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Cash forecasting in treasury management brings entity submissions into a reconciled view of future cash. Follow the account mapping, intercompany checks, availability bridge and version comparison, with spreadsheet formulas and a worked US company example.
Cash forecasting in treasury management estimates future cash by account and legal entity, then reconciles those submissions into a group view. Start with verified opening balances, keep intercompany movements visible and distinguish cash held from cash available for an obligation. A consolidated surplus is useful only alongside the entity and date where funding is needed.
Choose one forecast cutoff, one set of settlement periods and a named submission owner for each entity. Keep submitted versions unchanged so an updated assumption does not overwrite the forecast being evaluated.
The Association for Financial Professionals' liquidity guidance identifies legal entity, currency, location and restrictions as necessary context for cash availability. Use those fields in your account register. A shared currency alone does not make money transferable between companies.
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Resolve today's opening bridge using cash positioning and forecasting. The general monthly cash forecast covers the underlying build; the additional treasury work is preserving ownership, matching transfers and reconciling versions.
Use a sheet named Raw with these columns: A version, B entity, C week-ending date, D flow type, E transfer identifier and F amount. Store amounts as positive values and let the flow type identify receipts or payments. Put explanatory notes and owners beside the source rows.
Use the exact flow labels External receipt, External payment, Intercompany receipt and Intercompany payment. Opening balances belong in a separate balance table rather than being repeated with every movement. Map all included bank accounts once to the legal entity that owns them.
In the summary sheet, put the selected version in M1, the week-ending date in M2 and the entity in A2. With opening cash in B2, calculate external receipts in C2:
=SUMIFS(Raw!$F:$F,Raw!$A:$A,$M$1,Raw!$B:$B,$A2,Raw!$C:$C,$M$2,Raw!$D:$D,"External receipt")
For external payments in D2, use the same formula with "External payment". For intercompany receipts in E2 and payments in F2, substitute their respective flow labels. These Excel formulas follow Microsoft's SUMIFS syntax, which sums rows meeting multiple criteria. Covirage is not affiliated with Microsoft.
Require real spreadsheet dates in the source date column and M2. A blank submission should remain an exception until its owner confirms zero activity; an empty file is not evidence of no cash movement.
Summit Industrial is a fictional US group with Parent, Manufacturing and Distribution entities. The following V2 forecast covers the week ending October 30, 2026, in USD. Opening balances include restricted cash, there are no temporary bank holds, and restricted amounts remain unchanged during the week.
| Entity | Opening cash B (USD) | External receipts C (USD) | External payments D (USD) | Intercompany in E (USD) | Intercompany out F (USD) | Closing cash G (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 500,000 | 120,000 | 210,000 | 0 | 150,000 | 260,000 |
| Manufacturing | 180,000 | 360,000 | 470,000 | 150,000 | 0 | 220,000 |
| Distribution | 140,000 | 240,000 | 290,000 | 0 | 0 | 90,000 |
| Total | 820,000 | 720,000 | 970,000 | 150,000 | 150,000 | 570,000 |
With entities in rows 2 through 4, calculate G2 and fill down:
=B2+C2-D2+E2-F2
Parent closes at $500,000 + $120,000 - $210,000 - $150,000 = $260,000. Manufacturing closes at $180,000 + $360,000 - $470,000 + $150,000 = $220,000. Distribution closes at $140,000 + $240,000 - $290,000 = $90,000. Every amount is in whole dollars, so no rounding is needed.
Transfer P-01 is Parent's $150,000 payment and Manufacturing's $150,000 receipt. Their difference is zero. Keep both in the entity schedules; neither represents an external group cash flow.
Gross submitted receipts are $720,000 + $150,000 = $870,000, and gross submitted payments are $970,000 + $150,000 = $1,120,000. Removing the matched transfer from each gives external receipts of $720,000 and external payments of $970,000. Net group cash movement is negative $250,000.
The consolidated proof is $820,000 + $720,000 - $970,000 = $570,000, matching the sum of entity closing balances. In the sheet, this check must return zero:
=SUM(G2:G4)-(SUM(B2:B4)+SUM(C2:C4)-SUM(D2:D4))
A zero total does not prove every transfer pair matches: unrelated missing entries might offset. Check each transfer identifier and settlement period separately. If debit and credit dates differ, retain an explicit transfer-in-transit reconciliation supported by the bank records.
Add H for restricted cash, I for unrestricted closing cash, J for the entity's planning minimum and K for headroom. The planning minimum is a management buffer, separate from the restricted balance.
In I2, enter:
=G2-H2
In K2, enter:
=I2-J2
Fill both formulas down. The results are:
| Entity | Closing cash G (USD) | Restricted H (USD) | Unrestricted I (USD) | Planning minimum J (USD) | Headroom K (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 260,000 | 100,000 | 160,000 | 150,000 | 10,000 |
| Manufacturing | 220,000 | 20,000 | 200,000 | 180,000 | 20,000 |
| Distribution | 90,000 | 0 | 90,000 | 100,000 | -10,000 |
| Total | 570,000 | 120,000 | 450,000 | 430,000 | 20,000 |
The group has $450,000 of unrestricted cash against $430,000 of combined planning minimums, giving $20,000 of aggregate headroom. Distribution nevertheless falls $10,000 below its minimum. A transfer requires its own authorization and timing check; the consolidation does not execute or authorize it.
Keep the $120,000 restricted balance in the total-cash reconciliation. FASB's restricted-cash update explains its inclusion in the beginning-to-ending statement-of-cash-flows reconciliation. That reporting treatment does not make it available for general operating payments.
Review daily settlement dates inside the weekly totals. Use the 13-week cash flow layout to extend the horizon while preserving entity detail around large obligations.
V1 used the same opening cash, restrictions and intercompany transfer. Only the inputs below changed in V2:
| Changed input | V1 amount (USD) | V2 amount (USD) | Closing-cash effect (USD) | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parent external payments | 200,000 | 210,000 | -10,000 | Additional payroll funding |
| Manufacturing external receipts | 400,000 | 360,000 | -40,000 | Customer remittance moved to next week |
| Distribution external payments | 270,000 | 290,000 | -20,000 | Supplier payment moved forward |
| Total effect | -70,000 |
The V1 entity closing balances were $270,000, $260,000 and $110,000, totaling $640,000. Applying negative $10,000, negative $40,000 and negative $20,000 produces V2 balances of $260,000, $220,000 and $90,000. The group bridge is $640,000 - $70,000 = $570,000.
Treasury now has specific follow-ups: confirm the collection date, validate payroll funding and resolve Distribution's buffer gap. Keep those explanations with the version rather than reporting only that cash fell.
Upload your entity forecasts, opening balances and intercompany schedule; Covirage maps the columns, and its tools compute totals, reconcile supplied movements and check version differences. The external AI model explains the results with every figure traced to its rows. Create a free Covirage account and bring a sample of your own data.
See Covirage for FP&A reporting for the supporting reporting context.
Start with bank balance summaries and reconciliations, an account-to-entity register, receipt and payment schedules, intercompany transfer details and a restriction register. Preserve each submission's version, cutoff and owner so treasury can identify what changed and who can explain it.
Retain them in each entity's forecast because they affect local funding. Match both sides and remove them from consolidated external receipts and payments when the entities are inside the same scope. Investigate timing differences instead of deleting an unmatched movement.
No. Cash may sit in a different legal entity, be restricted or arrive after an obligation falls due. Review each entity's dated unrestricted balance and required buffer. Count proposed transfers only when their terms, approval and settlement timing support the funding plan.
Hold the forecast dates, account scope, currencies and balance definitions constant. Separate changes in opening cash from changes in receipts, payments and restrictions. Tie the individual explanations to the total closing-cash change, and retain unresolved amounts as exceptions with an owner.