Forecast next month’s cash

You don’t need a spreadsheet and a crystal ball to know what next month looks like. Two numbers do most of the work: the invoices that go out on a schedule, and the money already owed to you that hasn’t landed yet. Fee-Lion keeps both in plain sight, so you can plan the month ahead with a steady read on incoming cash.

Start with what’s locked in: recurring invoices

Recurring invoices are the most predictable cash you have. They fire on a schedule whether you’re at your desk or on a beach, so they’re the floor of your forecast.

1. Open Invoices in the left sidebar and filter to your Recurring schedules.
2. Note each schedule’s amount and next send date. Anything scheduled to send before month-end is cash you can count on.
3. Add those amounts together. That’s your baseline, the income arriving on autopilot.
4. For schedules with auto-pay enabled, the money collects itself on the due date, so you can treat those as near-certain.

Tip: Retainers are forecasting gold. A client on a monthly recurring invoice with auto-pay turned on is a known quantity every single month, which makes the rest of your planning so much calmer.

Add what’s already owed: the ops dashboard and aging

Beyond the recurring floor, you’ve got invoices already sent and waiting to be paid. The Reports section turns those into a forecast.

• Open Reports and read the ops dashboard for the big picture: outstanding totals and what’s flowing through right now.
• Switch to invoice aging to see exactly how overdue each unpaid invoice is, bucketed by how long it’s been waiting.
• Treat fresh, not-yet-due invoices as likely to land next month. Treat the badly aged ones with more caution, and chase them.

Stack the recurring baseline on top of the realistic share of outstanding invoices, and you’ve got a grounded estimate of next month’s cash, not a guess.

Tighten the picture and chase what’s slipping

A forecast is only as good as the collections behind it. A few habits keep your projection honest.

1. From the aging view, send a payment reminder on anything past due so it converts to real cash sooner.
2. Use tags on invoices (by client, project, or retainer) so you can drill down and see which buckets of work are actually paying.
3. Open drill-down your revenue in Reports to compare months and spot a slow patch before it surprises you.
4. Export the numbers to CSV or PDF when you want to model scenarios or hand them to an accountant.

Want to firm up next month before it arrives? Send the estimates sitting in your pipeline, since an approved estimate is one click from becoming an invoice, and an invoice is one click from being paid. The faster that loop spins, the more of your forecast turns into deposits.

What’s next

• Stay ahead of aging
• Read the ops dashboard
• How to create a recurring invoice
• Set up a monthly retainer with recurring invoices