Before you start working on preparing a budget and a cash flow it is important that you attend to some basic setup steps that are found on the Parameters screen.
START DATE
One of the most important things is to actually set up the start date. As the model is monthly setting up the start date is important can be changed at any time. If It's critical that you get this right because the system will generate a further 12 dates for each month of the year from the point that you start.
The important thing in this product is that you don't have to align the dates with your company's financial year end or tax year end, you can start at the point just before a critical cash flow time like the pandemic or december closure. You may have a year end that's June but your problem is now in April so it would best to start with March and work through the next 12 months.
If you can start at the first month of the year and you have a set of financials then that is something to work with, however if you are in the middle of a year end and you see a cash flow problem coming now make the start date now and the system will generate the months required. In this situation estimate the opening balance sheet based on the latest balance sheet that you have.
From the Parameters menu option select Parameters and the following screen will show. On the start up date click on the down arrow and choose the right starting date. The first date that you can use is set to Jan 2022. If you set the date and you wish to start again click on and choose another date.
There are buttons on the bottom of the screen that will help you enter the business name, preparers name and the firm's name. It would be just as easy to type in that detail in the cells provided.
The following must be addressed for an existing business:-
Once you have addressed the above three aspects you are ready to deal with entering the data going forward so that a cash flow forecast can be generated.
and choose another date. 