A cash-flow forecast lists expected cash in and cash out week by week, showing when a business will run short and by how much. Windwood Funding Group, a small-business funding broker in Fayetteville, Arkansas, explains how owners can build a twelve-week forecast before a funding request; lending partners make credit decisions and set rates and terms.
Why a forecast matters for small Fayetteville, AR businesses
In ZIP 72701, the office ZIP, 53.4 percent of employer establishments had fewer than five employees in 2023, and among professional services firms there the share was 75.3 percent (U.S. Census Bureau, ZIP Code Business Patterns 2023). In Fayetteville, AR, an estimated 4.9 percent of employed residents ran unincorporated businesses of their own (U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024). Owners like these usually keep the books themselves, and a short forecast is the quickest way to turn a vague sense of being tight into a number a partner can work with.
What you need before you start
- Business bank statements, three to six recent months, or an export of transactions from your accounting software
- A list of regular bills: payroll, rent, loan and lease payments, insurance, subscriptions
- Open invoices and when each customer actually tends to pay
- Known one-off costs coming up: equipment, taxes, a move
If you use accounting software such as QuickBooks or Xero, exporting recent bank transactions is the fastest start. Check your software's own help pages for any built-in forecasting feature; a plain spreadsheet works just as well.
How to prepare the forecast, step by step
- Make twelve columns, one per week, starting this week.
- Row 1: opening cash, the bank balance at the start of each week.
- Cash in: one row per source (card sales, invoices collected, other). Use the date money lands, not the invoice date.
- Cash out: one row per category (payroll and payroll taxes, rent, suppliers, debt payments, other).
- Closing cash = opening cash + cash in - cash out. Carry it to next week's opening cash.
- Mark any week where closing cash falls below the minimum you need to operate.
Be conservative: put customer payments in the week they usually arrive, not the week they are due.
A cash-flow forecast template, in words
| Row | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Opening cash | What the bank showed on Monday morning |
| Cash in: sales | Card and cash sales expected to settle that week |
| Cash in: invoices | Customer payments expected to land that week |
| Cash out: payroll | Wages and payroll taxes paid that week |
| Cash out: fixed bills | Rent, insurance, loan and lease payments |
| Cash out: suppliers | Materials, stock and other variable costs |
| Closing cash | Opening + in - out |
Reading what the forecast tells you
The shape of the low points matters more than the totals:
- One dip that recovers. A single gap with a clear end often suits working capital sized to the deepest point plus a cushion.
- Repeated dips of different sizes. A line of credit handles recurring gaps better than repeated loans.
- A steady slide with no recovery. The business is spending more than it brings in. Funding delays that rather than fixing it; a free adviser is the better first call.
Bringing it to a funding conversation
A forecast does not replace bank statements or tax returns, but it makes the request clear: here is the gap, here is when it closes, here is where the payments come from. How a request works shows when partners look at it. Local business figures are on our Fayetteville, AR page, and more posts are in the funding notes.
By Windwood Funding Group ยท Updated