Cash flow template in Google Sheets

Keeping an eye on your cash flow is essential for making good business decisions. And a cash flow statement is one of the key documents that lenders and investors take into account when assessing the general health of a company. For your business to be viable, it must generate enough income (receipts) to cover outgoings (payments). To track this, you need a system to accurately monitor the flow of money in and out.

Sales proceeds, investments, operational costs, taxes, debt repayments … most businesses have multiple revenue and expenditure streams. This makes it difficult to keep the whole picture in one place. Data is often processed by different departments, resulting in communication delays and a lack of standardization.

Even if you have an in-house accounting team, collating receipts and payment data is often still a manual task. Financial management software can help, especially when you want to create smart reports and visualizations. But these programs come with a hefty price tag, and you still have to feed them the numbers.

Every business has unique financial management processes. Nonetheless, there’s one thing that every company in the world has in common: spreadsheets. A good cash flow template gives you the structure of purpose-built software without the price tag: one Google Sheets file where you log what came in and what went out, and your balance, your monthly totals and the chart are worked out from those entries.

That is what Sheetgo’s free Cash flow template is. It is a single Google Sheets file that you copy into your own Google Drive — no account to create, nothing to set up.

Why use Google Sheets for cash flow management?

• Flexible: No matter what kind of business you run, Google Sheets allows you to build a tailor-made system. You can adapt it as needs change, without any new software.
• Accessible: You and your coworkers can access, share and work with all of your financial data from any corner of the world. All you need is an internet connection.
• Compatible with everything: Every other piece of software in the world integrates with Google Sheets. As a result, you can get income and expenses data out of the tools your teams already use and into your sheet.
• Easy to use: There’s no need to onboard your team as they’ll already be working with spreadsheets on a daily basis. Maintenance is easy and there’s no need for IT support.

What the cash flow template does

The Sheetgo cash flow template keeps money coming in and money going out on two separate tabs, so you can see what you have received and what you have paid without picking through one long list. Everything else in the file — your running cash balance, receivables and payables by month, and the chart that plots them — is worked out from those two logs by formulas that are already in place.

You are not tied to the version that arrives, either. Rename the categories, add columns, switch the currency: it is your own copy of an ordinary Google Sheets file, so you can shape it around the way your business actually runs.

What you get with this template

The template is one Google Sheets file. Alongside a Read me tab that explains how it fits together, you get:

1. Inputs: the start date for the period you want to track, and your opening balance.
2. Receipts: a log for money coming in, invoice by invoice — client name, invoice number, invoice amount, amount received, date received and a product category.
3. Payments: the same layout on the outgoing side — supplier, invoice number, invoice amount, amount paid, date paid and an expense category.
4. Cash Flow Analysis: your cash balance, receivables and payables month by month, calculated from those two logs.
5. Monthly Cash Flow Chart: the same three lines plotted over time.
6. Receipts Analysis and Payments Analysis: a breakdown of each side on its own.

There is also an Automate this tab. That one is not part of the bookkeeping — it is where you can look into having a Sheetgo virtual employee take the data entry off your hands later on.

How to start using the template

Click the button below to make your own copy of the free template:

How to use the cash flow template

Step 1: Enter your start date and opening balance

Open the Inputs tab and fill in two settings: the start date of the period you want to look at, and the balance you are starting from. Every figure the file works out counts forward from there.

Step 2: Log the money coming in

The Receipts tab is where you record everything the business takes in: customer sales, client payments, loans, interest. Each row holds the client, the invoice number, the invoice amount, how much of it has actually landed and the date it landed, plus a product category you can rename to match your own. The tab arrives with sample rows so you can see the layout — delete or overwrite them and start logging your own entries.

Step 3: Log the money going out

The Payments tab works the same way on the outgoing side: supplier, invoice number, invoice amount, amount paid, date paid and a category such as Travel, Marketing or Office expenses. An invoice you settle in two instalments is simply two rows. Clear the sample data here too, then keep the tab up to date as you pay.

Step 4: Read your cash position

With your entries in, the Cash Flow Analysis tab lays out your cash balance, receivables and payables month by month, with a small sparkline beside each line so you can see the shape at a glance. It moves as soon as you add a row to Receipts or Payments — there is nothing to refresh.

The Monthly Cash Flow Chart tab plots the same three lines over time, which is the quickest way to spot a month where payments are about to outrun the money coming in. When you want a closer look at one side on its own, Receipts Analysis and Payments Analysis break down each log separately.

Frequently asked questions