Farm & Agriculture Cash Flow Forecast Template

What’s inside

• 13-week weekly forecast linked to a 12-month monthly view and 3-year outlook
• Cash in lines ready to use: Crop sales, Livestock sales, Government program payments, Operating loan draws
• Cash out lines ready to use: Seed, feed and fertiliser, Fuel, Labour, Equipment payments
• Best, expected and worst case scenarios with one switch
• Actual vs forecast tracker with variance highlighting
• Dashboard: lowest balance, runway, buffer alerts and charts
• Loan, tax and one-off payment schedules
• Start-here tab with a filled-in Farm & Agriculture example
• Excel (.xlsx) and Google Sheets versions

Who it’s for

Plans for the long gap between planting costs and harvest income, plus operating loans and subsidy timing. The template is built for owners, managers and bookkeepers of farm & agriculture businesses who want a forecast that already speaks their language, rather than a generic spreadsheet they have to rebuild.

What’s inside

• Start Here: setup steps, colour key and a guide to every tab.
• Dashboard: cash today, the lowest balance in the next 13 weeks and 12 months, weeks below your buffer, runway, actual vs forecast and two charts.
• Settings: start date, bank balance, minimum buffer, currency, the expected / best / worst case switch and 3-year growth rates.
• Crop Calendar: the farm year’s big cash events: harvest sales, input purchases and operating loan draws and repayments.
• 13-Week: weekly receipts and payments for the next quarter, with automatic week dates and buffer warnings.
• 12-Month: the monthly forecast for the year, with a check row that compares it with the 13-week view.
• 3-Year: an annual outlook built from the 12-month forecast and your growth rates.
• Actuals: what really happened each month, typed in from your bank statement or accounts.
• Variance: actual minus forecast for every line, in green and red, with year-to-date totals.

How the Crop Calendar tab works

The Crop Calendar tab lists large, irregular payments with the month each starts, how many payments there are and how often they repeat. The example includes harvest sales, harvest sales, stored grain sale, program payment and operating loan draw. Each one is routed to the right line of the forecast, and there are spare rows for your own.

Green numbers on the 12-Month tab come from these calculations. You can change the assumptions on the tab, or type over a green cell if you’d rather enter a figure yourself.

Cash lines already in place

Cash in: crop sales, livestock sales, government program payments, operating loan draws and custom work income. Cash out: seed, feed and fertiliser, fuel, labour, equipment payments, land rent, operating loan repayments, veterinary costs and insurance. Rename any line, or insert a row inside a section and the totals include it.

Set up in about 20 minutes

1. On Settings, enter the start date, today’s bank balance and your minimum cash buffer.
2. On the Crop Calendar tab, replace the example assumptions with your own.
3. Enter the remaining cash in and cash out lines on the 12-Month and 13-Week tabs, in the period each amount actually moves.
4. Check the Dashboard for your lowest balance and any red weeks or months.
5. At each month end, type actual figures on the Actuals tab and review the Variance tab.

Excel, Google Sheets and delivery

The workbook is a standard .xlsx file with no macros or external links, tested in Excel and Google Sheets. After payment you get an instant download link on screen and by email, plus a quick-start PDF. For background on the method, read the Farm & Agriculture cash flow guide or how to make a cash flow forecast.