Cash ahead · Forecast
A profitable month and
a month you can pay for.
The balance day by day for the next 14 to 90 days — payouts landing after each provider's delay, ads, stock, fixed costs and VAT on the days they leave — and what can safely be spent today. A projection from the store's own figures, not a bank statement.
Measured, not estimated · EU-hosted · Read-only by default
- Horizon14–90 daysday by day
- VATon its due datefrom the returns
- Payoutsafter each delayby provider
- Safe to spendtodayabove your buffer
A projection from the shop’s own figures — its margin, its ad spend and the VAT due — not a bank balance. The OSS return takes €4,341 in a day; the line shows it before it arrives and whether the buffer you set holds.
A bank balance needs the Cash OS — payout calendar and bank sync — which is not built yet.
01 / The case for it
Profit is not the bank balance.
Without it
A profitable month can still be a month you cannot pay for. Revenue is counted when the sale happens; the money arrives when the processor settles, and the rent leaves on a date of its own that has nothing to do with either.
What Profflow does
What the balance does next, not what the month did.
The same figures, arranged by when the money moves rather than when it was earned — so a commitment you have already made shows up before it lands rather than after.
02 / Worth understanding
Why profit and cash are different questions
A profitable month can still be a short one
Profit is earned when an order is placed; cash arrives when the processor settles, and leaves when a supplier invoice falls due. A month can make €2,521 and still be €900 short in the third week, and only one of those two facts stops the business.
The margin is the one you actually run at
The projection uses the measured margin from the months behind it, not a figure typed into a settings page. If the real margin is 31.8%, the forecast is built on 31.8% — and when the margin moves, the forecast moves with it rather than waiting to be updated.
Settlement delay is part of the model
Card payouts, PayPal and Klarna each land on their own schedule, and buy-now-pay-later lands late. The forecast uses the real delay each rail reports, which is the difference between a cash-flow projection and a profit chart with a different title.
03 / What it lets you do
What follows from getting Cash ahead right.
Forward bank balance
Each of the next 14 to 90 days, from your own figures and their timing.
VAT on its due date
The tax inside your sales leaves when the return is due, not when the sale happened.
Safe to spend
What can leave today without any day ahead falling under your buffer.
Low-balance warning
See the day the balance runs thin before it arrives.
What-ifs
A purchase order, more ad spend or a slower payout, run against the same days.
Inventory timing
Judge a reorder against the cash it needs and when.
04 / What it is built from
Cash ahead is assembled
from accounts you already run.
- 01Sales pace
- 02Payout timing
- 03VAT returns
- 04Fixed costs
- 05Known bills
- 06Cash on hand
- Forward bank balance
- VAT on its due date
- Safe to spend
- Low-balance warning
05 / How it is worked out
From the account
to the figure on the screen.
- 01ReadsThe last weeks' sales at their own pace, by payment provider.
- 02AppliesPayout delays, ad spend, stock, fixed costs, bills and the VAT returns on their due dates.
- 03ProjectsThe balance for each of the next 14 to 90 days, from the cash you entered.
- 04WarnsThe day it would go under your buffer, before it happens.
[ Asked of the figures ]
Can the store afford next month’s inventory order?
Cash ahead runs the order against the same days. If the balance would fall under your buffer — say, in the week the VAT return leaves — it names the day and the amount, and shows what moving the order a week does.
How Profflow reasons06 / How the figure is kept honest
The same four rules,
on every screen.
- Read-only, on every plan
Profflow observes the accounts it is connected to. It does not write an order, a price, a campaign or a payout back to any of them.
- Measured stays measured
A charge read from an account is labelled measured. Anything modelled — a forecast, a projection, a filled gap — is labelled as such on the screen it appears on.
- Every figure opens
Follow any number to the dated rows underneath it. A figure nobody can check is a figure nobody acts on.
- You approve
The product prepares a decision and shows the evidence. Nothing consequential happens until you say so.
About
Cash ahead.
Can’t find the answer to your question?
Contact us by clicking here.
It is a projection from the store's own recent days and the dates it knows — payouts, bills, the VAT returns. Every assumption is a setting the screen shows and you can change.
A supplier invoice you have not entered or a tax bill you have not told it about. A forecast is only as complete as the costs it has been given.
Yes. Payout delays, the buffer, bills and purchase orders are settings; change one and every day moves.
14, 30, 60 or 90 days, rebuilt as new orders come in. Beyond that, Forecast projects sales and profit with their range.
See Cash ahead on your own figures.
The balance day by day for the next 14 to 90 days — payouts landing after each provider's delay, ads, stock, fixed costs and VAT on the days they leave — and what can safely be spent today. A projection from the store's own figures, not a bank statement.