13-Week Direct Cash Flow Forecast: revolver, working capital bridge, weekly variance

The instrument a treasurer, a lender or a turnaround adviser asks for first: thirteen weeks of cash in and cash out, by week, with the facility that keeps the company liquid modelled properly. Direct method throughout, so every line is a real receipt or payment, not an accrual.

• Inputs: week 1 date, opening cash, minimum cash to hold, revolver limit, opening balance and rate, opening receivables, payables and inventory, and the collection and payment curves that unwind the opening balances week by week.
• Receipts: opening receivables collected on the curve (computed), collections of new sales, cash sales, other operating receipts, asset sales, equity or term loan receipts.
• Disbursements: opening payables paid on the curve (computed), new purchases, payroll, rent and utilities, other operating costs, VAT and payroll taxes, corporate tax instalments, capex, term loan service.
• Forecast: opening cash, receipts, disbursements, revolver interest, net cash flow, then the revolver draw or repayment that holds the minimum cash balance within the facility limit, closing cash, revolver balance, availability, headroom and cumulative net cash flow, with week-ending dates.
• Headline: lowest cash and its week, peak revolver, minimum availability, weeks with the facility exhausted.
• Working capital bridge: EBITDA to operating cash through the change in receivables, payables and inventory, with closing balances derived from the direct forecast and DSO and DPO at period end.
• Variance: paste actual receipts, disbursements and closing cash each Monday; variances, cumulative drift and forecast accuracy per week.
  
  

The revolver logic, balances and headline figures were recomputed in Python from the same inputs and matched cell by cell before listing. Every default is an example value. Live formulas, no macros, no locked cells. Excel and Google Sheets.

Who it is for: CFOs and controllers running a weekly cash call, restructuring and turnaround advisers, lenders monitoring a borrower, founders in a tight quarter.