Why can I be profitable and still short on cash?

Profit measures what you earned; cash measures when the money actually moves. Your P&L books a sale the day you invoice it, but your bank account only changes when the customer pays, often weeks later. That timing gap is what makes a profitable business run short.

Why 13 weeks and not a 12-month budget?

A 12-month budget is for planning; the 13-week is for timing and survival. Thirteen weeks is far enough out to give you room to act on a shortfall and close enough in that the numbers are still credible. You want both, because they answer different questions.

Isn't cash flow forecasting my bookkeeper's job?

Bookkeeping records what already happened. Forecasting cash is forward-looking work, closer to what a fractional CFO does. Your bookkeeper's monthly close was never designed to tell you what your bank balance will be six weeks from now.

How accurate is a 13-week cash flow forecast?

The near weeks are highly accurate; later weeks less so. Accuracy improves quickly over the first few months as you reconcile forecast against actuals each week and tighten your assumptions. That weekly variance review is what makes the forecast trustworthy.

Why does building this in a spreadsheet usually fail?

Building the forecast once is easy. Maintaining it every week on top of running the business is where it breaks. The spreadsheet goes stale and you stop trusting it. A forecast connected to your bank and invoicing systems stays current without manual re-keying, which is what keeps it useful.

Does Walden do my taxes as part of this?

No. This is finance and operations work, not accounting. We don't do tax, attest, or compliance work. You keep your accountant for all of that. We give you the forward-looking view of cash that a monthly close doesn't provide.

How do I know where my cash is actually going?

Start with a free Profit Review, a plain-English teardown of your books on read-only access that shows where money is leaking and where timing gaps are hiding. It's the fastest way to see why cash feels unpredictable and whether a rolling forecast would fix it.

Finance

How to Fix Cash Flow Unpredictability for Good

Revenue is up, you're profitable on paper, and payroll still feels like a coin flip. Here's the discipline that turns cash from a mystery into a number you can see coming.

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