Using the Cash Flow feature

Cash flow is the movement of money into and out of your business. You can use the Cash Flow feature to produce a cash flow report. This will enable you to analyze your cash flow so that you can maintain adequate cash flow for your business, and determine any problems with or ways to improve it.

Select Cash Flow from the Setup menu. The Cash Flow dialogue box opens.

Each column corresponds to a cash flow period (month) and each row to an account. You can project all of your cash inflow and outflow accounts manually (projected cash flow), or produce a cash flow report from the transactions that you’ve entered in the program (actual cash flow).

With an actual cash flow:

• all accounts are used with except current earnings and retained earnings
• values are calculated based on the transactions for each account, and you can’t edit them
• the beginning cash on hand is derived from the opening balances of all bank accounts
• the calculated values include opening balances for income and expense accounts, as you may have started the books at mid-year 
Note: Accounts receivable or accounts payable documents aren’t used when calculating the amounts.
• inventory accounts aren’t included

 With a projected cash flow:

• the beginning cash on hand is derived from the opening balances of accounts you select
• you can edit all fields except primary accounts
• inventory rows may or may not be displayed, depending on what you selected in the Cash Flow Setup dialogue box

If you’re a sole proprietor or a partnership, you can project your personal advance and personal drawing accounts, and your cash inflow and outflow accounts.

To enter an amount for a particular account, locate the account’s row and then enter the values for each cash flow period in the appropriate column. Alternatively, you can enter the total amount for the account in period 12 or click Auto Fill… to automatically enter values in the cash flow. Only three cash flow periods are displayed at one time. Use the horizontal scroll bar to view other cash flow periods.

Additional features:

• The Description column lists all valid cash flow accounts that you set up in the chart of accounts. If your business is a sole proprietor or a partnership, it will include all income, expense, personal drawing and personal advance accounts. If your business is a corporation, it will only include cash inflow and outflow accounts.
Note: Cash inflow accounts break down all cash coming into the operation during the current fiscal year and cash outflow accounts break down all cash going out of the operation during the fiscal year.
• The Summary column shows the totals for each account.
• The Last Year column shows the totals for the last year. Use the horizontal scroll bar to switch between the last year and summary values.
• Select the Projection or Actual check boxes to view the applicable version of the cash flow.
• Select a year from the drop-down menu in the right corner to create a projected cash flow or view an actual cash flow for that. 

Last updated on August 26, 2013 by FCC AgExpert