The Cash Position & Forecast page answers two questions. How much money do your accounts hold today? And what is due to come in and go out over the weeks ahead? The forecast looks as far ahead as the horizon that you choose. So you can see when your balance would fall below zero, and act before it does.
You type nothing on this page, and Beelocity stores none of its figures. It works them out when you open the page. It reads your account balances, your open invoices and bills, your cheques and bills of exchange, and your recurring cash items. To change a figure, change the record behind it. The Treasurer, the Cashier and the owner of your organization can open this page.
Opening the page
Open Treasury → Cash forecast in the sidebar. It opens on the Cash Position & Forecast tab. Three controls sit at the top of the tab:
- Forecast horizon says how far ahead the forecast looks: 30, 60, 90 or 180 days, or 1 year. It opens on 90 days.
- Which accounts narrows the forecast to one account, and it opens on All accounts. The cash position above the forecast does not change.
- Include frozen accounts adds your frozen accounts to the cash position. The forecast always starts from your open accounts alone, even when you tick this box. It still counts the paper and the recurring items on a frozen account.
Under the controls, the tab has two parts: the cash position, and the cash forecast.
Every figure is in your base currency, which is your organization’s Default currency. Beelocity converts each other currency at the latest rate on file on or before today. If a rate that the position or the forecast needs is missing, that part shows no figure. A note names the currency and the day instead. The Treasurer or the owner of your organization can enter the rate on the Exchange rates page. One account in a currency with no rate stops the whole cash position, even if its balance is zero.
Cash position
This part shows the money that your accounts hold today:
- Total cash position is what your open accounts hold, added up in your base currency, for example 3,200,000 DA. Under it, the card gives the date and the number of accounts.
- By currency splits the same total by the currency of each account. So if you hold dinars, euros and dollars, you see each one. Each bar shows its amount in your base currency.
- By account lists each account in the position, with its type and its balance. It gives the balance in the account’s own currency, and again in your base currency.
The cash position is the book balance, which is what the cash ledger says. It is not the bank’s balance. A received cheque that has not cleared is not in it yet.
The position counts only Open accounts, because you can spend only their money. Tick Include frozen accounts to add the frozen ones. A closed account never counts.
Cash forecast
This part looks ahead over the horizon that you chose. Its heading ends on the horizon, such as the next 90 days.
- Projected closing balance is the balance that the forecast expects when the horizon ends. It starts from today’s balance, which the line under it gives. Then it adds each receipt that is due, and takes off each payment that is due.
- Net cash flow is the money due in, less the money due out, over the whole horizon. If it is above zero, more comes in than goes out.
- Cash flow by window gives the money in and the money out in each window, and the projected balance at its end. Two charts head the card. The Projected balance is a line across the windows. Each window’s Net flow is a column, green when more comes in and red when more goes out. Both charts put the earliest window on the left, in every language. The table under them gives each window’s figures.
- Forecast detail lists each movement that the forecast expects, by date. The Source column says where it comes from: a sales invoice, a supplier invoice, a received cheque, an issued cheque or a recurring item. A bill of exchange shows as a cheque there. The Memo column gives the document’s number, or the recurring item’s label.
The forecast puts each movement in a window by its date. The windows are Already past due, Today, Next 7 days, 8 to 30 days, 31 to 60 days and 61 days onward. The last window runs to the end of the horizon. So with a horizon of 30 days, the last two windows stay empty. Each window shows even when it is empty, so the balance reads from one window to the next.
Already past due holds each open invoice, approved bill and piece of paper whose due date has passed, however old it is. A recurring item’s past date is not there. The forecast skips that date, and counts the item from its first date that has not passed yet.
If the projected balance is below zero at the end of a window, a warning names the first such window. For example: The projected balance falls to −150,000 DA by the end of the 8 to 30 days window. Plan a receipt, a transfer or financing before then. The warning names the first window below zero, and not the lowest one.
Scope to one account. Pick an account in Which accounts to see that account alone. The forecast then starts from that account’s balance. It counts only the cheques and bills of exchange on that account, and the recurring items that name it. Sales invoices and supplier invoices name no account, so a forecast for one account leaves them all out. They count only when Which accounts says All accounts. If you pick a frozen or closed account, Beelocity shows no forecast, and it says why.
Where the forecast numbers come from
Each line of the forecast comes from a record that you already keep, on its due date:
- Sales invoices that are Sent, Partially paid or Past due count as money in, for what the client still owes.
- Supplier invoices that are Approved or Partially paid count as money out, for what you still owe.
- Received cheques and bills of exchange count as money in while they are Received, Remitted for collection or Remitted for discount. When one clears, the forecast stops counting it. If a receipt created it, its money is then in your cash position.
- Issued cheques and bills of exchange count as money out while they are Issued or Presented.
- Recurring cash items count on each of their dates in the horizon, while they are active. You keep them on the Recurring Cash Items page.
A purchase order never counts. The forecast counts its supplier invoice when the bill reaches Approved.
The forecast counts received paper on its due date, and it adds no delay for the bank. To see how many days your bank takes to pay, read Average days to be paid on the Treasury Reports page.
Beelocity converts a foreign amount at today’s rate, even when the money is due later. So the forecast is a plan, and not a fixed figure.