A 13-Week Cash Flow Forecast for Nigerian Businesses

A business can be profitable on paper and still unable to pay salaries on Friday. Profit is what you earned; cash is what is in the bank. With long payment terms, high inflation and supplier prices that change quickly, Nigerian businesses of every size need to watch cash week by week. Finance teams in larger companies use the same tool to plan borrowing and supplier payment runs.

A 13-week forecast is the standard tool. Thirteen weeks is a quarter: far enough ahead to spot a gap, close enough to be accurate.

How to build it

Make a spreadsheet with a column for each of the next 13 weeks, and these rows:

• Opening cash: what is in the bank at the start of the week.
• Cash in: customer payments you expect that week, invoice by invoice, based on when each customer really pays, not the due date.
• Cash out: salaries, rent, supplier bills by due date, loan repayments, VAT and other taxes.
• Closing cash: opening cash plus cash in minus cash out. This becomes next week's opening cash.

Keep it honest

• Use real payment behaviour. If a client always pays 30 days late, forecast it that way.
• Include the lumpy items: VAT by the 21st, annual rent, insurance and equipment.
• Update it weekly with actual figures and roll it forward one week.
• Mark a minimum cash level you never want to go below.

What to do when you see a gap

The forecast is only useful if you act on it. When a week drops below your minimum, you have options while there is still time: chase the largest overdue invoices, agree new dates with suppliers, delay a purchase, or arrange finance before you are desperate. See how to chase unpaid invoices.

How Billif helps

A forecast is only as good as its inputs. Billif keeps them in one place: what customers owe you and when it is due in invoicing, what you owe suppliers and when in payables, and revenue against expenses over time on the reporting dashboard. Ask AI answers questions such as which invoices are overdue straight from your own records.