The cash outlook answers one question: if everything already on your books lands when it is due, where does your cash sit over the coming months? It is a roll-forward of dated obligations, not a prediction. There is no trend, no seasonality and no AI in it.
Where do I see it?
As a Cash outlook card on the dashboard, the reports hub and Cash flow, as a line on Profit & Loss, and in full on Cash-flow forecast. It needs the Reports module. In Tally mode the line is deliberately left off the P&L, because a projection does not belong inside a strict statement.
What exactly is it adding up?
Your cash and bank balance today, then, period by period:
- Money due in: invoices that are sent or overdue, net of what has already been paid against them, placed on their due date.
- Money due out: bills you have recorded and not yet paid, less any part payment, placed on their due date.
Closing cash for each period is the previous closing plus what is due in, less what is due out. Anything already past due collapses into the first period; anything falling beyond the window is reported separately as beyond this window rather than being dropped.
Two things follow from that. A row with no due date is not in the forecast at all, which is the most common reason a figure looks wrong. And recurring bills, scheduled payments and payroll are not included; only invoices and recorded bills are.
Why does it sometimes refuse to show anything?
Because there is nothing dated to project. Rather than draw a flat line of zeroes and call it an outlook, the card says not enough dated dues to forecast — add due dates to your invoices and bills and your cash outlook appears here. It needs no history at all. A workspace one week old with two dated invoices gets a real forecast.
Is the number a range or a confidence?
Neither. It is one figure per scenario, and the in-report card always shows the base case. On the full forecast screen you can switch between Base, Best and Worst, which apply fixed adjustments to the money in and out. They are what-ifs you chose, not probabilities Finocket worked out. No confidence level is stated anywhere, because none is computed.
What is it leaving out?
Dues in a currency other than your own are excluded and counted on screen, because two currencies are never added together. Beyond that, the card grounds itself: it prints how much is due in and out, and by when, right under the headline, and every figure links through to the full forecast so you can see the rows behind it.
What is the “dip” warning?
The first period whose projected closing cash falls below your floor, with the low point named. When no period closes below it, the card says so explicitly instead of showing nothing.
Does it need AI or a key?
No. Every figure is computed from your own rows. A connection is needed to read them.
Related: Report insights & your digest, Day Book, Cashbook & Outstanding.