Cash Flow Forecasting

Access a project-level cash flow analysis and quickly visualize the difference between planned, actual and forecast with built-in dynamic charts to see that plans are being met, risk is mitigated, and profit is maximized.

When all budget line items are forecasted, you can go to the Cash Flow tab to see a project-level cash flow analysis and the planned and actual forecast. Based on that you can investigate details. The Cash Flow tab is a centralized place to create and manage all cash flow distributions.

In this article:

Set Preferred Forecast Period

Within the Settings tool, project administrators can set preferred forecast periods; weekly or monthly. Once a forecast distribution is created on any budget item this setting cannot be changed.

See the Forecast Setting to learn more.

Create a Distribution Item

You can create distribution items to see how your budget is performing at a project level with four built-in curves.

Note: You can choose between weekly and monthly forecasting distribution in the Forecast settings section, alongside the way based on what distribution items will be created.

To create a distribution item:

  1. Go to the Cash Flow tab within the Forecast tool.
  2. If there are no distribution items created yet, you'll see Add distribution item there:

However, if there are existing items, the Add distribution item shows at the top:

  1. Now you can choose what will be the base for a distribution item: Budget, Budget code segment, or Contract.

  1. Select distribution items and click Add.
Tip: You may need a permission to view items on those lists. Contact a project administrator to obtain permissions. For the Budget tab, you'll need View All or Full Control. For the Contract tab, you'll need Collaborate, View All, or Full Control. Learn more about Cost Management's permissions.

You'll see all of the distribution items added to the Revised Budget list, the detailed view of the Cash Flow tab. In the Cost & Time tab, you can connect budgets to schedule tasks, but actual distribution is done in the cash flow view. To create a distribution, you need to have created scheduled tasks.

Create a Distribution

After creating a schedule task and a distribution item, you can create cash flow distribution to see a project-level cash flow analysis and the planned and actual forecast. To do so:

  1. Go to the Cash Flow tab within the Forecast tool.
  2. Open the distribution item list view of Revised Budget. The detailed view of Revised Budget opens.

  1. You'll see the list of distribution items. Click the More menu next to the one you want to create a distribution.

  1. Choose distribution start and end dates. Choose the style of the cash flow curve.

The distribution is created. You'll see the table with created distribution, divided into months and years, and you can load more periods when available.

You can override dates if preferred.

Create Distribution from Multiple Distribution Items

To create a distribution based on multiple distribution items, select the distribution items and click Distribute at the top of the page.

Automated Forecast Adjustments

In cash flow management, actual costs can sometimes deviate from the forecasted final costs for each period. If the value of a specific period on the Forecast Final Cost curve doesn't match the corresponding period on the Actual Cost curve, an indicator will appear in the distribution item list view.

A context menu provides the option to Redistribute based on Actual Cost.

After selecting, you will see several options:

Keep the same Forecast Final Cost

After clicking the Redistribute button in the dialog, past periods will be adjusted to match the actual cost. Note that the current period is not included in these adjustments.

The distribution item line will become editable, with Cancel and Confirm buttons appearing at the right end of the row.

The variance resulting from adjusting past periods will then be evenly spread across the remaining ones.

Calculate new Forecast Final Cost

Here you have several available options:

Edit each period manually

The remaining periods retain their values, but they can be modified as needed.

Tips for Distribution Adjustment

Here is a demo of Automated Forecast Adjustments in action:

 

Clear a Distribution

To clear a distribution, click the More menu next to a distribution item and select Clear distribution.

Delete a Distribution Item

To delete a distribution item, click the More menu and then select Delete. To delete more than one distribution item, select boxes next to items you want to delete, and then click Delete.

In both cases, you'll be prompted to confirm the action.

Distribution Item in the Collaborative Workflow

The collaborate functionality in the Forecast tool allows users to send distribution items to suppliers and ask for their input. Learn more about the Cash Flow Collaborative Workflow.

Learn how to set collaboration in Forecast tool, how to send distribution items for review and how suppliers can participate and submit their input.

Consolidated View

You can view and edit the details of a distribution item on the list, and also see the cash flow context of other distribution items, by displaying these details in a sub-table.

To display distribution item details in a sub-table in the list view:

  1. Select any Distribution Total that has a blue triangle indicator to expand the sub-table.

  2. You can now edit the details of an item and see other items.

Teams can access a project-level cash flow analysis to easily visualize the cash flow distribution throughout the project lifecycle. This real-time summary enables teams to see planned actual and forecast quickly with all the details, when necessary. To access the Cash Flow table, open the Forecast tool.

To display the built-in dynamic time-versus-money chart, select the icon. Then, you can:

You can manipulate the Cash Flow table by using the icon:

You can also see more details by selecting the icon that appears in the table when hovering over a line:

The view of the budget for the specific column opens. Here you can add distribution items and create cash flow distributions. By clicking budget items with the icon, you can see the more detailed forecast. Periods are divided into months and years, and you can load more periods when available.

Cash flow periods are dynamic. Therefore, period column position and visibility cannot be saved in cash flow saved views. Only the following columns will be kept in saved views:

Parent page: Forecast