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Creating a Project's Forecasted Cash Flow
Creating a Project's Forecasted Cash Flow

This article covers the creation of a Project's cash flow as well as how it intercats with other modules.

Cara Alva avatar
Written by Cara Alva
Updated over 2 months ago

The Cash Flow module is essential for AECO professionals seeking precise financial management. It provides real-time tracking of cash flow, allowing for accurate forecasting and effective resource allocation. Enhance financial oversight and ensure smoother project execution with this powerful module.


Prerequisites

  • You must have created your budget and added cost codes in order to create a forecasted cash flow.

    • The budget does not need to be approved to create the cash flow.

  • If any cost's date range (Start and End Date) is 6 months or less, you can only select straight and custom curve types.


How to Create Your Project's Cash Flow

  1. Navigate to the Cash Flow module using the left-hand navigation.

  2. Select the Create Cash Flow button.

    1. The cost codes from your budget will be pulled into the cash flow for you to organize.

  3. Select the start and end date for each anticipated cost.

  4. Select a cost curve type.

    1. This will automatically calculate each month's forecasted values (amounts).

  5. To enter specific values into each month's cost forecast, select the Custom curve type.

  6. Once you have forecasted all anticipated totals to your cash flow, the module is completed.

    1. The only other changes to the cash flow will come if any invoices are marked as paid. Keep in mind the invoice date is what allows each invoice's amount to populate in the correct date range in your cash flow.

    2. Any changes to the budget will also require you to manually update the curve of the anticipated total amount. You can identify these by the yellow highlight and dot to the left of each cost.

  7. The last optional step is to share the cash flow forecast with an Owner on-system or export a report for your records.

Anticipated Total Amount: The Anticipated Total Amount pulled from the 'Balance to Complete' (Column M) on the budget is the Total Anticipated Amount less what has been paid.

Forecasted Amount: The total amount you have entered into the forecast cells to the right of these totals

Red dot (Left of the forecasted amount): The variance between the Anticipated Amount and the Forecasted Amount.

Yellow dot: This indicates that a change has been made to a cost code in your budget, and the line may need to be forecasted by adjusting the curve.

How to Compare Actual vs. Forecasted Spend

You can also compare actual and forecasted totals by month, quarter, and year by using the Summary tab within this module.


How do Invoices Affect my Project's Cash Flow?

  1. Any invoice that has been marked as paid will populate as an 'Actual' amount in the Summary page shown in the image above.

  2. Any invoice that has been approved will populate as a 'Committed' cost in the Modeling tab.

  • Here is an image of a cost in a cash flow that does not have any committed costs.

  • Here is an image of the same cash flow and cost code once an invoice for $50,000 has been approved.


How will each curve type affect my forecast?

  • You can always find this chart in the blue banner while editing your cash flow.

My budget is created. Why can't I create cash flow?

Ensure the cash flow selected is the same as the budget you created in the Master Budget/ACR module. The two budget options are shown below: 'Your' and 'Owner'.

  • In order to determine which cashflow option you should select navigate to your Master budget/ACR module and Identify the budget selector shown below.

  • If the Budget has cost codes under the 'Owner' budget but not the 'Your' budget, then you will only be able to create a 'Owner' Cashflow and visa versa.


Ready to Create Your Cash Flow?

By identifying financial trends and potential issues early, this tool enables informed decision-making and helps maintain project budgets and timelines. If you need further assistance, please don't hesitate to use the chat icon at the bottom right of each page in Ingenious to contact our platform support team.

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