Improve my company’s cash flow forecasting by:

• understanding industry challenges. According to AFP and EACT, the demand for forecasting services increased throughout 2020 and is expected to remain at an elevated level:
  • AFP / US-focused survey: Forecasting to remain critical in 2021, see 
  • EACT / European-focused survey: Cash flow forecasting importance highlighted in this survey, see
• learning where to start. Have a good guidebook at hand, such as this checklist on how to develop the ultimate cash flow forecast, see:  How to develop the ultimate cash flow forecast, here
• ensuring your “Goal for forecasting is not to predict the future but to tell you what you need to know to take meaningful action in the present”. Some valuable and still pertinent tips: Stanford University Professor’s tips on cash flow forecasting, here
• looking at the opportunities in developing a fully digitized eco-system for the corporate treasury department, and the impact it can have: The Treasury digitization journey
• re-imagining measuring metrics/KPIs & remuneration for a performant treasury department: How to measure corporate treasury department success
• reviewing tips from practitioners, two interesting cases:
  • Pearson cuts borrowings by £100m using AI-based cash forecasting from Cashforce 
  • Shell’s global treasury management: the lessons from their centralisation journey, see

• always remembering Peter Drucker’s quote, that: “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” Cash flow forecasting can be very useful, but shouldn’t just stay within the finance/treasury department.

Finally, remember, cash flow forecasting can enable informed and data-driven business decisions to set your company up for success but only when used across the organisation.