Cashflow Forecasting

This document serves as instructions on how to manage Gradient’s Cash Flow Frog account and forecast.

Gradient has not been using the Planned vs. Actual feature thus far. Recommend looking into using it moving forward. More information.

Multiple scenarios can be created by clicking on the + icon at the top of the dashboard.

Any projections that are added on one scenario will be listed under the projections on all scenarios. However, projections can be turned and off for separate scenarios.

Cashflow Projections

When a client is billed, the estimated or known data fees have been added to the invoice as a passthorugh expense. This, ideally, happens on the initial invoice after project startup. Generally, it is also known which vendor(s) will be used.

The moment an invoice is created in QuickBooks, and it is automatically synced with Cash Flow Frog, as long as the expense on the invoice is correctly categorized as a passthrough expense, it will appear as a “Cash In” entry under the Passthrough Liablities account.

To offset the Cash In for money that will eventually be paid out to a vendor for expenses, add a Cash Out projection.\

1. Click Add Projection

2. Fill in the projection (you can add multiple projections at the same time)

   1. Amount: make sure this amount is negative so it shows as a Cash Out
   2. From / To / For: 
   3. Type:
   4. Account:
   5. Details
   6. Repeat: No
   7. Date: Select the estimated data you expect to the invoice payment to be due

3. Click Add Projections

4. Confirm the projection is correctly represented in the forecast.

5. During Finance Days, review passthrough Cash Out projections.

6. Once the passthrough amount has been paid to the vendor (see Bills section) and shows up in the forecast, you can delete the projection.

When invoices are added to Bill.com, they will sync to QuickBooks and subsquently to Cash Flow Frog. CFF tries its best to detect any existing projections that match bills, and it turns off matching projections so they are not double counted in CFF.

Always review which projections are being excluded from the cash flow, as this matching process is not perfect!

Account mapping and how to organize your data on Cashflow Frog

Account types and accounts are initially pulled from Quickbooks but they can be edited in Cash Flow Frog without affecting them in QB. Due to the fact that much of the data pulled from QB is past information that was not cleanly organized/categorized, multiple Types and Accounts have been remapped for clarity and accuracy in the current forecast.

1. Click on name in upper right corner.

2. Select Account mapping.

3. You can move, add, or delete Types and Accounts in this dashboard.

Invoices

What are invoices and how to use them?

The invoice section contains all client invoices that have been entered into Quickbooks.

Cash Flow Frog will automatically move the Expected Date of an invoice if it has not yet been paid. 

It is recommended that if it is known that an invoice payment is going to be delayed, change the Expected Date so it is reflected correctly on the forecast.