Lockdown Recovery: Forecasting Profits, Cash and Finance.

Business after lockdown means a new plan with new profit, liquidity and cash flow forecasts. Figurewizard makes that simple, comprehensive and affordable.


The financial forecasts described below can all be produced in minutes using Figurewizard from nothing more than your own figures for sales, margins overheads and so on and a few simple ratios.

The Business Plan

Coming out of lockdown will call for a new business plan; one which is likey to look very different to the one envisaged back in January 2021.

The key priorities for many during the year ahead will be survival and recovery. How they work out is likely to mean restructuring operations and possibly new financial support, which will in turn depend upon how confident lenders can be with your plan, especially its financial forecasts.

Those forecasts will need to illustrate recovery based upon plausible estimates for sales, overheads, investment and so on. They will also need to show a return to profits, positive liquidity and cashflow for the year or years ahead.

Profits, Assets and Liabilities

A profit and loss forecast, especially for operating profit is undeniably important but no matter how strong that is, the balance sheet forecast will always be the one lenders turn to in order to assess “risk”. 

Forecast net assets / equity may spell technical solvency but in the real world it’s what forecast net current assets (working capital) will look like that rules the roost. As working capital describes liquidity the year-end forecast will need to show a distinct improvement, ideally a surplus.

Cashflow

Another item of concern is an operating cash flow forecast. That shows how cash is expected to have been generated from core trading and nothing else by the end of the year. Opersting cashflow represents the sole source of cash available for servicing debt going forward, so it is a very important component of a credible business plan.

Ideally operating cashflow should be predicted to be positive by the end of the year but if not, then at least much better than it was at the beginning.

Try It for Free

Simple, straightforward and affordable, all you do is enter your own figures for sales and so on. Every forecast and calculator Figurewizard then produces from that are shown on site as live working examples; forecast tax and VAT included. Go to Figurewizard.com and see for yourself.

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