Walkthrough: Make cash flow forecasts using financial reports

This walkthrough describes how you can use the financial reports feature to make cash flow forecasts. Financial reports perform calculations that cannot be done directly in the chart of cash flow accounts. In the financial reports, you can set up subtotals for cash flow receipts and disbursements. These subtotals can be included in new totals that can then be used to make cash flow forecasts.

About this walkthrough

This walkthrough describes the following tasks:

• Setting up a new cash flow financial report name.
• Setting up financial report lines.
• Setting up a new column definition.
• Assigning a column definition to a financial report.
• Viewing and printing the cash flow forecast.

Prerequisites

To complete this walkthrough, you will need:

• Business Central
• A cash flow worksheet with registered lines

Roles

This walkthrough demonstrates tasks that are performed by the following user role:

• Controller

Story

Ken is a controller at CRONUS who makes monthly cash flow forecasts. Ken includes finance, sales, purchase, and fixed assets in the forecasts, and presents to CFO Sara for business insight.

Set up a new financial report name

The financial report name is the name you give the cash flow forecast that includes a series of defined lines and a column definition.

Set up a new financial report name

1. Select Search (Alt+Q) in the upper-right corner, enter Financial Reports, and then choose the related link.
2. On the Financial Reports page, choose New to create a new cash flow financial report name.
3. In the Name field, enter Forecast.
4. In the Description field, enter Cash Flow Forecast.
5. Leave the Row Definition and Column Definition fields blank.

Set up row definition lines

After a financial report name is set up, Ken defines each line in the cash flow financial report. Ken defines lines to be shown in reports in addition to lines that are only for calculation purposes.

Set up row definition lines

1. On the Financial Reports page, select the new Forecast financial report you created, then choose the Edit Row Definition action.

2. On the Row Definition page, enter each line as shown in the following table.

   Tip

   Use the Insert CF Accounts function to quickly mark, in the cash flow accounts chart, the cash flow accounts you want and copy them to row definition lines.

   Row No.	Description	Totaling Type	Totaling	Row Type	Amount Type	Show
   R10	Receivables	Cash Flow Entry Accounts	10	Net Change	Net Amount	Yes
   R10	Open sales orders	Cash Flow Entry Accounts	20	Net Change	Net Amount	Yes
   R10	Rentals	Cash Flow Entry Accounts	30	Net Change	Net Amount	Yes
   R10	Financial assets	Cash Flow Entry Accounts	40	Net Change	Net Amount	Yes
   R10	Fixed assets disposal	Cash Flow Entry Accounts	50	Net Change	Net Amount	Yes
   R10	Private investments	Cash Flow Entry Accounts	60	Net Change	Net Amount	Yes
   R10	Miscellaneous receipts	Cash Flow Entry Accounts	70	Net Change	Net Amount	Yes
   R10	Open service orders	Cash Flow Entry Accounts	80	Net Change	Net Amount	Yes
   R20	Total cash receipts	Formula	R10	Net Change	Net Amount	Yes
   R30	Payables	Cash Flow Entry Accounts	1010	Net Change	Net Amount	Yes
   R30	Open purchase orders	Cash Flow Entry Accounts	1020	Net Change	Net Amount	Yes
   R30	Personnel costs	Cash Flow Entry Accounts	1030	Net Change	Net Amount	Yes
   R30	Running costs	Cash Flow Entry Accounts	1040	Net Change	Net Amount	Yes
   R30	Finance costs	Cash Flow Entry Accounts	1050	Net Change	Net Amount	Yes
   R30	Investments	Cash Flow Entry Accounts	1070	Net Change	Net Amount	Yes
   R30	Private consumptions	Cash Flow Entry Accounts	1090	Net Change	Net Amount	Yes
   R30	VAT due	Cash Flow Entry Accounts	1100	Net Change	Net Amount	Yes
   R30	Other expenses	Cash Flow Entry Accounts	1110	Net Change	Net Amount	Yes
   R40	Total cash disbursements	Formula	R30	Net Change	Net Amount	Yes
   R50	Surplus	Formula	R20+R40	Net Change	Net Amount	Yes
   R60	Cash flow funds	Cash Flow Entry Accounts	2100	Net Change	Net Amount	Yes
   R70	Total cash flow	Formula	R50+R60	Net Change	Net Amount	Yes

   Note

   The row number R10 is used to capture the account totals for receivables. The row number R20 is used to calculate the sum of all cash receipts. The row number R30 is used to capture the account totals for payables. The row number R40 is used to calculate the sum of all cash disbursements. The row number R50 is used to capture the sum of cash surplus. The row number R60 is used to capture the liquid funds. The row number R70 is used to calculate the forecasted cash flow.

Set up a new column definition

Before printing the cash flow forecast, Ken needs to create the column definition for the numerical information. In the columns, Ken defines the information needed to use from the lines.

• The first column has the number C10 with the title Amount and contains the net change.
• The second column has the number C20 with the title Balance at Date and contains the transactions for the period.
• The third column has the number C30 with the title Entire Year and contains the net change in the balances for the entire fiscal year.
• Finally, Ken assigns the column definition as the default option for the Forecast financial report.

Set up a new column definition

1. On the Financial Reports page, select the new Forecast financial report name you created. On the Home tab, in the Process group, choose Edit Column Definition.

2. Create a new column definition with the name Cash Flow.

3. Choose the OK button.

4. Enter each line exactly as shown in the following table.

   Column No.	Column Header	Column Type	Ledger Entry Type	Amount Type	Show
   C10	Amount	Net Change	Entries	Net Amount	Always
   C20	Amount Until Date	Balance at Date	Entries	Net Amount	Always
   C30	Entire Fiscal Year	Entire Fiscal Year	Entries	Net Amount	Always

Assig the column definition to the financial report name

Ken is now ready to assign the column definition to the financial report name.

Assign the column definition to the financial report name

1. In the Financial Reports page, select the Forecast financial report, then choose the Edit Column Definition action.
2. In the Name field, choose the column definition Cash Flow to assign as the default column definition.

View and print the cash flow forecast

1. On the Financial Reports page, choose the Forecast financial report Financial analytics overview to view the cash flow forecast.
2. On the Financial Report page, you can select an amount and then view the cash flow forecast entries that make up the amount. In addition, you can view the formula used to calculate that amount. You can also filter the amounts by date and dimension.
3. Choose the Print action to print the cash flow forecast.

Related information

Prepare financial reporting
Analyzing Cash Flow in Your Company
Financial analytics overview
Work with Business Central

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