Cashflow Plan is a range of software packages for preparing
monthly cash flow forecasts (with projected income statements,
balance sheets and ratios) for 12 months ahead for young & established
businesses of all sizes and types. It incorporates a roll-forward facility
to speedily update the projections every month. Use it for business plans,
cashflow planning and management, budgeting, fund raising etc. Cashflow
Plan runs as a powerful, easy-to-use template with Excel (versions
5, 7, 8, 95, 97, 2000, XP, 2003, 2007 or 2010) using Windows (95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/Vista/Win7).
Save time and money and add substantial business, financial and spreadsheet know-how to
your cashflow planning - check the benefits of
using Cashflow Plan or get more details and
free trial downloads.
For multi-year projections, see Exl-Plan.
Fast
Facts
Name: Cashflow Plan (six versions).
Function: Microsoft Excel-based template for 12-month income,
cash flow & balance
sheet projections with roll-forward facility.
These notes will help an Excel spreadsheet
user to get a trial copy of Cashflow Plan up and running with minimal
initial instruction. Note that the downloaded Cashflow Plan file includes
extensive online help (130+ topics) along with a 100-page Word-based
version of its manual and a series of Flash-based tutorials (running
for 19 minutes) covering setting up Excel, getting started, the basics
and using Quik-Plan.
When being run for the first time, a trial copy of Cashflow Plan needs
about 8 Mb of disk space to load and automatically create a backup copy
(CASHTEST.XLS) during setup. If this space is not available, Cashflow
Plan will skip this task. First-time installation can take a few minutes,
depending on the speed of the PC being used, while toolbars are been reset
and backups are created. Subsequent loading of Cashflow Plan is much faster.
Suggestion: Instead
of having to refer back to this page, you may wish to open and print
this Quick Start Guide. It will lead you through installing,
running and exploring Cashflow Plan.
Download the appropriate version of Cashflow Plan from here
Close all other applications.
Confirm that at least 8 Mb of space is free on the hard disk to which
Cashflow Plan will be installed.
Use Start | Run to run the downloaded file (CASH*.EXE) and
then follow on-screen instructions to install Cashflow Plan's files
into the appropriate folders.
When installation has finished, go to the Cashflow Plan menu within
the Programs Menu and review the supplied README.DOC and README.TXT
files.
Then either select Cashflow Plan from within the Programs menu
or load Excel and open the main Cashflow Plan workbook file CASHPLAN.XLS
located in the folder specified during installation. Once loaded, follow
on-screen prompts and wait a few moments while a copy of Cashflow Plan
is created. This copy, CASHTEST.XLS, should be used for experimentation.
CASHPLAN.XLS should be carefully retained as the original master copy.
During initial loading, the Cashflow Plan display may go blank for a
few seconds while set up is taking place.
You can watch several How to ... Tutorials covering
the basics of setting up and using Cashflow Plan.
When loading Cashflow Plan into Excel, you
must enable macros so that Cashflow Plan's menus, buttons, tools etc.
can operate. The following instructions explain how to do this for different
versions of Excel.
If using Excel 5, 7, 8, 95, 97, 2000,
XP and 2003:
If Excel displays a message about enabling macros while Cashflow
Plan is loading, you must select Enable Macros.
If Cashflow Plan loads and then displays an "Important Notice" and
a message indicates that Cashflow Plan has not been properly loaded,
you need to reduce the security level set within Excel from High to Medium via Tools
| Macro | Security | Security Level. You should then close and
reopen Excel and then reload Cashflow Plan. During reloading, you
will be asked whether you want to enable macros. This is quite safe
to do provided you secured Cashflow Plan from our site or another
reliable, trustworthy source. For more guidance, click the thumbs
below.
Load
Excel, select Tools, Macro, Security ...
...
click Medium security level and close Excel.
Reload
Excel, load Cashflow Plan and, when prompted, enable
macros.
If Cashflow Plan loads and all its worksheets are visible but its
special menus (they all start with * to simplify identification)
do not appear in Excel's toolbar, you will need to temporarily reduce
the number of menus displayed by Excel by disabling any add-ins which
create special menus. To do this, use Tools | Add-ins to open
a list of available add-ins. Uncheck the relevant add-ins, press
the OK button, close and reload Excel. This should allow Cashflow
Plan to load fully and display its menus. To restore the disabled
add-ins, reverse the procedure described above.
Occasionally, Cashflow Plan will load satisfactorily but may not
display its special menus starting with *Assumptions, *Protect and
so on. This may be due to a conflict with some add-ins loaded automatically
by Excel. The fix is to reload Excel, uncheck all add-ins via Tools
| Add-Ins; reload Excel and then open the Cashflow Plan file.
If a blank screen appears while loading of Cashflow Plan and the
system hangs, there has probably been a memory leak, caused
by another application, which has reduced the memory available to
Excel and Cashflow Plan. To resolve, use CTRL+ALT + DEL to close
down Excel and Cashflow Plan. Then, reboot the PC to wash out the
leak.
If using Excel 2007:
Change the security level in Excel 2007 to enable it run macros by
checking that Excel's Macro Settings within the Trust Center have
been set to Disable all macros with notification.
Access the Trust Center by clicking the Office button and selecting Excel
Options. Having done that, you must permit Excel to run macros
each time that Cashflow Plan indicated in #2 and #3 below.
Once Cashflow Plan has loaded, look out for a message Security
Warning - Macros have been disabled and an Option button
immediately below Excel's Home tab. Note that this warning
is much less evident than that used in earlier versions of Excel.
Click the Options button, specify Enable this content in
the Security Alert Macro dialog and wait a few moments for Cashflow
Plan's macros to run. Note that Cashflow Plan's menu bar (*Assumptions,
*Protection etc.) is located in the Add-Ins tab. For ease
of identification, the Cashflow Plan menus all start with an asterisk
(*), e.g. *Assumptions. Cashflow Plan's special toolbar
also appears in the Add-Ins tab. Note that by design the toolbar
does not appear for every Cashflow Plan worksheet. For more information
on using Cashflow Plan with Excel 2007, see the comprehensive Checklist
and FAQs at http://www.planware.org/cashfaq3.htm.
If using Excel 2010:
Change the security level in Excel 2010 to enable it run macros by
checking that Excel's Macro Settings within the Trust Center have
been set to Disable all macros with notification.
Access the Trust Center by clicking the File button and selecting Options.
Having done that, you must permit Excel to run macros when a Cashflow
Plan file is loaded for the first time as indicated in #2 and #3 below.
Once Cashflow Plan has loaded, look out for a message Security
Warning - Macros have been disabled and an Enable Content button
immediately below Excel's Home tab. Note that this warning
is much less evident than that used in earlier versions of Excel.
Click the Enable Content button and wait a few moments for
Cashflow Plan's macros to run. Note that Cashflow Plan's menu bar (*Assumptions,
*Protection etc.) is located in the Add-Ins tab. For ease
of identification, the Cashflow Plan menus all start with an asterisk
(*), e.g. *Assumptions. Cashflow Plan's special toolbar
also appears in the Add-Ins tab. Note that by design the toolbar
does not appear for every Cashflow Plan worksheet. For more information
on using Cashflow Plan with Excel 2010, see the comprehensive Checklist
and FAQs at http://www.planware.org/cashfaq3.htm.
If Cashflow Plan fails to detect the correct size of the screen display
being used, use *Setup | Change Default Zoom Value.
Suggestion: Instead of having to
refer back to this page, you may wish to open and print this Quick
Start Guide. It will lead you through installing, running and exploring
Cashflow Plan.
For additional guidance, you
can watch several How to ... Tutorials (based
on Exl-Plan which shares
many common features with Cashflow Plan) covering the basics of setting
up and using Cashflow Plan.
If using Vista and if Cashflow Plan's help files fail
to load and/or Excel indicates "There was a problem running
the macro (1037)." there are two solutions as follows:
Download and install the widely-used Help program (WinHlp32.exe)
needed for help files used by some versions of Cashflow Plan. You can
get it from the Microsoft
Download Center. If this link is broken, search the Microsoft site
for "Windows Help program (WinHlp32.exe) for Windows Vista".
An alternative solution is to disregard the help files and simply
use the comprehensive manual supplied in PDF format with all versions
of Cashflow Plan. This covers the exact same material as the help files.
If doing this, you should not click the help-related buttons within
Cashflow Plan's worksheets or within the *Cash Helpmenu.
Also, you should turn off Toggle Help for Calculation Errors within
Cashflow Plan's *Setup menu.
When running Cashflow Plan with W95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/Vista, it is best to place
the taskbar at the bottom of the screen in order to improve the view of
reports etc.
The suggestions below mainly relate to the Micro, Lite, Plus,
Super and Ultra versions
and assume that Cashflow Plan is running with Excel 5, 7, 8, 95, 97,
2000, XP or 2003. If using Excel 2007 or 2010, see also Frequently
Asked Questions for Using Excel 2007 & 2010.
When it first loads, Cashflow Plan uses US/Canadian formats for its income
statements and balance sheets. To switch to the UK/International formats,
select the menu option *Setup | Enter Basic Model Info .. and swap
the "Report Formats, Terminology & Spellings".
Note that Excel's autocalculation function does not operate with
Cashflow Plan. To update projections, click one of the "C" buttons
within Cashflow Plan's toolbar or use the calculate options within the
*Tools menu.
To become familiar with the basics and geography of Cashflow Plan,
take the Quik-Tour (*Cash Help | Quik-Tour) from within the previously
created CASHTEST.XLS file.
Run the cursor across the menu bar - File, Edit etc. Note that Cashflow
Plan has added several new menus (*Assumptions, *Protection
etc.).
Click the Sales worksheet tab (or the MA toolbar button)
to go to the assumptions report for sales forecasts etc. Note that assumption
values (displayed in blue) should be entered or altered only within
the rectangular boxed-in areas opposite the ->> or <<->>
arrows. Values shown in black contain formulae and are normally locked
(protected).
Try adding or changing some of the supplied assumption values for
sales and recalculate (*Tools | Calculate All & Check) to
check the model's integrity and to update all the monthly and full-year
reports. (Note that Cashflow Plan always uses manual calculation).
Click sheet tabs to view the other assumption reports (DirCost,
Ohead etc.) and change/add assumption values as desired.
Use Cashflow Plan's menus, worksheet tabs and buttons (especially
"<-" and "->") to view the remaining assumption and output reports
and charts.
Explore Cashflow Plan's extensive help facilities within the *Cash
Help menu.
Use Word to open up the supplied manual (MANUAL.DOC).
View the Flash-based tutorials (running for 19 minutes) covering
setting up Excel, getting started, the basics and using Quik-Plan.
Check out Frequently Asked Questions for Cashflow Plan here.
The suggestions below mainly relate to the Micro, Lite, Plus, Super and Ultra versions.
See also the How to ... Tutorials (based
on Exl-Plan which shares
many common features with Cashflow Plan) covering the basics of using
Cashflow Plan.
This guidance
assumes that Cashflow Plan is running with Excel 5, 7, 8, 95, 97, 2000,
XP or 2003. If using Excel 2007 or 2010, see also Frequently
Asked Questions for Using Excel 2007 & 2010.
Review a selection of the assumption & output reports and charts
to see how Cashflow Plan handles its assumptions.
Experiment with Cashflow Plan's data-entry facilities which are located
within the *Assumptions menu (i.e. Clear Assumptions,
Constant Assumptions etc.) or accessible via the graphical buttons
in the toolbar.
Add or change monthly assumptions. Recalculate and review the output
reports and their associated charts.
View the Textual Summary Report (Text tab or *Output | Textual
Summary Report).
Print selected assumption or output reports and charts.
Have a look at the Cashflow Improver and assess how it could be used
to enhance your business's cash flows.
If using Lite, Plus, Super or Ultra, try the sensitivity analysis
facility (*Tools | Sensitivity Analysis) to globally change groups
of key monthly assumptions.
Have a look at how Cashflow Plan generates its 12-week projections
(STCash tab or *Output | Short-Term Cashflow Projections).
Try out the roll forward facility (Roll tab or *Tools |
Roll Forward Steps)
If using Super or Ultra, review the What-If Tables (WhatIf
tab or *Tools | What-If Tables) to see the impact of incremental
changes in inventory, receivables and payables on cashflows and bank
balances.
Continue exploring Cashflow Plan's menus etc. and entering or changing
assumptions. Use its online help (*Cash Help), supplied
manual (MANUAL.DOC) and Flash-based tutorials as appropriate.
If using Super or Ultra, locate the Report for Consolidation. Then
open up the separate Cashflow Plan Consolidator workbooks and Consolidator
Guide contained in the CONSOL folder below the main CASH* folder where
Cashflow Plan was installed.
Any questions? See Frequently Asked Questions for Cashflow Plan here.
The suggestions below mainly relate to the Micro, Lite, Plus, Super and Ultra versions
and assume that Cashflow Plan is running with Excel 5, 7, 8, 95, 97, 2000,
XP or 2003. If using Excel 2007 or 2010, see also Frequently
Asked Questions for Using Excel 2007 & 2010.
Note that if you start using a trial copy of Cashflow Plan to develop
financial projections, you can remotely upgrade the file being used to
the commercial version - see *Cash Help | Shareware Upgrade Information.
This saves further downloading, reentry of assumptions etc. To upgrade
online, click here.
The trial versions of Cashflow Plan contains restrictions which are
automatically removed when upgraded to the fully-operational version.
To start constructing a new set of financial projections, reload
CASHTEST.XLS, or a copy, and immediately save it with an appropriate new file
name.
Note that your assumptions are entered directly into Assumption Reports
only. The Output Reports contain extensive formulae which generate the
projections. The only exception is the opening balance sheet in the Balance
Sheets which must be entered directly into these reports. Be sure to save
your model at regular intervals.
If you are using an upgraded or commercial version of Cashflow Plan,
perform the following preliminary tasks. See also the How
to ... Tutorials (based on Exl-Plan which shares
many common features with Cashflow Plan) covering the basics of setting
up and using Cashflow Plan.
Load a copy of Cashflow Plan and save it immediately with a new file
name.
Select *Setup | Basic Model Info and enter basic information
about the business to be modeled.
Give the new model a title, for example "First Attempt", using
*Setup | Enter Model Title. This will be inserted automatically in the
footer of each printed report.
Use the *Setup | Clear All Assumption Reports menu command to
remove all unprotected assumption values throughout the model.
When entering assumptions, refer to Cashflow Plan's online help for
guidance - see the topics relating to Model-building Procedure and
Entering Assumptions - and access relevant help by pressing the "Help
with Entering Assumptions" buttons which appear near the top of each
Assumptions Report . See also Frequently Asked Questions here and
the supplied manual (MANUAL.DOC) and the Flash-based tutorials.
If you wish to use Quik-Plan to generate first-cut, high-level
projections, follow steps 1-3 above and then go to the Quik
worksheet.
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