Cash flow forecasting in Business Central

The Cash Flow Forecast in Business Central pulls every operational signal that will eventually hit the bank — receivables, payables, planned purchases, planned sales, fixed-asset disposals, job billing, and manual adjustments — into a single forward view of liquidity. For SMB CFOs and controllers, it's the bridge between "what does the bank look like next month" and the underlying transactional system.

The model

A cash flow forecast card holds the configuration: which sources to include, which GL accounts represent the cash position, how far out to forecast, and which user/role is responsible. A forecast can be defined globally for the company or scoped to specific dimensions (e.g. one forecast per business unit).

Sources.

• Liquid funds — opening bank balances at the forecast start date.
• Receivables — open customer ledger entries, by due date.
• Payables — open vendor ledger entries, by due date.
• Sales orders — open sales orders not yet invoiced, contributing income at planned shipment dates.
• Purchase orders — open purchase orders not yet invoiced, contributing outflow at planned receipt dates.
• Service orders — planned service income.
• Fixed asset disposals and budgets — planned proceeds and acquisition costs.
• Job planning — billable lines and cost lines from open jobs.
• G/L budgets — operating expense projections from the budget module for forward outflows.
• Cash flow manual revenues and expenses — entered for the forecast directly to capture items not held elsewhere (loan repayments, dividends, tax instalments).

Each source can be toggled on or off per forecast.

Sub-daily vs aggregated

The view can show day-by-day projections for short horizons (the next 30–60 days, where precision matters) or weekly/monthly buckets for longer horizons.

Azure AI forecasting

Business Central includes an optional Azure AI cash flow prediction that augments the deterministic forecast with a machine-learning model trained on the company's historical patterns. The AI predicts customer payment delays (which invoices will pay on time, which will slip) and adjusts the receivables timing accordingly. Useful for businesses with predictable payment patterns; sensible to verify against actuals before relying on it for tight cash decisions.

Where it stops

The forecast is operational, not strategic. It doesn't model scenarios, sensitivity, or what-ifs around revenue or cost beyond plain budgets. For CFO-grade scenario modelling, customers integrate to a CPM tool or build the scenario layer in Power BI on top of the cash flow data.

Adoption tip

Many implementations skip the cash flow forecast because the budget data isn't kept current. Get a clean budget into the GL and the forecast becomes useful immediately.