively. Having that information on a timely basis can be the difference between survival and failure.

    • We’ve designed our action plans to be completed in the order of steps laid out and explained why each step is important
    • Customising your action plan lets you set your own completion dates, assign tasks to others and get notifications
    • Helpful tools are provided for certain steps while a tracking metric at the end will help you determine the long-term success of your effort
    • A downloadable PDF version of each action plan is available if you’d like to compete it offline
    What's involved? Ways to use this action plan Measuring impact
    1

    Host a workshop to make employees aware of the situation and get ideas on how the business can save money and increase the amount of cash it has

    Impact: medium

    Why will this help?

    Cash flow is impacted by client retention, debtor days and other factors employees can provide insight on. You might not want to share your forecast, but talking to them helps identify risks and provides insights you can feed into it.

    How to get employees involved in decision making

    Involving employees in decision making can give leaders valuable insights and lead to new ideas. Our checklist will help you get started.
    2

    Prepare a short-term forecast that looks at cash flow on a daily or weekly basis

    Impact: high

    Why will this help?

    It’s common for businesses to forecast cash flow on a monthly basis. During times of uncertainty, it can be helpful to look at a daily or weekly forecast.

    Creating a short-term cash flow forecast

    During unpredictable times, it can be useful to create a short-term cash flow forecast. Use this template to develop a daily forecast.
    3

    Use scenario planning to test the impact of different decisions

    Impact: high

    Why will this help?

    Financial modelling is crucial during periods of uncertainty. Testing what will happen in different scenarios helps you understand the impact on cash flow, what risks exist and how they can be mitigated.

    Using scenario planning to inform your decisions

    Scenario planning is a great way to visualise and assess the potential impact of decisions. Use our useful template to get started.
    4

    Make a business case for additional investment

    Impact: medium

    Why will this help?

    Additional financing may be needed to support existing operations or invest in new initiatives when the business is under stress. Creating a formal business case for any investment adds rigour and provides a useful communication tool.

    Your guide to writing a business case

    Writing a business case is a useful way to think a potential project or investment through in a step-by-step manner.
    5

    Use your cash flow forecast to shape decision making – and how you prioritise your time

    Impact: high

    Why will this help?

    During unpredictable times, it’s doubly important to manage cash flow effectively, so it needs to play a central role in your planning process and what you choose to spend your time on.

    What can I do with this Action Plan?

    Start this Action Plan

    Add some extra information to this plan and we’ll help you get it done.

    • We’ve designed our action plans to be completed in the order of steps laid out and explained why each step is important
    • Customising your action plan lets you set your own completion dates, assign tasks to others and get notifications
    • Helpful tools are provided for certain steps while a tracking metric at the end will help you determine the long-term success of your effort
    • A downloadable PDF version of each action plan is available if you’d like to compete it offline

    Download and print

    Get a printable template for this Action Plan, fill it in with some target dates, and share it with your team. Pin it on the wall where everyone can see it.

    Get the printable Action Plan

    Learning Groups

    We also run Learning Groups on these topics where you can join other leaders tackling the same challenges.

    Find a Learning Group

    How will I know if my action plan is working?

    Cash runway

    The amount of time the business can continue trading before money runs out

    Why this metric?

    Knowing how long it will take for your business to run out of money is important during uncertain times. If you have an effective cash flow forecast you’ll have confidence in your cash runway metric and should see it improve.

    How do I start tracking?

    Your cash flow forecast will show the point that your bank balance would turn negative. Add the amount of runway you have to your dashboard or KPI reporting.