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Reading your forecast in two minutes

1. The coloured bar at the top. It answers one question: does the money last? It names the lowest balance the bank is projected to reach in the next 12 months and the day, or the first day it is projected to reach a warning level you set. If no income is in the forecast yet, it says so instead, because a line with nothing coming in can only fall.

2. The low point on the chart. In the Balance outlook, the solid line is what the bank balance actually was and the dashed line is where it is projected to go. It counts only payments and deposits that repeat on a schedule, plus anything entered under Expected. Day to day spending and deposits that vary too much to predict are not in it. Drag across the chart to read the balance on any day.

3. The week it gets tight. Find that week on the Payment calendar and click a day. You will see every payment and deposit forecast for that day, so you can see what is causing the dip and whether anything could move.

Most boxes under the coloured bar show a typical week or month: the middle of what has happened. Where a box shows quiet and strong beside it, those are a slow and a busy week. A box marked expected is what has been entered, not measured. None of it is a promise, and it is money in and out, not profit: owner draws, loan payments and sales tax collected all move it.

Choosing a warning level

The warning level is the lowest balance you are comfortable with. A good starting point is the cost of one payroll, or one month of fixed bills. Enter it under the Balance outlook.

Once it is set, the coloured bar tells you the first day the balance is projected to fall to it, which is usually more useful than the lowest point, because it is the last day you can still do something about it.

With more than one bank account, each account can have its own level, and so can All accounts. A business can look comfortable in total while the account the bills come out of does not.

Why a figure differs from your bank today

The forecast is only as current as the books. The top of the page says Includes transactions up to a date. Anything after that date is not in it yet. The most common reasons a figure does not match the bank:

• The books are behind the bank. Transactions the bank has but that have not been reviewed and accepted in QuickBooks are not in the forecast. The dashed line starts from the balance on the last transaction, which can be days or weeks ago.
• Card purchases. A card purchase is not money leaving the bank. The payment to the card is. See Credit cards.
• Money moved between your own accounts. A transfer from chequing to savings is not money in or out of the business, so when both accounts are in the tool, the All accounts total does not count it.
• Pending items. Cheques not yet cashed and payments still processing show at the bank on a different day from the books.

Adding money and bills you expect

The forecast learns from what repeats in past bank transactions. It cannot know about a new customer, an unpaid invoice, a grant, a yearly insurance renewal or a tax instalment until someone adds it. Those go in Expected income and Expected costs, on a bank account's own tab, with the date you expect the money to move. A cost paid by credit card is not taken from the bank on that date. It reaches the bank inside the card payment.

Each payment stays in the forecast, even after its date has passed, until someone clicks In the bank for income or Paid for a cost. Nothing leaves the forecast just because its date went by. A repeating entry carries on after that; only that one payment is closed off.

Do not add a payment or deposit that already repeats on a schedule in the bank, such as rent, payroll or a monthly retainer. The tool has already counted it, and adding it again counts it twice.

Costs the tool found in the bank

Bank account fixed costs are payments found repeating on a steady schedule: rent, payroll, loan payments, subscriptions. Each is projected forward at the amount it has been running.

• The amount changed? Click its day on the Payment calendar and use Change amount. Your figure replaces the tool's estimate for every future payment.
• It has stopped for good? Use Mark as ended beside it in Bank account fixed costs. That takes it off the list and out of the forecast. If it is ever charged again, it comes back. If you are signed in as a client, ask your bookkeeper.
• Changed your mind? Anything taken out by hand is listed under Excluded from forecast, and can be put back from there.

A cost that has not appeared for a while is flagged may have stopped and left out of the balance until it turns up again.

Credit cards

A card purchase does not leave the bank when you make it. The card payment does. So card spending reaches the bank forecast only as the payment to the card.

Where the bank already shows regular payments to a card, those are what the forecast uses, at the amounts they have been running. Where it does not, add the card payment under Expected costs, or that card's spending is missing from the bank forecast.

Each card's own tab shows its spending: what repeats on a schedule, what comes up often but not on a schedule, and what happened once.

Trying a what-if

A scenario is your changes laid over the real forecast. Anything updated on the forecast shows in the scenario too, and the scenario never changes the forecast. Use New scenario at the top of the page, give it a name, then add a cost or income, or change or take out something already in the forecast. The coloured bar, the Balance outlook and the Payment calendar then show the scenario, with its low point set beside the real forecast's.

Switch between the forecast and your scenarios from the Viewing menu at the top. You can keep up to five. The real forecast is never changed by a scenario.

Good ones to try: losing your biggest customer, hiring someone, a rent increase, or paying down a loan faster.

The assistant

Where it has been switched on for your business, you can ask the assistant questions about your figures in plain words, such as “why does the balance dip in March?”. It answers from the same figures on the page.

It can suggest a change, such as adding an expected cost, but it never makes one: you confirm every change yourself. It is switched on for a business only after that business has agreed to it. See the Terms & Privacy Policy for how your data is handled.

Words we use

Balance outlook

The chart of where the bank balance has been and where it is projected to go over the next 12 months.

Typical, quiet, strong

Typical is the middle week or month: half were higher, half lower. Quiet is the point a quarter of weeks or months fell below. Strong is the point a quarter rose above. On spending, the same two figures are called light and heavy.

Expected

Something someone has entered, rather than something the tool measured from the bank.

Projected

Where the forecast expects a figure to be, based on what repeats and what has been entered. Not a promise.

Warning level

The lowest balance you are comfortable with. The coloured bar names the first day the balance is projected to reach it.

Scenario

A set of what-if changes laid over the real forecast, without touching it.

All accounts

Every bank account in the tool, added together. Each account also has its own tab.