June 16, 2026

The 13 week Rolling Cash Flow Forecast - Powerful Business Strategies

Show Notes
Transcript

It's the Positively Pipeman segment of The Adventures of Pipeman bringing you Powerful Business Strategies. Michael Barbarita of Next Step CFO discussesThe 13 week Rolling Cash Flow Forecast - Most business owners look at cash flow in the rearview mirror. A 13-week rolling forecast is the windshield. It's what sophisticated CFOs use to spot cash crunches before they happen, time large purchases, and negotiate with vendors and banks from a position of strength.

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Hi, you have done to censure wow for you.

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This is the Adventures pipe Man here on W four

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c Y Radio, and we're back with Michael Barberita, our

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next step CFO, powerful business strategy expert here on the

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Positively pipe Man segment, and we're going to talk this

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week about the thirteen week rolling cash flow forecast. You know,

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thirteen weeks, Michael, is a pretty magical number because they

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use that in a lot of industries as kind of

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a benchmark of things. So it's I think it's interesting

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we're talking about that today.

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Yeah, you know, it represents a quarter of the year.

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So but what we what I what I find is

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is that business owners with cash flow problems, what the

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thirteen week cash flow forecast does is gives them real

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perspective on where the weaknesses are, how they what they

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need to do to improve the forecast if the forecast

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shows negative cash flow. So's it's a great tool that

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I use with my clients because they don't know what's

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causing the cash flow problem, but when they see it

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laid out over a thirteen week period and they see

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the align items of inflows and outflows, they really have

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a good perspective and the timing of those inflows and outflows.

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They really have a good perspective as to what needs

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to be done to alleviate that cash flow problem. So

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it might not just be receivables. It might be paying

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certain bills too early. A lot of business owners pay

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bills too early. A lot of a lot of business owners,

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they like they judge everything by their bank account, you

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know that, by what's in the bank, and so, oh,

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let me pay these bills and so I can forget

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about those bills. But when they're not due yet, you know,

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and it causes cash flow problems and they don't realize it.

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Yeah, I want to expand on that a little bit,

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because there's a lot of business people that would think

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it was a good thing to pay their bills early.

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Well, only if you get a discount, it's good then,

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but other than that, it's not good at all. Paying

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them on time is good, but not early early. It

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doesn't do anything for your credit score or anything like that,

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and it doesn't, but it reduces your cash flow. And

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you know, things happen, you know, all of a sudden,

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you want to pay for something that and you know

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the money because you paid some bills or some group

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of invoice bills too early, and so it destroys the

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purpose of having the cash flow to begin with. If

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you can't do what you need to do, So paying

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bills too early is a big problem. But also, you know,

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just general cash flow problems when you see it on

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a thirteen week and thirteen weeks is just one spreadsheet,

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it's one look, and every inflow and outflow is itemized,

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and when you see that, you get perspective. I just

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did it for a client recently, as a matter of fact,

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I think it was three weeks ago, where they were

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having a cash flow problem. We did a thirteen week

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forecast and he isolated the areas that he can shift

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and move and improve, and all of a sudden, his

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thirteen week forecast is now positive. And so now he

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just has to manage his inflows to make sure that

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the inflows because the expenses are usually good and predictable.

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But then he just has to manage the inflows to

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make sure that those are hitting. And when they're not,

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he has to get on the phone and call for more,

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you know, call his receivable list. But but the bottom

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line is is that he really understands and knows how

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his cash flow is flowing, and how to make it positive.

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I mean he literally manipulated. He said, I don't have

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to pay this now, I don't have to pay that now,

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I don't have to pay this now. I move this

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over there and then uh and then he said, you

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know there's a customer that takes advantage of discount of

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his two percent early paid discounts, and so he moves

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some of that receivable uh, more more present to more

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near term, and all of a sudden, his cash flow

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is negative. Now it's forecasters to be positive. And since

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that time he's had a positive cash flow, it's been

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about three weeks and so. But because he could see it,

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it's all up a perspective. Lots of times business owners

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I got a cash flow problem and they don't know

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where what's causing it. With the is how to fix it.

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Sometimes when you just see it, and that's why I

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say that the thirteen week cash flow forecast, it's like

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the windshield, you know, just stop, you can see what's ahead,

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and you can actually see it and you can avoid

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it or add to it or amend it, and it

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makes a use difference. And business owners don't understand that.

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They think it's just all you're going to show me

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is doom and gloom is what they think. And sometimes

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that's the case, but there's ways to manage that dooming gloom.

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So my question is is this what about for those

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people that think to themselves, well, you know, yes, you're right, Michael.

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But also in the same token, uh, you know, I

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pay the bill early because I'm more afraid that what

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if when the bill comes then I don't have to mind.

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At least I know the bills are paid. So if

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I do, Yeah, if I have something come up that

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could cause it cash flow problem, well if I paid

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for that for the cash, then I wouldn't have the

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money to pay the bill. What would you say to

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those people.

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Well, a couple things. Number one, the thirteen week cash

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flow forecast would show you that you do have the

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ability to pay it or you don't. That's number one. Yeah,

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And then if something happens where something unexpected happens, which

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always happens in business. So if something unexpected happens you

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can't pay it, you pick up the phone, you call

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the vendor and said, look, I have this emergency that

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came up. Can I have a few more days? I

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used when I was at Escape business sting. If I

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ran into a cash flow problem, I would call I

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would call up the vendors and say, can you give

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me an extra thirty days? And because I'm always paid

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on time a B. They trusted me. Why did they

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trust me? They trusted me because every year at the

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annual trade show I met with them. They knew who

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I was, They saw my face. I watched in with

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financial statements, so that they were familiar with me. When

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you develop those kinds of relationship with vendors, you can

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ask for just about anything that's important. Yeah, So that's

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how I that's how I address that situation. You've gotta

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you've gotta, you know, really develop good relationships with your

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with your suppliers. Some people, some people, uh uh, just

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pay the supplier, don't develop a relationship with them, and

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then call up and ask for thirty days more, and

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you know, the vendor skeptical, you know, but you know what,

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you take it anyway. If the vendor skeptical, the vendor

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says no, you just take it anyway, take the time

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and just keep them posted and maybe you can pay

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it the next week and not take it extra thirty

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days maybe you can pay it the week after. Businesses

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run that way. It just it just does cash flow.

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Most negative cash flow could be managed with the thirteen

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week rolling forecast. It's very it's and and by the way,

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it accounts for emergencies if an emergency comes up, there's

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ways to manage that.

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And to your point, like if you don't develop a

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relationship with them, because you're somebody that maybe is late

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with your bills, so you kind of avoid you're not

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going to have those times where they're gonna, you know,

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bend the rules for you.

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Right, that's right, I want go ahead.

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I was gonna say. I also find interesting that people

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get like a zero interest for six months, zero interest

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for twelve months, and they pay it off early. Why, Yeah,

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you're not paying other people's money, man, Right, you're not right.

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You could d'st that money. You could do it a

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lot of things if that's in your business, that is,

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you could do a lot of things with that money,

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a lot of Yeah, exactly, they don't they Yeah, they're

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you know, that's another thing that as the owners don't understand.

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They don't understand the opportunity cost of money absolutely and

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having cash flow.

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Yeah, and the other thing is too, why do you

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bother getting a loan if you're gonna pay it off

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early and you didn't really need the money?

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Very true, very true.

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So tell everybody how they can reach out to you

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to have some you know, conversations more about this subject

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than how you can help their business to have some

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powerful business strategies.

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Excellent, glad to do that. So if you go to

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NEXTSTEPCFO dot net and the right hand upper right hand corner,

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you'll see this diagnostic that you can click on, and

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what it'll do is within five minutes, it will identify

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three strategies that your competition isn't doing, based on the

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answers that very customized to your business, based on the

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answers that you give it, and the financial impact of

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each strategy, some information on the strategy and how to

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implement it. And I think it's a terrific, terrific diagnostic

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for business owners who are really stuck as to how

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to implement something that the competition isn't NEXTCFO dot at

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STEXSTEPCFO dot net right hand corner orange button.

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Nice. Well, thanks again for your wealth of information for

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our businesses out there, and hopefully they got some powerful

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business strategies for their powerful.

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Business Thank you Dane, thanks for having me.

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You got it. And that's it for the adventures of

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pipe Man today. But next week we will have our

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resume expert Michael Barbarita back on and we will talk

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about position of market dominance as employer of choice. So

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don't stay tuned, but come back.

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Thank you for listening to the adventures of pipemin on

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w for CUI Radio.

The 13 week Rolling Cash Flow Forecast - Powerful Business Strategies

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