The biggest problem with cash flow forecasting is bringing all the different parties and inputs together, and then managing the forecasting process as it inevitably evolves and changes. There are a range of business planning / enterprise performance management and Treasury Management Systems that have various levels of cash flow forecasting functionality in the system, but all too often they are inflexible and difficult to use so corporate treasury departments continue to use spreadsheets. A good example of this was how a corporate treasurer at the UK ACT’s Cash Management Conference last February in London (see tips from this conference here) in her talk on their impressive cash flow forecasting solution admitted, when asked what system they used to do the forecasting, that they had gone back to Excel spreadsheets because the forecasting functionality in their TMS was too inflexible: we would have spent weeks just setting it up. Over the last year, the cash flow forecasting functionality in most TMS’s has improved significantly, e.g. Reval’s approach to liquidity planning and forecasting, nevertheless, there has been a need for a stand-alone easy to use cash flow forecasting solution.

CashAnalytics, a Dublin based company, earlier this year introduced a purpose-built online solution focused purely on solving the cash flow forecasting challenges faced by corporate treasury departments:

• excessive manual administration
• lack of cash flow visibility due to delays in business units reporting
• lack of insight and analysis.

The CashAnalytics online solution looks and behaves like a spreadsheet, AND so much more.

Forecast Input
An input screen used by the reporting business units is shown below:|

Source & Copyright©2013 -  CashAnalytics

The input sheet is an example of a six week rolling (2 actuals, 4 forecast). 7 line items and one “special line” (EBITDA). The large numbers on the chart show

1. Currency Sheets

• Set up input sheets in multiple currencies for each business unit.

2. Line items

• User defined in master files.
• Select which line items each business unit sees in the model set-up. i.e. Each business unit can see different lines. 

3. Actuals and Forecast 

• Set “Actual Line” in model setup.
• Inputs to the left of line are stored as actual flows.
• Inputs to the right of line are stored as forecast flows. 
• All flows stored and not overwritten by subsequent versions.

4. Dates

• Set in model setup (raw dates shown above).
• Company specific calendars drive all dates in portal.

The input templates are set up by each user to reflect their company’s or group’s set up and flows.

Managing the cash flow forecasting process
The cash flow forecasting manager has a Submission Dashboard. so they can see who has and has not reported.:

Source & Copyright©2013 -  CashAnalytics

Reports
A wide range of reports and analyses are available, including:

• consolidation and line item report
• comparison report
• FX movement

which can be re-evaluated into any currency. 

There is also the ability to have a graphical representation of both forecast and actual cash movements by business units or groups.

Charges
CashAnalytics charge an annual subscription fee charged on annual basis for use of CashAnalytics. The subscription fee is dependent on a number of factors including:

• number of users
• number of business units
• number of models
• level of service required
• modifications/ enhancements required 

This represents a total cost of ownership to the company as it covers hosting, security and support. i.e. no other internal resources are required to run CashAnalytics.

Users
CashAnalytics launched their service in summer of 2013 and already have one large global MNC user.