Need a 13-week cash-flow forecast? Build the decision view.

Use one column for each of the next thirteen weeks. Start with reconciled, available cash—not the general-ledger balance by assumption. Add expected receipts by customer and expected date. Subtract payroll, payroll taxes, sales taxes, debt service, rent, software, vendors, cards, owner draws, and planned purchases in the week the money is expected to leave.

The SCORE thirteen-week spreadsheet is a workable starting point for an owner or an adviser. If the books are already current, Intuit Enterprise Suite also produces a thirteen-week forecast from 18 months to two years of financial data and permits planned events and date adjustments. A product forecast is still an estimate; the owner must inspect the dates and assumptions.

Maintain at least a base case and a downside case. The downside case should move uncertain receipts later and preserve committed payments unless there is a real approved change. Replace each completed week with actual cash, explain the variance, and roll a new week onto the end. That discipline matters more than an elaborate first workbook.

Hire a bookkeeper when transactions, reconciliations, receivables, or payables are not current. Hire a CPA when the question concerns accounting treatment, taxes, or signed work. Hire a fractional CFO or other senior finance adviser when the forecast changes financing, hiring, restructuring, pricing, or material spending. One person may cover more than one function, but the engagement should state which judgment is included.

The SBA finance guide distinguishes bookkeepers, CPAs, and online services and names receivables, payables, available cash, bank reconciliation, and payroll among the records someone must manage. Give the adviser the source workbook, the assumptions, the decision date, and the specific questions. Ask for a reviewed forecast and a short decision note, not only a corrected spreadsheet.

Suppose a twelve-person agency begins week six with $92,000 in available cash. Its base case expects a $55,000 customer receipt on Monday and $48,000 of payroll on Friday. If every other line stays the same, moving that receipt from week six to week eight lowers the week-six ending cash by $55,000.

That difference creates a decision queue. The owner can confirm the customer date, defer a proposed hire or purchase, move an approved payment, seek financing, or bring in a senior finance adviser. The forecast does not choose among those routes. It shows which week depends on the assumption and how much room remains if the assumption fails.

When the week closes, replace the forecast receipt with the actual bank movement and explain the variance. If the customer still has not paid, the downside case becomes the new starting point. A forecast that is never replaced with actual cash is a presentation, not an operating record.

ZEFA is the Fidelic finance operations manager. ZEFA reads the approved bank and bookkeeping records, maintains the thirteen-week view, identifies exceptions, asks for missing dates, and posts the owner’s decision brief in Slack. The work is visible where the team already reads it.

The cash problem is common enough to deserve a sober source. A Federal Reserve Banks survey yielded 6,131 employer-firm responses. Of those, 4,920 answered at least one question in the optional payments module; the payment-challenges chart covers 4,858 firms, while the payment-terms chart covers 4,853. About four in five firms in the challenge analysis reported at least one payment-related problem, and 28 percent in the terms analysis said their largest revenue share arrived after delivery. The report uses a weighted convenience sample, not a census.

ZEFA does not move money or decide whether to hire, borrow, or defer a payment. ZEFA makes the assumptions, exceptions, and timing consequences reviewable. Read the current price and trial terms and Fidelic’s systems and data boundaries before connecting financial records.