13-week cash-flow template

Thirteen weeks is one quarter — long enough to see the events that actually ambush small businesses: a payroll cycle, a rent payment, a GST/HST remittance, a slow-paying customer. Short enough that you can forecast it honestly.

Download the template (Excel, .xlsx)

How to run it

1. Start with the truth: your opening balance is what is actually in the bank today — not what should be.
2. Receipts go in the week the money lands, not the week you invoice. If a customer pays in 30 days, their receipt belongs four weeks out, however good the sale felt.
3. Payments go in the week they leave: wages on payday, rent on the first, tax remittances on their deadlines (our CRA deadline checklist will give you the dates).
4. Update it weekly, same day, ten minutes. Roll the finished week off, add a new week 13, and re-check the closing-balance line.
5. Watch the lowest point, not the average. The week your closing balance dips lowest is your crunch — that is the number to arrange credit, deposits or payment terms around, while there is still time.

The spreadsheet does the arithmetic: total receipts and payments per week, the week's net movement, and a closing balance that carries forward as next week's opening balance. Replace the example lines with your own categories and keep the totals rows intact.