A weekly running balance — starting cash, plus income offset by a collection delay, minus weekly costs, minus any one-off payments — is a formula any spreadsheet can hold. This planner does not compare against a company or a product; it compares against the sheet you would otherwise build column by column, week by week.
Where a spreadsheet and this planner produce the same number, on the calculator's own shipped defaults ($5,000 starting cash, $1,800 invoiced weekly, a 2-week collection delay, $1,400 in weekly costs, a 12-week forecast): both land on a lowest projected balance of $2,200 in week 2, before collections catch up.
Where they stop matching is the moment that balance goes negative. Add one $6,000 quarterly tax bill landing in week 4 to the same forecast, and the lowest balance drops to −$3,000 in week 4. A spreadsheet shows you that the balance is negative. This planner also names the fix: moving the $6,000 quarterly tax bill past week 11 closes the $3,000 gap, because $6,000 covers the $3,000 deficit and nothing else scheduled is closer to the shortfall. A spreadsheet does not scan its own rows for you and say that — you would have to notice the negative cell, then work out by hand which of your other rows is large enough and dated early enough to move.
| Question | Where to answer it |
|---|---|
| What is my lowest projected balance, and when? | Either tool, once built correctly — this planner's default is $2,200 in week 2. |
| There's a shortfall — which specific payment should I move or collect early to close it? | This planner's shortfall plan, which names the payment and says whether moving it fully closes the gap or only covers part. |
| Is the shortfall a timing problem, or do weekly costs just exceed weekly income? | This planner flags it as structural when moving one payment would only postpone the same shortfall a week later — a spreadsheet's flat balance line does not say this on its own. |
| I have more than eight one-off items, multiple accounts, or a forecast past 52 weeks. | A spreadsheet you build yourself — it can represent any rule you can describe. |
| I want to send this exact forecast to a bookkeeper or business partner. | This planner's copy share link — it reopens the same figures, not a copy someone has since edited. |
This tool needs no spreadsheet software, no account, and no signup: it is a static page, the arithmetic runs in your browser, and your numbers stay on your device — nothing is uploaded anywhere.
A correctly built one is — a running balance that adds weekly income (offset by your collection delay) and subtracts weekly costs and any one-off rows is ordinary arithmetic, and a spreadsheet can reproduce it column by column. The risk is not the math, it is building the formula correctly for every week, remembering to offset the income column by the collection delay, and re-doing that carefully whenever a number changes.
When your situation has a wrinkle this planner does not model — more than eight one-off items, multiple bank accounts you want forecast separately, or a forecast horizon longer than 52 weeks. A spreadsheet you build yourself can represent any rule you can describe. This planner trades that flexibility for a form that already has the right structure for the common case: one account, a handful of one-off payments, and a shortfall you need a specific answer about today.
Name the specific payment to move. A spreadsheet will show you the week the balance goes negative, but it will not, on its own, scan your other rows and tell you that delaying this $6,000 payment past this $3,000 shortfall closes the gap. It also will not tell you when the gap is not a timing problem at all — when weekly costs simply exceed weekly income — so a spreadsheet's flat balance line can make you chase a payment to move when moving one would only postpone the same shortfall a week later.
No. This planner and a spreadsheet both stop at a forecast built from the starting cash, income, costs, and one-off payments you type in — neither one reads your actual bank or invoicing data, and neither is a system of record. Your bookkeeping software (or your own transaction history) is still where the real numbers you enter here come from.
No. The forecast runs and stays in local storage on your device, the same as a spreadsheet saved to your own computer. "Copy share link" puts your figures in the URL fragment, which a browser never sends to a server, so pasting that link is the only way your numbers travel — and unlike emailing a spreadsheet around, the recipient sees the exact forecast you saw, not a copy someone since edited.