13-week cash flow template: how CEOs and CFOs spot a cash gap while there is time to act

Part of Transformation and Performance

A 13-week cash flow forecast shows, week by week, the cash a company expects to receive and pay, built from bank balances, invoices and payment dates. A CEO or CFO needs one as soon as any payroll, tax payment or loan instalment in the next three months looks uncertain. It shows the gap early enough to close it.

Thirteen weeks is one quarter. Most of its receipts and payments can be listed one by one, and a gap seen in week 6 still leaves time to act. EDON's own Excel template is free after a short form, in the Turnaround Toolkit.

In Finland, the Limited Liability Companies Act makes the board responsible for the appropriate control of the company's accounts and finances (chapter 6, section 2 (opens in a new tab)). The Bankruptcy Act defines insolvency as an inability to pay debts as they fall due that is not temporary (chapter 2, section 1 (opens in a new tab)). Both turn on the timing of cash, which a monthly budget does not show.

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

Use the direct method: list the actual receipts and payments expected in each week. (The indirect method starts from profit and adjusts it; it suits annual plans but is too coarse for weekly cash.) Every week carries the same lines.

Line	Where the number comes from	Owner
Opening cash	Reconciled bank balances for all accounts at the weekly cut-off	Finance
Customer receipts	Open invoices, placed in the week each customer really pays; later weeks from the order book	Receivables lead, with sales
Other receipts	Asset sales, grants and refunds, once contracted	CFO
Payroll and pensions	The payroll calendar: net pay and pension contributions on their own dates	Payroll
Suppliers	Open payables by due date, orders not yet invoiced, recurring costs such as energy	Payables lead, with purchasing
Taxes	VAT and employer's contributions; in Finland both are self-assessed taxes due on the 12th of the month (Vero (opens in a new tab))	Finance
Rent, leases and loans	Contracts and loan agreements	CFO
Capital spending	Committed orders only	CFO, with operations
Net flow	Total receipts minus total payments	Calculated
Closing cash	Opening cash plus net flow; next week's opening cash	Calculated
Minimum cash line	The lowest balance the company is prepared to hold	CFO proposes, board approves

Set the minimum cash line to cover the heaviest week in the forecast, often a payroll or tax week, plus any minimum liquidity that a covenant (a condition the lender sets) requires. The toolkit's example uses four weeks of payroll; a company with large tax or loan weeks may need more.

What does the 13-week cash flow template look like?

The workbook EDON uses for this work is in the Turnaround Toolkit. Its eight tabs hold a dashboard, instructions, assumptions, the weekly forecast, a collections model that turns billing into receipts week by week, a covenant check, the liquidity levers and formula checks. A switch runs base, downside and stress scenarios, with a fictional manufacturer filled in as the worked example.

Exhibit 1

A simplified 13-week cash forecast

Fictional company, € thousands. Payments are shown as positive figures; brackets mark negative values.

Week	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13
Opening cash	742	902	864	1,051	706	809	558	779	1,114	649	897	792	1,148
Receipts
Customer receipts	563	608	541	652	518	587	579	631	597	602	571	652	498
Other receipts								118
Total receipts	563	608	541	652	518	587	579	749	597	602	571	652	498
Payments
Payroll and pensions				648					651				664
Suppliers	331	362	308	349	343	327	358	322	339	354	333	296	248
VAT and employer taxes		284				297					312
Rent, leases and loans	72				72	214			72
Capital spending			46					92			31
Total payments	403	646	354	997	415	838	358	414	1,062	354	676	296	912
Net flow	160	(38)	187	(345)	103	(251)	221	335	(465)	248	(105)	356	(414)
Closing cash	902	864	1,051	706	809	558	779	1,114	649	897	792	1,148	734
Minimum cash line	600	600	600	600	600	600	600	600	600	600	600	600	600
Headroom	302	264	451	106	209	(42)	179	514	49	297	192	548	134

Exhibit 2. In week 6 a tax date and the quarterly loan instalment land together, and closing cash ends €42,000 below the minimum line; week 9 clears it by only €49,000.

How do you run the forecast every week?

Receipts and payments drift from the forecast every week, so its value comes from a weekly cycle on a fixed day:

1. Forecast against actual. At the cut-off, the finished week's actual receipts and payments replace the forecast. The gap on each line is the variance.
2. Variance review. Each variance gets a cause: timing (the cash moved to another week), amount (a different value) or assumption (the forecast missed it). Timing differences usually reverse; assumption errors need fixing in every later week. In EDON's template, a variance above 10 per cent triggers a root-cause check; set your own level for your size.
3. Roll forward. Drop the finished week, add a new week 13, and re-forecast the weeks between with what the review taught you.
4. Decide. The review should end with decisions on which payments go out, which wait and what goes to the CEO or the board. A week forecast below the minimum line goes to the top of the agenda.

Exhibit 3. Of the €133,000 shortfall in week 1, €74,000 is timing and should return in week 2; the unplanned machine deposit forces a decision on who approves new orders.

What should the CEO see each week?

For the CEO, one page is enough. EDON suggests a weekly cash dashboard with five things: cash today, the lowest point in the next 13 weeks and the week it falls, the headroom at that point, how far actual cash has moved from the forecast, and the decisions taken (Exhibit 4). One CFO guide expects a mature process to land within 5 per cent total variance by week four or five (Accordion (opens in a new tab)).

Exhibit 4. Four weeks in, the one-page view shows the week 6 gap has grown from €42,000 to €101,000, two weeks out, and week 9 now dips just below the line.

In a live cash crisis, add a short daily cash call, same time and same agenda, with decisions made before the day ends. When the pressure eases, the weekly cycle is enough.

What are the common mistakes?

• Invoices treated as cash. A customer on 30-day terms who pays in 50 days belongs in week 8, not week 5.
• The ledger as the starting point. Week 1 opens on the reconciled bank balance.
• Netting lines together. One net figure hides the big items.
• Lumpy weeks left out: tax dates, quarterly loan instalments, annual insurance premiums, holiday pay and bonuses.
• Hoped-for cash in the base case. An unsigned loan, an unconfirmed customer prepayment or a disposal agreed only in principle belongs in a scenario until it is certain.
• Building it once. Without the weekly roll-forward and variance review, people stop trusting the numbers and soon stop opening the file.

Where does the forecast sit in a turnaround?

EDON's Turnaround Toolkit follows four stages, called ARCS: Anchor secures survival in the first 30 days; Read diagnoses the root causes; Counter builds and runs the recovery plan; Sustain makes the gains permanent. The 13-week forecast is the central tool of Anchor, because cash buys time for every other decision. After the first 30 days it stays on as the weekly cash report. The steps after cash are set out in our guide to turning around a struggling company.

When is EDON not the right choice?

• If the company is already insolvent, or a creditor has filed for its bankruptcy, start with an insolvency lawyer. EDON can support the cash work alongside the lawyer.
• If your finance team has the time and the skills to run the forecast, the toolkit may be all you need.
• If the problem is bookkeeping or a treasury system, an accounting firm or the system vendor will serve you better.

Working with EDON

EDON is a strategy and transformation firm based in Finland. Early in the work, EDON puts a high-value, usable deliverable in your hands, something you can act on and keep, before you commit further. We call it the Head Start.

Before cash work starts, EDON agrees the scope with you, down to which companies and bank accounts the forecast covers, who on your side owns each line and what you will have at the end.

Questions buyers ask

Where can I get a 13-week cash flow template in Excel? EDON's workbook is part of the Turnaround Toolkit, available through the toolkit form. Exhibit 1 shows the layout if you prefer to build your own.

How accurate does it need to be? Accurate enough to decide on. Near weeks are mostly invoiced already, so they should be tighter than later ones. Every variance should have a cause, and the forecast should get closer to actual each week.

Should we share it with our bank? If you are about to ask for a waiver (the lender's agreement to overlook a covenant breach) or new financing, EDON suggests sharing the current forecast before the bank asks. It shows that management can see the problem and has a plan.

Does the method work for companies in the Middle East? Yes. The lines and the weekly cycle stay the same; the calendar changes. Set the cut-off to the local banking week and load local tax dates. In the UAE, for example, VAT returns and payment are due by the 28th day after each tax period ends (Federal Tax Authority (opens in a new tab)).

Sources

• Limited Liability Companies Act (624/2006), chapter 6, section 2. Unofficial English translation, Finlex (opens in a new tab).
• Bankruptcy Act (120/2004), chapter 2, section 1. Unofficial English translation, Finlex (opens in a new tab).
• Finnish Tax Administration: Instructions for paying self-assessed taxes (opens in a new tab), vero.fi.
• UAE Federal Tax Authority: VAT User Guide, Returns (opens in a new tab), August 2021.
• Accordion: 13-week cash flow forecasting: a practical guide for CFOs (opens in a new tab), 10 August 2026.