Cash flow forecasting is an integral part of managing your nonprofit’s finances but it’s one area that we see many nonprofit leaders inadvertently neglecting. We get it! A cash flow forecast is not something that’s easily generated from Quickbooks, your bookkeeper probably doesn’t have enough info to do it herself, and it involves a spreadsheet.

Cash flow forecasting does NOT have to be scary or take more than 30 minutes a month (seriously), but it WILL help you regain control over your organization and confidence in your financial sustainability.

Here are three quick tips:

1. Understand your cash inflows and outflows each month. You should be able to answer these questions: How long do your donors take to pay you? Which months are the strongest? What are your average monthly expenses? Do your expenses fluctuate throughout the year or are they pretty steady?
2. Check your bank balance weekly. Neglecting your cash accounts will NOT help you regain control and confidence in your financial management. Know your numbers!
3. Plot all these numbers into a spreadsheet and update it monthly. Lucky for you, we’ve created a template that will help you do this yourself, very easily, along with a video that walks you through exactly how to use the template so it is completely foolproof. (It’s all included in our template!)

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