Cash Flow Forecast Skill

When to Use

• - Client asks for a 13-week (or rolling n-week) cash flow forecast
• Need to project runway for a high-burn client (GlowLabs-type)
• Monthly or quarterly cash flow advisory deliverable
• Any time cash position monitoring or scenario modeling is needed
• SOP for the client marks "Cash Flow Forecast: ✅"

NOT for

• - Historical cash flow analysis (use P&L Deep Analysis pipeline)
• Bank reconciliation (use bank-reconciliation.py)
• Full audit of cash flows (use QBO CF report directly)
• Balance sheet projections / full financial models

Script Location

INLINECODE0

Quick Start

CODEBLOCK0

All CLI Options

Flag	Default	Description
INLINECODE1	required	QBO company slug
INLINECODE2

13 | Forecast horizon (weeks) |

| --months | 3 | Months of CF history to pull (1–6) | | --low-cash-threshold | 25000 | Warn when balance < X | | --critical-threshold | 10000 | Critical alert when balance < X | | --account | auto | Specific bank account name filter | | --out | ~/Desktop | Output directory | | --sandbox | false | Use QBO sandbox |

Output Excel Tabs

Tab 1: Cash Flow Summary

• - Current cash position (all bank/cash accounts from Balance Sheet)
• 13-week KPI summary: total inflows, outflows, net flow, end balance
• Burn rate and runway in callout box
• Full weekly trajectory table with alert coloring
• SOP notes printed at top (client-specific warnings)

Tab 2: Weekly Detail

• - Matrix: each row = a CF subcategory, each column = a week
• Inflows section (green) → Outflows section (red)
• Subtotals, Net Flow row, Running Balance row
• Alert coloring: yellow = warn, orange/red = critical

Tab 3: Scenarios

• - Side-by-side: Base | Optimistic | Pessimistic
• 12 KPI rows: inflows, outflows, net, end balance, burn, runway, alert weeks
• Weekly balance comparison table across all 3 scenarios
• Best/Worst delta and % spread columns

Tab 4: Burn Rate

• - Detailed burn metrics (base case)
• Runway comparison table (all 3 scenarios)
• Week-by-week burn trend
• 🔴 High burn emphasis for GlowLabs-type clients

Tab 5: Assumptions

• - All parameters used (thresholds, adjustments, seasonality weights)
• Monthly averages per category (the baseline used)
• Client SOP config summary
• Methodology notes

Tab 6: CDC Log

• - Run-over-run changes: starting cash, burn rate, runway
• Forecast accuracy: compares prior-run predicted starting cash vs. actual
• First run: saves baseline; second+ run shows deltas

Scenario Definitions

Scenario	Collections	Expenses
Base	Historical avg	Historical avg
Optimistic

+10% | Unchanged |

| Pessimistic | -15% | +5% |

Cash Flow Categories

Automatically classified from QBO CF rows:

Operating — Inflows

• - collections: Revenue, AR, Net Income, payment processor receipts
• INLINECODE10: Interest income

Operating — Outflows

• - payroll: Wages, salaries, officer comp, Deel (GlowLabs)
• INLINECODE12: Rent, lease, occupancy
• INLINECODE13: AP, COGS, professional fees, software, subscriptions
• INLINECODE14: Interest expense (SB Paulson: material line)
• INLINECODE15, INLINECODE16

Investing

• - capex: Equipment, property, asset purchases

Financing

• - debt: Loans, line of credit, notes payable
• INLINECODE19: Owner distributions/contributions
• INLINECODE20: SAFE notes (GlowLabs)

Client SOP Integration

The script reads clients/{slug}/sop.md automatically and adjusts:

SOP Signal	Effect
"burn rate", "runway", "high cash burn"	Burn Rate tab emphasized, 🔴 alert
"interest expense"

Interest tracked separately | | "POS collection", "collected at POS" | No AR lag — flat weekly inflow distribution | | "accounts receivable" | AR-based: note 30-45 day receipt lag | | "SAFE" | SAFE financing category added | | "crypto", "wallet", "ETH" | Crypto wallet note added | | "Deel" | Deel inbound classified as expense reduction |

Seasonality Weights

Default week-of-month distribution (configurable in script CONFIG section):

Week	Inflows	Outflows	Rationale
Week 1 (days 1–7)	30%	35%	Collections/payroll land early
Week 2 (days 8–14)

20% | 20% | Mid-month quiet | | Week 3 (days 15–21) | 20% | 25% | Mid-month payroll + rent | | Week 4 (days 22–28) | 30% | 20% | End-month collections | | Week 5 (overflow) | 0% | 0% | Rarely used |

POS clients (e.g. SB Paulson): inflows flattened to equal weekly distribution.

CDC Accuracy Loop

1. 1. First run: saves starting_cash, first_week_balance, avg_monthly_burn, INLINECODE25
2. Second run: compares new starting_cash against prior INLINECODE27
3. Accuracy % = how close the forecast was to reality
4. Burn rate and runway deltas tracked run-over-run
5. Cache stored in INLINECODE28

Low-Cash Alert Colors

Color	Excel Fill	Condition
✅ OK	White	Balance ≥ low threshold
⚠ Warn

Yellow | Balance < $25K (configurable) |

| 🔴 Critical | Orange/Red | Balance < $10K (configurable) |

Client-Specific Notes

GlowLabs (High Burn)

• - --low-cash-threshold 50000 --critical-threshold 25000 recommended
• SOP auto-detected: burn rate tab emphasized with red header
• SAFE financing and Deel categories auto-classified
• Runway is the #1 KPI — shown prominently in Summary tab

SB Paulson / Willo Salons

• - --months 6 for better seasonality (salon business is seasonal)
• POS collection = no AR lag; inflows distributed flat across weeks
• Interest expense tracked as separate operating outflow category
• Cash Flow Forecast frequency: quarterly advisory (per SOP)

Dependencies

pip install openpyxl

Node.js QBO client must be authenticated with a valid token.

Output Naming

CashFlowForecast_{slug}_{YYYY-MM-DD}.xlsx Default output: INLINECODE32

Related Pipelines

• - pl-quick-compare.py — P&L variance analysis
• INLINECODE34 — Controller-level with GL drill-down
• INLINECODE35 — Bank statement reconciliation