Cash Flow Projection

Cash Flow Project is a new feature integrated with Estimate 2.0 - this guide is intended to give you a quick run down of the functions and give you a HOW TO.

In examples below, we will use a project that ONLY have Mechanical and Electrical scope to demonstrate the functions. The demonstration will focus on how to use the software instead of how the project should be projecting cash flow.

Generate Cash Flow Initialization Sheet:

1. If your project is estimated using Estimate 2.0, follow Generate Cashflow Initialization Sheet
2. If your project is existing, and not estimated using Estimate 2.0, follow Using A Provided Template

Generate Cashflow Initialization Sheet

When Estimate was completed, budgets will get uploaded from Estimate 2.0 to Viewpoint through a sheet called Consolidation. Once Consolidation is completed, you can go to the Cash Flow Functions located under Budget/CashFlow Ribbon Tab to access cashflow functions. Click on "CashFlow" Button to generate the cash flow initialization sheet.

Generate CashFlow Initialization Sheet

Using A Provided Template

If your project was note estimated using Estimate2.0, use the provided template to initialize the cash flow set up for your project. the template can be downloaded here.
Download

In this blank template, you are able to change descriptions, change total amount, copy and paste rows as needed. The default start date is set to January 04, 2021. If your project started before that time and still struggles with cash flow projection, you are in trouble.

Copy and Paste Rows

In this template, in case you need more lines under a section, you can copy and paste Rows next to where you copied from. see example below.

if your are seeing "65535" - like in the example below, it is caused by "Integer Overflow" in memory. It is because the From Month and To Month are set to be the same, and same with start date. This caused a number to be divided by 0, which triggers an Error. Changing the From and To month should resolve this.

Copy and Insert

Change line item name and line total

For a project on going, and you are asked to switch to this Cost Projection tool, you can use template provided and change the line item name and total to suite your project.

Change name and total cost

Populate Cashflow monthly

In the `Current Version` of the software, the method of cashflow forecast has to be consistent.

For example,

• by default, you are expected to forecast on Header Lines, then all forecast has to be done on Headers.
• If you decided to do forecast on SubDivision Lines, then all forecast has to be done on SubDivision Lines.
• If you decided to do forecast on CostLines, then all forecast has to be done on CostLines.
• by default, you only see Header Lines as the lowest level. the CostLines are hidden.

Manually Changing Cashflow by Month.

With this sheet, you can manually change amount assigned to each month. Once amount entered, you will see the Remaining field of this line item changed, which shows either a + (under) or - (over). The final goal is to have the remaining field be 0.

Manually adding monthly billing

Auto Populate the monthly billing by changing settings.

With this sheet, you can change setting items such as "Front Load", "Back Load", "From Date" and "To Date" to auto populate the monthly billing. The durations between two dates calculated is based on WORKING DAYS, which is calendar days excluding weekends, and Canadian Holidays.

CashFlow_Initialization_ChangeDates

While changing Front Load and Back Load, the monthly will also update to reflect this change. this will reset the remaining to 0. if on Monthly amount you see negative (-) numbers, it means the end loads are over the total budget. It worth noting that the front load and back load at initialization works slightly different than when tracking actuals.

CashFlow_Initialization_UseSettingtoPopulate

Add additional month

When dates entered is not valid, or pass beyond the last column, the software will prompt for adding more columns.

When Date is invalid or needs more columns

You can do so by clicking on the "Add Month" Button.

Add month

Show or Hide Line Items

You can hide selected lines by how you typically do in Excel. I recommend use the checkboxes to keep the Format Consistent.

Show or hide items

Turn into On-going Tracking (Actual and Forecast):

Generate On-Going Tracking Sheet

Once you believe you have populated the Cashflow for the entire project (Month 0), you can use the "Track!" button to set up the Tracking Sheet.

Set up tracking

Elements on tracking sheet, and graph sheet

On the tracking sheet, the number you populated during the SET UP stage (previous section) is stored underneath each line for reference and comparison ONLY. There are some slight different on the functions. You will also notice another worksheet that contains the graph, and monthly bill and accumulated number is added as well.

Showing items in tracking Sheet

Similar to Setting Sheet, you can change all the settings and monthly data, only a few difference with the Current Selected Date.

Set Current Date and start tracking Actuals

The example below shows how to set Current Date (this month should be different from Project Start Month in Estimate), and showing putting in the Actual Billed amount in the first month.

Set Current Date and Tracking actual on first month

Current Date refer to the date of the most recent billing. The program uses this date to treat the

• amounts in current and previous month as Actual
• amounts in future months are projection.

When you change the Actual Amount, or amounts in current and previous month, the projections will update itself. When the projection updating, it will ignore the front load amount as the Front Load should already happened. The back Load will be acknowledged.

Change monthly before current date

When you change the projection amount, or amounts in future months, the projections will not update itself, rather, the remaining will calculate the difference. Similar to manual update in the setting sheet.

Change monthly after current date

When you change the settings, it will holds the Actual amounts, and only update the projections.

Change settings on tracking