Cash flow forecasting and working capital
Build a short-term cash forecast from real payment timing, spot the week the money runs short before it happens, explain the gap between profit and cash, and read working capital and the current ratio.
- Level
- Intermediate
- Length
- About 50 minutes
- Contents
- 3 lessons · 1 video · final exam
- Status
- Published · updated 1 Oct 2026
Skills you'll practise
- Calculate weekly closing balances from an opening balance, receipts and payments
- Forecast customer receipts from a collection pattern rather than invoice due dates
- Identify the source document behind each forecast line
- Identify when a forecast breaches a minimum buffer or overdraft limit and propose actions
- Calculate working capital and the current ratio from a balance sheet extract
- Compare forecast with actual and update the forecast's assumptions
Course outline
- 1.Cash flow forecasting and working capitalVideo · 2 min
- 2.Why profitable businesses run out of cashLesson · 14 min
- 3.Building a weekly forecastLesson · 18 min
- 4.Acting on the forecast and working capitalLesson · 16 min
- 5.Cash flow forecasting and working capital: knowledge checkKnowledge check · 19 questions
- 6.Two payments the forecast can't affordScenario
- 7.Final exam9 questions · passing it completes the course, so people who already know the material can test out
Sources it draws on
The lessons and questions are written from these references, so learners can go back to the original.
- U.S. SEC: Beginners' Guide to Financial Statements (balance sheet, income statement, cash flow statement; working capital, debt-to-equity and inventory turnover)
- General bookkeeping practice (journals, ledgers, reconciliations, schedules, review and sign-off)
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