June 16, 2026

The 13 week Rolling Cash Flow Forecast - Powerful Business Strategies

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Transcript

The 13 week Rolling Cash Flow Forecast - Most business owners look at cash flow in the rearview mirror. A 13-week rolling forecast is the windshield. It's what sophisticated CFOs use to spot cash crunches before they happen, time large purchases, and negotiate with vendors and banks from a position of strength.

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Hi, you have done to censure wow for you.

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This is the Adventures pipe Man here on W four

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c Y Radio, and we're back with Michael Barberita, our

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next step CFO, powerful business strategy expert here on the

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Positively pipe Man segment, and we're going to talk this

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week about the thirteen week rolling cash flow forecast. You know,

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thirteen weeks, Michael, is a pretty magical number because they

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use that in a lot of industries as kind of

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a benchmark of things. So it's I think it's interesting

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we're talking about that today.

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Yeah, you know, it represents a quarter of the year.

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So but what we what I what I find is

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is that business owners with cash flow problems, what the

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thirteen week cash flow forecast does is gives them real

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perspective on where the weaknesses are, how they what they

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need to do to improve the forecast if the forecast

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shows negative cash flow. So's it's a great tool that

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I use with my clients because they don't know what's

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causing the cash flow problem, but when they see it

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laid out over a thirteen week period and they see

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the align items of inflows and outflows, they really have

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a good perspective and the timing of those inflows and outflows.

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They really have a good perspective as to what needs

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to be done to alleviate that cash flow problem. So

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it might not just be receivables. It might be paying

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certain bills too early. A lot of business owners pay

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bills too early. A lot of a lot of business owners,

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they like they judge everything by their bank account, you

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know that, by what's in the bank, and so, oh,

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let me pay these bills and so I can forget

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about those bills. But when they're not due yet, you know,

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and it causes cash flow problems and they don't realize it.

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Yeah, I want to expand on that a little bit,

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because there's a lot of business people that would think

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it was a good thing to pay their bills early.

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Well, only if you get a discount, it's good then,

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but other than that, it's not good at all. Paying

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them on time is good, but not early early. It

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doesn't do anything for your credit score or anything like that,

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and it doesn't, but it reduces your cash flow. And

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you know, things happen, you know, all of a sudden,

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you want to pay for something that and you know

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the money because you paid some bills or some group

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of invoice bills too early, and so it destroys the

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purpose of having the cash flow to begin with. If

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you can't do what you need to do, So paying

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bills too early is a big problem. But also, you know,

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just general cash flow problems when you see it on

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a thirteen week and thirteen weeks is just one spreadsheet,

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it's one look, and every inflow and outflow is itemized,

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and when you see that, you get perspective. I just

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did it for a client recently, as a matter of fact,

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I think it was three weeks ago, where they were

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having a cash flow problem. We did a thirteen week

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forecast and he isolated the areas that he can shift

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and move and improve, and all of a sudden, his

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thirteen week forecast is now positive. And so now he

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just has to manage his inflows to make sure that

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the inflows because the expenses are usually good and predictable.

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But then he just has to manage the inflows to

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make sure that those are hitting. And when they're not,

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he has to get on the phone and call for more,

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you know, call his receivable list. But but the bottom

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line is is that he really understands and knows how

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his cash flow is flowing, and how to make it positive.

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I mean he literally manipulated. He said, I don't have

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to pay this now, I don't have to pay that now,

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I don't have to pay this now. I move this

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over there and then uh and then he said, you

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know there's a customer that takes advantage of discount of

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his two percent early paid discounts, and so he moves

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some of that receivable uh, more more present to more

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near term, and all of a sudden, his cash flow

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is negative. Now it's forecasters to be positive. And since

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that time he's had a positive cash flow, it's been

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about three weeks and so. But because he could see it,

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it's all up a perspective. Lots of times business owners

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I got a cash flow problem and they don't know

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where what's causing it. With the is how to fix it.

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Sometimes when you just see it, and that's why I

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say that the thirteen week cash flow forecast, it's like

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the windshield, you know, just stop, you can see what's ahead,

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and you can actually see it and you can avoid

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it or add to it or amend it, and it

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makes a use difference. And business owners don't understand that.

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They think it's just all you're going to show me

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is doom and gloom is what they think. And sometimes

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that's the case, but there's ways to manage that dooming gloom.

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So my question is is this what about for those

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people that think to themselves, well, you know, yes, you're right, Michael.

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But also in the same token, uh, you know, I

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pay the bill early because I'm more afraid that what

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if when the bill comes then I don't have to mind.

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At least I know the bills are paid. So if

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I do, Yeah, if I have something come up that

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could cause it cash flow problem, well if I paid

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for that for the cash, then I wouldn't have the

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money to pay the bill. What would you say to

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those people.

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Well, a couple things. Number one, the thirteen week cash

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flow forecast would show you that you do have the

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ability to pay it or you don't. That's number one. Yeah,

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And then if something happens where something unexpected happens, which

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always happens in business. So if something unexpected happens you

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can't pay it, you pick up the phone, you call

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the vendor and said, look, I have this emergency that

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came up. Can I have a few more days? I

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used when I was at Escape business sting. If I

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ran into a cash flow problem, I would call I

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would call up the vendors and say, can you give

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me an extra thirty days? And because I'm always paid

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on time a B. They trusted me. Why did they

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trust me? They trusted me because every year at the

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annual trade show I met with them. They knew who

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I was, They saw my face. I watched in with

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financial statements, so that they were familiar with me. When

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you develop those kinds of relationship with vendors, you can

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ask for just about anything that's important. Yeah, So that's

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how I that's how I address that situation. You've gotta

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you've gotta, you know, really develop good relationships with your

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with your suppliers. Some people, some people, uh uh, just

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pay the supplier, don't develop a relationship with them, and

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then call up and ask for thirty days more, and

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you know, the vendor skeptical, you know, but you know what,

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you take it anyway. If the vendor skeptical, the vendor

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says no, you just take it anyway, take the time

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and just keep them posted and maybe you can pay

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it the next week and not take it extra thirty

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days maybe you can pay it the week after. Businesses

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run that way. It just it just does cash flow.

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Most negative cash flow could be managed with the thirteen

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week rolling forecast. It's very it's and and by the way,

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it accounts for emergencies if an emergency comes up, there's

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ways to manage that.

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And to your point, like if you don't develop a

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relationship with them, because you're somebody that maybe is late

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with your bills, so you kind of avoid you're not

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going to have those times where they're gonna, you know,

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bend the rules for you.

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Right, that's right, I want go ahead.

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I was gonna say. I also find interesting that people

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get like a zero interest for six months, zero interest

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for twelve months, and they pay it off early. Why, Yeah,

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you're not paying other people's money, man, Right, you're not right.

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You could d'st that money. You could do it a

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lot of things if that's in your business, that is,

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you could do a lot of things with that money,

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a lot of Yeah, exactly, they don't they Yeah, they're

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you know, that's another thing that as the owners don't understand.

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They don't understand the opportunity cost of money absolutely and

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having cash flow.

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Yeah, and the other thing is too, why do you

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bother getting a loan if you're gonna pay it off

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early and you didn't really need the money?

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Very true, very true.

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So tell everybody how they can reach out to you

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to have some you know, conversations more about this subject

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than how you can help their business to have some

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powerful business strategies.

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Excellent, glad to do that. So if you go to

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NEXTSTEPCFO dot net and the right hand upper right hand corner,

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you'll see this diagnostic that you can click on, and

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what it'll do is within five minutes, it will identify

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three strategies that your competition isn't doing, based on the

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answers that very customized to your business, based on the

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answers that you give it, and the financial impact of

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each strategy, some information on the strategy and how to

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implement it. And I think it's a terrific, terrific diagnostic

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for business owners who are really stuck as to how

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to implement something that the competition isn't NEXTCFO dot at

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STEXSTEPCFO dot net right hand corner orange button.

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Nice. Well, thanks again for your wealth of information for

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our businesses out there, and hopefully they got some powerful

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business strategies for their powerful.

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Business Thank you Dane, thanks for having me.

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You got it. And that's it for the adventures of

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pipe Man today. But next week we will have our

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resume expert Michael Barbarita back on and we will talk

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about position of market dominance as employer of choice. So

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don't stay tuned, but come back.

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Thank you for listening to the adventures of pipemin on

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w for CUI Radio.

The 13 week Rolling Cash Flow Forecast - Powerful Business Strategies

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