Startup 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: Customer revenue, Equity investment rounds, Convertible notes / SAFEs, Grants and R&D tax credits
• Cash out lines ready to use: Salaries and contractor fees, Cloud hosting and software, Office or co-working, Marketing and paid acquisition
• 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 Startup example
• Excel (.xlsx) and Google Sheets versions

Who it’s for

For founders who need to know their runway, plan a raise and show investors a credible cash plan with little or no trading history. The template is built for owners, managers and bookkeepers of startup 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.
• Funding Schedule: planned funding: rounds, notes, grants and debt, with the month you expect the money to land.
• Runway: monthly burn, months of runway and the latest date to start raising, read from the 12-Month tab.
• 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 Funding Schedule tab works

The Funding Schedule tab lists large, irregular payments with the month each starts, how many payments there are and how often they repeat. The example includes pre-seed safe, seed round and r&d tax credit. Each one is routed to the right line of the forecast, and there are spare rows for your own.

The Runway tab reads the 12-Month forecast and shows operating burn excluding funding, months of runway left at each month end, the month cash runs out and the latest month to start raising, allowing 6 months to close a round.

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: customer revenue, equity investment rounds, convertible notes / safes, grants and r&d tax credits and venture debt. Cash out: salaries and contractor fees, cloud hosting and software, office or co-working, marketing and paid acquisition, legal and accounting, equipment and recruiting fees. 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 Funding Schedule 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 Startup cash flow guide or how to make a cash flow forecast.