13-Week Cash Flow Forecaster
A rolling forecast that ties back to reconciled reality
A rolling 13-week cash flow workflow that consolidates near-term inflows and outflows, supports scenarios, and produces variance explanations versus actuals. Numbers your CFO will actually trust.
INGREDIENTS
PROMPT
Create a skill called "13-Week Cash Flow Forecaster". Every week, it should: - Snapshot opening cash by bank account and entity - Update inflows from AR and outflows from AP, payroll, and fixed commitments - Produce a base forecast and at least two scenarios - Generate alerts when projected cash falls below a configurable threshold - Produce a variance bridge versus last week's forecast once actuals are known Ask me for: - Forecast horizon and minimum cash thresholds - Data sources for cash, AR, AP, and payroll - Scenario definitions Then output the forecast and a concise narrative of the top drivers.
How It Works
Cash forecasts often become fragile spreadsheet exercises that stakeholders do not trust.
This recipe produces a rolling, explainable 13-week forecast with scenario support.
What You Get
- 13-week cash forecast with base and scenario views
- Weekly liquidity risk alerts for threshold breaches
- Variance bridge from prior forecast to actuals
Setup Steps
- Pull current cash balances from reconciled accounts
- Add AR assumptions, AP schedule, payroll calendar, and fixed commitments
- Define base, stress, and upside scenarios
- Refresh on a weekly cadence
- Compare forecast to actuals and log top drivers of variance
Tips
- Tie the opening balance to completed reconciliations
- Keep scenario assumptions explicit and versioned
- Publish top 5 drivers, not just numbers