Vaulta

Why 13 weeks works

A 13-week forecast is detailed enough to guide near-term decisions while staying close enough to actual bank activity to remain credible. It gives finance teams a common view of expected receipts, committed payments and the liquidity available for new decisions.

The goal is not perfect prediction. The goal is a model that changes as the business changes, and makes uncertainty visible early.

Start with the cash you can verify

Begin with the current cleared balance for every relevant account and currency. Separate operating cash from restricted or ring-fenced funds, then identify transfers that are already in flight.

This opening position should reconcile to source data. If it does not, every later week will inherit the same error.

Group inflows by behaviour

Forecasting each invoice individually can create false precision. Group inflows by the way they behave:

Contracted recurring revenue
High-confidence receivables
Variable or usage-based revenue
One-off financing or tax receipts

Apply timing assumptions to each group and record who owns those assumptions. When an expected receipt moves, the team should be able to see which judgement changed.

Treat outflows as policy decisions

Payroll, tax, debt service and committed supplier payments should be scheduled first. Discretionary spending can then be layered in with a clear approval rule.

This turns the forecast from a passive report into an operating tool. Teams can ask which payments are fixed, which can move and what minimum liquidity buffer must remain.

Review variance every week

Compare forecast to actual by category, not just by total balance. A small net variance can hide a large collections miss and an equally large delayed payment.

Over time, the variance history shows where assumptions are consistently optimistic or conservative. That evidence is what makes the next forecast more useful.

Keep one accountable version

A forecast works best when bank balances, assumptions, changes and approvals live together. Vaulta helps finance teams keep that operating context in one workspace, so the latest view is clear without reconciling several spreadsheet versions.