Cash flow is the term businesses use for the constant cycle of income and expenditures. They monitor the cash flow to ensure that there is sufficient overlap of income to cover expenditures and enable the business to meet its obligations. You can approach your cash flow problems in a number of ways that vary in complexity but accomplish the same goal. Using a pad of paper and a calculator, project your budget into the future a year or so, to show you what kind of balancing acts you will have to perform and when. Depending on your facility with computers and the software you own, easier and more sophisticated approaches are possible. Create a spreadsheet that lists your expected income and expenses in particular months or quarters of the year, you can see how the bottom line adjusts across the period. What opportunities might capture a cash reserve to get you past a future shortfall? At what time of year might you need to borrow short-term to reach the more lucrative months that will follow? Set up a checkbook accounting program in which you enter all anticipated revenues and expenses for the coming year. |
