> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.getnovaplan.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Cash flow

> Turn your accrual plan into a month-by-month cash statement, with opening balances, payment timing, and runway.

Cash Flow re-times the plan you already built. Most of what enters and leaves your bank account is spend and revenue already modeled in headcount, expense, and revenue planning, booked in the month it was incurred rather than the month it settles. This module reads those plan lines, applies a payment lag to each one, and lays the result out as a monthly cash statement. Opening balances, one-off scheduled events, and month-level adjustments cover what an accrual plan cannot express on its own.

## The Sub-Sections

| Section | What it is for |
| - | - |
| **Overview** | The statement itself: inflow, outflow, closing balance, and runway by month |
| **Snapshot** | Actual movements from closed months, and the cash accounts the statement opens from |
| **Scheduled Events** | One-off cash events such as loan draws, tax payments, and large receipts |
| **Timing** | The rules that decide how many months after an accrual the cash actually moves |
| **Adjustments** | Month-level overrides on any statement line, plus the recurring rules that generate them |

## How to Use It

<Steps>
  <Step title="Enter your cash accounts">
    Open **Snapshot** and add each bank account with its balance. The statement runs a balance forward from what you enter here, so an incomplete account list produces a closing balance and a runway that are directionally right and absolutely wrong.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Run the cash forecast">
    Use **Run Forecast** in the page header. The month picker defaults to the version's shared forecast window, the same window headcount and expense use. The run reads your plan lines, resolves a payment lag for each, and writes the forecast rows the statement reads.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Check the timing">
    Every plan line lands in the statement some number of months after it was incurred. **Timing** is where you see which rule decided that, and change it. A payroll line usually pays in the month it accrues, a vendor invoice on thirty or sixty day terms does not.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Adjust what the model cannot know">
    A negotiated payment holiday, a customer who always pays late, a one-off receipt: put the first two on **Adjustments** and the third on **Scheduled Events**. Both flow into the statement without touching the underlying plan.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## What the Statement Shows

The Overview statement has two views, switched with the **Direct / Indirect** control.

The direct view lists cash lines as money actually moving, grouped into inflow and outflow, and runs the balance forward:

| Row | What it is |
| - | - |
| **Opening Balance** | The closing balance of the prior month, or your entered account balances in the first month |
| **Total Cash Inflow** | Every inflow line for the month |
| **Total Cash Outflow** | Every outflow line for the month |
| **Net Change** | Inflow less outflow |
| **Closing Balance** | Opening balance plus net change |
| **Runway (months)** | Closing balance divided by the current burn rate |

The indirect view rebuilds the same operating cash from the P\&L, starting at net income, adding back depreciation, and applying the working capital change. Both views resolve to the same operating cash figure, so a gap between them is a data problem rather than a rounding artifact.

## The KPI Strip

| KPI | What it answers |
| - | - |
| **Closing Cash** | What is in the bank at the end of the period |
| **Net Monthly Burn** | How much cash the business consumes in a month, net of collections |
| **Runway** | How many months of that burn the closing balance covers |
| **Zero-Cash Date** | The month the balance crosses zero on the current plan |
| **Collections** | Cash coming in from customers |
| **Operating Outflow** | Cash going out to run the business |

## How Timing Resolves

A cash line can have several rules that could apply to it, so the resolver works in a fixed order and shows you which stage won:

<Steps>
  <Step title="Version override">
    A timing override set on this budget version for a specific combination of cash line, entity, vendor, client, or region.
  </Step>

  <Step title="The rule library">
    Every rule whose scope matches, ranked by priority first and specificity second. Priority outranks scope level, so a rule with a nonzero priority beats a narrower rule below it.
  </Step>

  <Step title="The cash line default">
    The default lag profile set on the cash line itself.
  </Step>

  <Step title="No lag">
    Cash moves in the month of the accrual.
  </Step>
</Steps>

The Timing page groups the rule grid by scope level for readability, which is display order and not the order rules win in. The resolve simulator on the same page answers "why is this line landing in that month" against a real combination, and shows every stage the resolver considered. Nova can propose a rule from your payment history, and a proposal is always yours to accept or discard, never applied on your behalf.

<Note>
  Scoped library rules are being rolled out per workspace. The default lag on each cash line applies everywhere today, so if a scoped rule you authored has not changed the statement yet, that rollout is the reason.
</Note>

## Adjustments and Recurring Rules

Every row on the Adjustments grid is one statement line in one month, with three amounts:

| Column | What it is |
| - | - |
| **Base** | The amount the forecast derived |
| **Adjustment** | Every override applied on top of it |
| **Effective** | What the statement actually uses |

The **Source** column says whether an adjustment was typed on this page or generated by a recurring rule. A rule owns its rows as a set, so a rule-generated cell cannot be edited month by month. Change the rule, or delete it and type the months by hand.

## Actuals and Forecast in One Statement

Once a month closes and its real movements are recorded, the statement serves actuals for that month and the forecast for every month after it. You never see a closed month showing a plan you have already outgrown. The view control switches between that blend, **Actuals Only**, and **Plan Only** when you want to compare them.

<Note>
  Locking a budget version freezes its cash statement. A locked version refuses a recalculation and rejects edits to adjustments and timing, so a published cash plan cannot be restated underneath the people reading it. Unlock the version to change it.
</Note>

<Note>
  Cash Flow is enabled per workspace. If the module is not in your Planning nav, ask your administrator to turn it on.
</Note>