A forecast that tells you what the bank balance will be in March
Profit and cash are different things, and the gap between them is where businesses get into trouble: a profitable quarter followed by a BAS, a super payment and a slow month, all landing in the same fortnight. A cash flow forecast is the tool that shows you that fortnight in advance, so you can move the timing, arrange the facility or hold the hire before it is urgent.
At New Wave the forecast is built from your actual Xero data by the team that already reconciles it, with every known commitment in it: BAS and income tax instalments, super, loan repayments, lease payments, the big purchases you have told us about. It is then updated monthly, because a forecast built once and never touched is wrong by the second quarter.
What goes into it
Your history, not an assumption
Revenue seasonality, how many days your customers actually take to pay, when your suppliers get paid, and the wage cycle, all pulled from the last two years of the file.
Every obligation on its real date
Quarterly BAS, PAYG instalments, the income tax bill after tax planning, super on its due dates, loan and equipment finance repayments, insurance and rent. These are the items that surprise owners, and they are all knowable.
Scenarios
What a new hire does to cash over six months. What a second site costs before it contributes. What happens if the biggest customer pays 30 days late, or if you lift prices 5 percent. The forecast is where those questions get answered before you commit.
What you see
- A rolling twelve-month view of cash by month, with the low point and when it happens.
- The commitments coming up in the next 90 days.
- A monthly comparison of forecast against actual, and a short note on why they differ.
For a lender or an investor, we extend this to a three-way forecast: profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow that reconcile to each other, in the format they expect.
Where it sits
Most clients run the forecast inside the virtual CFO service, where it is reviewed in the monthly numbers meeting, or inside an advisory engagement when a specific decision needs it. It can also be built as a standalone project, quoted up front, if you need one for a bank or a purchase and your own accountant does not provide it. Builders and trades often add job-level forecasting that includes progress claims and retentions; see the construction page.
Getting started
- A free 30-minute discovery call with a New Wave team member to understand the business and what the forecast needs to answer.
- A quote within the week, agreed up front. If your bookkeeping is behind, we will say so, because a forecast built on an unreconciled file is a guess.
- The forecast is built from your file, walked through with you, and then updated monthly.