The wellbeing of a business depends on everyday decisions — the old Rosebery copy said that, and the Perth desk said it to the same sorts of files. Everyday is not a twelve-month model with a growth rate. Everyday is whether the account the wages leave from will still be standing in five Fridays, after super, after the BAS, after the supplier you cannot put off.

A thirteen-week cash forecast is the shortest sheet that still tells the truth. It is also the longest sheet most owners will keep honest. This is how to build one from the file you already have, and how to stop it dying on the third Tuesday.

What the sheet is for

The sheet exists to name the week you go tight, while you still have a choice. Hire or wait. Buy the ute or hire it. Call the debtor or keep pretending. Draw or do not draw. It is not for a bank pitch, though a bank will like a live one more than a pretty one.

It is not a profit and loss. Profit can look handsome in a month you cannot make payroll, especially if you recognised a fat progress claim or a grant and the cash has not arrived. Keep the two views in the same pack. Do not let one impersonate the other. The month-end close produces profit. This sheet produces sleep.

Start from the bank, not from hope

Open the file on a Monday. List every account that can pay a bill: operating, savings, offset, the director’s “temporary” card that is not temporary. Write the cleared balance as at Friday night, after you have reconciled to the statement, not to the feed. Uncleared cheques and pending merchant batches belong in week one as movements, not as a vibe.

If two entities share a card, stop. The forecast of a company that pays a shareholder’s life is fiction until you name the loan. The chart of accounts essay is blunt about related-party mess. Cash is where that mess becomes a bounced payment.

Put a row for each bank. Sum them. That sum is week zero. Everything else is a dated movement.

Debtors as dates, not as a total

Aged receivables are not a number to admire. They are a set of promises. For each invoice over a threshold you actually care about — $2,000 is a common floor for a small file; pick yours — write the week you believe the money will land, not the week the terms say. Terms are literature. Payment behaviour is the book.

Group the small invoices into a weekly drip only if they have a history. A clinic’s health-fund batch that lands every Wednesday is a drip. A builder’s “they always pay on 45” is often a wish. If you would not tell your partner the money is coming, do not put it in week two.

Do not include invoices you have not raised. That is a sales forecast pretending to be cash. If the work is done and the claim is sitting in someone’s drafts, raise it this afternoon. Then put it in the week a sober person would pick.

Credit notes you owe customers are outflows. Retention you cannot yet invoice is not cash. See progress claims if that sentence just described your yard.

Payables as the week they will actually leave

Aged payables work the same way in reverse. The ATO, the super fund, the landlord and the supplier who will put you on stop are not “trade creditors”. They are dated holes.

For each material bill, write the week you will pay it, not the week you would prefer. If you are stretching someone, say so on the sheet. A forecast that assumes every supplier will wait is how you discover a stop-supply on a Thursday.

Hire purchase, equipment finance and the car note have a direct debit date. Put the date. Do not average them into “finance”. Rent is the same. If you pay a family trust, put the real name. A part-time controller who lets related-party rent float is decorating.

Payroll, super and the new rhythm

Payroll is the line that humiliates optimistic sheets. Build it from the last pay run, not from a round number.

Include ordinary wages, the allowances you always pay, PAYG withholding (which leaves with the BAS or as your arrangement requires — confirm the current ATO payment rhythm for your withholding), and Super Guarantee. From 1 July 2025 the SG rate is 12%. Confirm the ATO Super Guarantee page if you are reading this after another change. Do not copy a rate from a Facebook group.

From 1 July 2026, payday super changes the week the super leaves. It is no longer a quarterly lump you can shove into the week after a fat receipt. Confirm the current ATO payday-super timing and build the sheet as if the super leaves with the wages, because that is the habit you need even before the law bites. If your clearing house lags, put the lag in as a dated line, not as a hope.

Casual hours move. Use a base week plus a note, not a fantasy average. If you are a café, last winter’s hours are not this December. If you are a clinic, leave cover is a cash event. Workers compensation premiums belong on their instalment dates.

Awards and minimum wages move. This journal will not invent Fair Work rates. When a rate changes, change the sheet and the pay file on the same day.

BAS, GST and the week the ATO clears

GST on most taxable supplies is 10%. The cash event is not the invoice. It is the activity statement.

If you are on a cash basis for GST, the BAS you will pay is a function of the GST you have collected in the period minus credits you can claim — confirm your current reporting method and Simpler BAS status on the ATO site. If you are on accruals (invoice basis), you can owe GST on invoices you have not collected. That is how a handsome month becomes a violent BAS.

Put the BAS due week on the sheet as soon as you can draft it. The BAS hub is the lodgement view. This sheet is the payment view. They must agree. A GST control account that does not match the draft BAS means the cash line is a guess.

PAYG instalments, if you have them, belong here too. So does any ATO payment plan. A payment plan is not “sorted”. It is a dated outflow.

The other lines people forget

Insurance in one annual bite. WorkCover. Memberships. Software that looks small until three subscriptions hit in the same week. Loan redraws that are not income. Director drawings that will happen whether they are budgeted or not — put a realistic drawing, or the owner will take it and the sheet will lie.

Stock buys for a shop or a kitchen: you cannot sell air. Put the supplier order you already know about. Wastage is not a cash inflow. See retail and hospitality.

Grants: money in is cash; money that is restricted is still cash, but you may not be allowed to spend it on wages. Split the bank if you must. Grant acquittals explain the ledger. The forecast explains whether the unrestricted account can stand.

How to keep it alive every week

A dead forecast is worse than none, because people still quote it. The ritual is short.

Monday afternoon, or the first working day: update bank balances from reconciled figures. Roll the sheet forward one week. Last week’s forecast versus actual is a five-minute argument, not a post-mortem novel. Where were you wrong — timing or amount? Timing errors get a new date. Amount errors get a new habit.

Tuesday: the thirty-minute meeting. Three questions only. What is the lowest week in the next thirteen. What can we move without lying. What will we not spend until that week is off the page. Then stop. A controller who turns this into a strategy offsite has lost the room.

Do not rebuild the model. Do not add colour for “best case”. One case, the one you believe, plus a note if a single invoice would change the story. Scenario tabs are how the sheet becomes a toy.

Lock who may edit it. A salesperson who adds their own pipeline is writing fiction in your cash column.

Common lies

Receivables that age and never get called. A “they’ll pay when the head contract pays” line with no date. Super left at last year’s rate. A BAS entered as a round $8,000 because that is what it “usually” is. Merchant settlements entered at the till total, not the settlement after fees. Transfers between your own accounts counted as income. A director loan treated as a facility you can redraw without the other director.

The original firm’s promise of validated numbers meant those lies had to die in the ledger before they died on the sheet. If the books a tax agent can use test fails, the forecast will fail with more confidence.

What to put in the pack

The owner does not need the workings. They need: opening cash, the lowest week and its date, the closing week-thirteen cash, the BAS week, the next two payrolls with super, and the three debtors who would change the lowest week if they paid or did not. That fits on a page with the board pack.

If you cannot produce that page from a live sheet, you do not have a forecast. You have a spreadsheet you opened in April. The financial control hub is the rest of the method. Build the sheet this Monday. Argue on Tuesday. Repeat until the lowest week is a decision, not a surprise.