2.CR.1.4 Cash Flow Planner | Scribe

    2.CR.1.4 Cash Flow Planner

    • 0 step
    • QuickBooksQuickBooks
    • AkadianAkadian
    Start in the Sample company.
    To complete this exercise, you must be in the Sample company. From your QBOA account, click the Gear icon on the top right corner of the screen, then select Sample company.
    Note that you will be logged out of your current account. If you are sure, click "Continue" to confirm.

    Full Scenario

    As mentioned above, Craig doesn't really see how QBO can help him plan for the future. A tool that Craig might find helpful is the Cash Flow Planner. The Cash Flow Planner allows you or Craig to add predicted future data and view charts based on different scenarios *without actually affecting the books.* It uses three types of data: 1. **"From your books"** transactions are based on actual data in QBO. 2. **"Predicted data"** are the anticipated transactions based on historical behavior and upcoming transactions. 3. **"Added by you"** reflects transactions you have manually added in the tool but not in the books. Take a look and get started with the exercise.
    Click the "Planner" tab
    Click "Start planning"
    Click "Let's go"
    The number that appears prominently is the current bank total (not the QBO total) of all connected bank accounts. Because it is an accurate representation of what's happening at the bank, this number will not change unless/until the bank itself has different data. You also see this number when processing Bank transactions. Take a closer look.
    On the left navigation bar, click "Bank transactions"
    Click the "X" to close any pop-ups that appear *Note: this will only show the first time you are in the banking area.*
    When processing bank feeds, QBO always shows you both the actual balance at the bank and the balance of your connected accounts in QBO. These two numbers will rarely be the same because you will always be recording things in QBO before they actually come through the bank. In the Sample company, the bank balance of the Checking account is negative. However, this will almost never be the case in a real-life scenario.
    Now that you understand where the number is coming from, go back to the Planner.
    From the left navgiation bar, hover over Dashboards, then select "Planner"
    The important part of the Cash Flow Planner is the graphic representation of the increase and decrease of the bank balance over time. The solid portion shows the past, the line represents today, and the shaded portion shows the projected future. The default is to look at a year's worth of data, but since there is not a whole year's worth of data in the Sample company, change that to just the last three months.
    In the field below -$3,422, click the "down arrow", then select "3 months"
    You can use your cursor to hover over any day in the graph to see the actual historical activity or the projected future activity for that day. Projected future activity is based on historical repeated behavior (so it will be more accurate the longer you have used QBO) and any scheduled recurring transactions you have set up. In addition, QBO will assume that an invoice or a bill will be paid on the day they are due. You'll take a deeper look at this in future steps.
    The current view is the Cash balance view, which shows the bank account balance relative to zero or another threshold value that you can set. You will look at the threshold a bit later. You can also see the Money In and Money Out values relative to each other.
    Click "Money in/out"
    Here you can see that the previous month is solid. But the current month is partly solid and partly shaded, reflecting the fact that there are still transactions projected for this month. You can use your cursor to hover over any month in the graph to see the actual historical activity (past months) or the projected future activity (current and future months).
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