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Walkthrough: Making Cash Flow Forecasts Using Financial Reports

  • Article

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.

Setting 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. Choose the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature. icon, 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.

Setting 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.

Setting 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

Assigning 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 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.

See also

Work with Financial Reports
Analyzing Cash Flow in Your Company
Business Process Walkthroughs
Work with Business Central

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