Small business owners must make difficult financial decisions almost every day. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, one area that is always difficult to predict is cash and its availability.

Cash flow forecasting is an essential tool for business planning and in today’s post, I will be focusing on the cash flow tool called Float, and why we love it so much at ABJ Solutions.

Float

The Float app is a cash flow forecasting and scenario planning tool directly connected to Xero. When Float was first introduced to the business, we didn’t know whether it was going to satisfy the team and our clients, however, we very quickly determined that it was going to be our tool of choice as it is easy to use and the power of Float is its ability to help businesses navigate through the ups and downs of cash management.

Float for cash flow forecasting  

Float can make forecasting far easier, and more visual, than a traditional numbers-heavy spreadsheet. Tracking budgets vs actuals, Float provides a more realistic view of cash – allowing business owners to understand their cash position at a glance, with the additional benefits of creating ‘what if’ scenarios.

Encouraging insight and confidence in financial planning, cash flow forecasting can help to ensure the prosperous future that every business owner wants.

What do we love most about Float?

  1. Easy to learn and use
  • Navigation around Float is quick and easy. You start off with a quick tour of the app and you can learn to navigate in next to no time.
  • Its intuitive design helps anyone from a bookkeeper to a financial manager create an easy to understand cash flow from scratch.
  • Provides graphics that are easy to read, allowing the user to make quick decisions at a moment’s notice. It has data shown daily, weekly, and monthly.
  1. Flexibility
  • Each business has different ways they would like to manage their cash flow. Float gives you the option to manage your forecast by invoices or through a spreadsheet format.
  • Setting up the forecast is quite easy as the app automatically shows invoices that are past due dates, past expected dates, and the expected cash ins and outs.
  • Input can be made into a spreadsheet format where you can take amounts from Excel and copy-paste them into the app. Click “Save Changes” and your budget is now live.
  1. Excellent Support and Guidance
  • The Float team and the ABJ team are experts with the tool and will be helpful guides should you want to drive the forecast yourself or should you want an ABJ team member to own the forecasting process for you.
  • The Float support team addresses concerns and queries in good time. They make an effort to call and follow up with an email summary of the content of each call.
  • Most importantly, you have access to an intuitive cash flow forecast tool that will help you make informed decisions based on your future cash flow position.

Conclusion  

It is more important than ever for business owners to understand their cash position and when funds will be short so that they can make the right decisions. Cash flow forecasting and using collaborative tools, such as Float, will go a long way to helping a business maximise its chances of survival and push forward to growing and realising its potential.

There are a lot of cash flow tools out there but if you are looking for something that can change your business, Float is an accurate, time-saving tool that you will enjoy using. Give it a try and shout out if you need any help getting started!

Let Us Help

If your business has a turnover of over $1 million, ABJ Solutions is offering a complimentary 1 hour meeting to help answer questions and model critical decisions with you. Get in touch with us today so that we can help guide you through these challenging times.