The number one reason SME businesses fail is not loss, but insufficient liquidity. You can be profitable on paper and still not pay your suppliers. Yet one in three entrepreneurs runs no cashflow forecast — mostly because it feels too laborious.
It does not have to be. Your outstanding sales invoices, scheduled direct debits, open purchase invoices and planned payments all live in Exact Online. With an AI assistant you pull a 30/60/90-day forecast in seconds. This article: how.
What feeds your cashflow puzzle?
Four main categories drive your cash position over the coming weeks:
- Inflows: open sales invoices (receivables), scheduled SEPA direct debits (
cashflow_mandates_*); - Outflows: open purchase invoices, scheduled payments, fixed costs (rent, payroll, subscriptions);
- Starting position: current balance across all bank accounts;
- Uncertainties: customer payment behaviour (how many days late on average), seasonal patterns.
The baseline forecast in one question
"Build a cashflow forecast for the next 90 days based on open sales invoices (by due date), open purchase invoices (by due date), and the current bank balance."
The AI fetches three datasets (cashflow_receivables_search, cashflow_payments_search, financial_bank_*), plots them weekly on the timeline and gives you the expected cash position each week.
Factor in payment behaviour
An invoice with due date 30-08 is rarely paid that exact day. Some customers are always 2 days late, others 14. Ask:
"For each customer compute the average days between invoice date and payment date in 2025. Apply that pattern to currently outstanding invoices."
The gap between optimistic (on due date) and realistic (on expected pay date) is often dramatic. Know rather than hope.
Scenarios: what if…
Real planning is scenario thinking:
"What is the cash position at end of October if customer Acme pays its €45,000 invoice 30 days late?"
"What if I move next month’s payroll from the 28th to the 25th?"
With an imminent shortfall you intervene early: call a major customer, ask a supplier for an extension, draw on a credit facility.
Plan SEPA direct debits
Working with automatic debits? You can time them more deliberately:
"Which valid SEPA mandates do I have and which open invoices can I collect this month?"
The AI combines cashflow_mandates_search with open invoices and produces the list. A solid direct-debit routine prevents half of your dunning — see also sending reminders with AI.
Weekly cashflow review
Make it a ritual. Monday morning, three questions:
- "What is my net cash position today, and is that higher or lower than last Monday?"
- "Which payments are scheduled this week, with total amount?"
- "Which open invoices are due this week, with total amount?"
Three minutes per week for permanent grip on liquidity. Far more valuable than retrospective quarterly reports.
The dashboard you never had to build
What is nice about this approach is that you never built a dashboard. No Power BI license, no Excel formulas, no integration that breaks every fortnight. You ask — the AI fetches it from Exact Online. Insights without the maintenance cost.
When does this pay off most?
Businesses with strong fluctuations in payment terms (construction, project IT, e-commerce in growth phases) gain most. For highly repeating businesses (SaaS, fixed contracts) the gain is smaller — but even there a monthly review is a healthy signal.
Start today: follow the MCP setup guide, check the prompt library, and build your first forecast. Want to go deeper on reporting? Read accelerating month-end close with AI.