How to Build a 13-Week Cash Flow Forecast (2026 Template)

A 13-week cash flow forecast is a week-by-week table of expected cash in and cash out for the next quarter, starting from today's bank balance. Build it from eight input rows, in a spreadsheet or a dedicated tool. Pulse Basics costs $29 a month, and Float's Essentials plan starts at $105 a month on yearly billing, both checked on the vendors' pricing pages on October 10, 2026.

Most cash surprises are timing problems, not profit problems. A company can show a profit on the P&L and still struggle to make payroll because a large customer paid three weeks late. A monthly budget hides that week. A 13-week view shows the week the bank balance drops below the line you set, early enough to chase a receivable, move a payment or draw on a credit line. The discipline matters as much as the template. A forecast that nobody updates on Monday gets less accurate every week.

What goes in the template

Eight input rows do most of the work. Each one answers a single question: when does cash actually move, and how much?

Closing cash is not an input. It is the result: opening cash, plus receipts, minus payments, carried into the next week.

Build it in six steps

1. Start from the bank

Opening cash is the sum of bank balances on the first day of week 1, less checks that have not cleared. Reconcile before you forecast. The close that feeds the forecast runs on a schedule of its own, and the month-end close checklist sets that schedule out day by day. A forecast built on a ledger balance that is off by a few thousand dollars carries that error into all 13 weeks, and the error grows each time someone rolls the sheet forward.

2. Forecast receipts by collection week

Take your largest customers one at a time and list when their cash has actually arrived over the last six payments. A customer on 30-day terms that pays at 45 days moves its cash two weeks later than the invoice implies. Multiply that across your top ten customers and you see why invoice-based forecasts look rosier than the bank statement does.

3. Schedule disbursements by payment run

Payroll is the anchor, so list every pay date for the 13 weeks before anything else. Vendor bills go on the payment run date, not the invoice date. For how those runs get automated, see what AP automation is. Give recurring fixed costs such as rent, software and insurance their own rows, so none of them hides in a catch-all line where it will be forgotten.

4. Put one-offs on a separate list

A tax deposit, an annual insurance premium, a capital purchase or a legal settlement each needs a week, an amount and an owner. These are the lines that break forecasts. They are easy to forget and large when they arrive, so they belong on a list you review every Monday, not in someone's memory.

5. Set the cushion

Pick the minimum balance you will not fall below. A common starting point is enough to cover one payroll and one rent payment, with room for how predictable your receipts are. The forecast's job is to show the week that balance is crossed, while there is still time to act.

6. Roll it forward every Monday

Replace last week's forecast with actuals, add a new week 13, and record the variance: forecast receipts against actual, forecast payments against actual. A forecast that misses in the same direction every week has a bias. Fix the assumption behind the bias, not the number in that one cell.

A worked example

This example uses an illustrative company, not benchmark data, so you can check the arithmetic yourself. It starts week 1 with $190,000 in the bank and a $150,000 cushion. Payroll is $120,000 every other week, which is seven payrolls across 13 weeks, or $840,000. Vendor bills run between $45,000 and $56,000 a week and total $651,000. Rent of $25,000 falls in weeks 1, 5, 9 and 13. A $35,000 sales tax payment lands in week 4, and a $90,000 annual insurance premium lands in week 9.

Week 1 is the tightest point. Closing cash is $177,000, which is $27,000 above the cushion, because payroll and rent fall in the same week. Week 7 is where the forecast earns its keep. One large customer pays late, receipts drop to $95,000, and closing cash still holds at $264,000 because the earlier weeks built a surplus. Nobody has to act in week 7, but the customer's payment date is the first thing to confirm when the forecast is updated.

Week 9 shows why one-offs get their own list. Without the $90,000 premium, the week nets to an outflow of $29,000. With it, the outflow is $119,000, and closing cash lands at $255,000 instead of $345,000.

Now stress the plan. If week 1 receipts slip $30,000, to $150,000, closing cash drops to $147,000, which is $3,000 under the cushion. That is the early warning. The decision to chase the receivable or call the bank about a credit line has to land before week 1 closes, not in week 3. The same chart, closing cash by week against the cushion, works as a board slide, because it answers the question a board asks first: how long can we go before we need money?

Where the forecast lives: spreadsheet or tool

A spreadsheet is enough for one entity with a few bank accounts, provided one person owns it. It breaks when that person leaves or when two versions drift apart. A tool earns its fee when it pulls bank and accounting feeds, because the hours spent retyping bank lines are the real cost of a spreadsheet.

These are the prices we checked on October 10, 2026:

• Pulse publishes monthly prices only. Basics is $29 a month, Small Business is $59 a month with QuickBooks Online integration, and Premium is $89 a month with unlimited financial accounts and currency conversion. The trial is 30 days. Pulse pricing
• Float lists Essentials at $105 a month on yearly billing ($130 billed monthly), Growth at $215 yearly ($265 monthly) and Scale at $315 yearly ($389 monthly). The trial is 14 days with no credit card required. Float sorts its plans by company revenue, so the plan you can buy depends on your size. Float pricing
• Agicap publishes no price. Its page says the offer is annual, with a 12-month minimum. Agicap pricing
• Google Sheets is where many forecasts start. Google's product page says anyone with a Google Account can create in Sheets, and some Gemini features need a paid Workspace plan. Google Sheets

For one entity on one bank feed, a dedicated tool costs $348 a year at Pulse Basics ($29 times 12) and $1,260 a year at Float Essentials ($105 times 12, yearly billing). Those are list prices from the pages above, before any add-ons. The trial period is the cheapest time to test whether the feed works with your bank.

The full comparison is in best cash flow forecasting tools. For the ledger side, see best accounting software. For the treasury side, including bank feeds and cash positioning, see AI for treasury management.

Gotchas that break the forecast

• Undrawn credit lines are not cash. Show them on their own row, so the forecast does not count money you have not borrowed.
• Payroll tax deposits often run on a different date from net pay. Give them their own row with their own date, or the week after payday will look better than it is.
• Card spend leaves the bank on the statement due date. The charge date and the payment date fall in different weeks, so forecast the payment.
• One strong week is not a trend. Do not extrapolate a single large collection across all 13 weeks.
• Foreign currency needs a stated rate. If receipts arrive in euros, convert at a rate you write on the sheet, so a variance is not blamed on the wrong cause.

Frequently asked questions

How do you build a 13-week cash flow forecast?

Start with the bank balance on day one, list customer receipts by the week the cash arrives, list payments by their payment dates, and carry the closing balance forward each week. Compare every closing balance to your minimum cushion. Update the sheet every Monday with actuals.

Is there a free 13-week cash flow template?

Any spreadsheet can hold the eight input rows above. Google's Sheets product page says anyone with a Google Account can create in Sheets. The template matters less than the bank reconciliation that feeds it.

How much does 13-week cash flow software cost?

Pulse Basics is $29 a month, billed monthly, with a 30-day trial. Float Essentials is $105 a month on yearly billing, or $130 billed monthly, with a 14-day trial. Agicap publishes no price and requires a 12-month minimum.

How often should you update the forecast?

Every week, on the same day. Replace last week with actuals and add week 13 so the horizon stays at 13 weeks. A monthly update hides the week the balance crosses the cushion.

How is a 13-week cash flow forecast different from a budget?

A budget tests profit against plan on the P&L. A 13-week forecast tests the bank balance against payment dates. A profitable company can still fail the second test. For the budgeting side, see best AI for budgeting and forecasting.

Who should own the forecast?

The person who reconciles the bank, usually the controller or a senior accountant. The CFO reviews the cushion decisions each week, because those decisions trade off cost against risk.

Methodology and sources

Vendor prices were read on the Pulse, Float and Agicap pricing pages on October 10, 2026. The Google Sheets statement comes from Google's product page on the same day. The worked example is illustrative arithmetic, not data from a real company, and every row sums to the totals shown.

Toolradar data: Toolradar, the software directory we run, tracks 11,051 tools in 343 categories, as shown on its cash flow forecasting software page on October 10, 2026.

This page is general information, not personalized financial advice. Confirm plan terms, trial conditions and renewal rules with each provider before you sign.

Cite this: CFOpresso, "How to Build a 13-Week Cash Flow Forecast (2026 Template)", October 2026.

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