Your biggest client has paused work: build a 13-week cash-flow forecast

Record opening cash and unavoidable weekly outgoings

Create a spreadsheet with a column for each week of the forecast. Start with a reconciled cash balance at your chosen cut-off: check the bank against transactions already recorded and avoid including a payment twice. Keep any possible borrowing or owner contribution separate unless you have confirmed its availability. Label amounts in GBP and use a consistent approach throughout.

Build payment rows from your bank records, agreements and known commitments. For a consultancy, consider owner pay or drawings, subcontractors, software, insurance, workspace, borrowing repayments and tax where applicable. Put each payment in the week you expect it to leave, rather than spreading a bill evenly to make the forecast look smoother. Use opening cash plus receipts minus payments to calculate closing cash, then carry that closing balance into the next week.

• Committed: payments you currently expect to make under existing arrangements.
• Reviewable: spending you could change, subject to checking terms and consequences.
• Optional: spending you could defer without undermining agreed delivery.

Map invoices to realistic payment dates

List unpaid invoices individually rather than entering one total for outstanding sales. Record the client, amount still owed, contractual due date, expected receipt week and any unresolved query. Keep the due date visible even if you forecast a later receipt: the expected date is a planning assumption, not a change to the agreed terms.

For material receipts, contact the person handling payment. Ask whether the invoice has been accepted, whether anything is blocking it and when payment is expected. Use that response alongside your own payment records to choose a receipt week. For the paused client, separate money owed for completed work from possible future fees. Where payment remains uncertain, flag it for a downside test rather than presenting it as assured.

• Which invoice or agreed payment does this receipt relate to?
• What evidence supports the expected receipt date?
• What needs resolving before payment can proceed?
• When will you follow up if confirmation does not arrive?

Keep unconfirmed pipeline out of the base forecast

Use a base forecast that does not depend on unsigned proposals or a hoped-for restart. Include future receipts from agreed work only where you can explain the delivery, invoicing and payment assumptions. If a milestone still needs client approval, make that dependency visible. A start date alone is not enough to choose a cash receipt week.

Create a separate upside view for prospective work. For each opportunity, map the steps between winning it and receiving payment, including delivery costs you would need to meet first. Avoid putting a probability-weighted slice of an unsigned proposal into the base forecast for essential bills. Instead, use the upside view to explore what changes if that particular piece of work is agreed.

Ring-fence money for tax and other commitments

Add separate rows for tax and other commitments relevant to your business, using amounts and dates checked against your records, GOV.UK or your accountant. Do not use a generic tax percentage or assume another consultant’s payment timetable applies to you. If a figure is not yet confirmed, label your estimate and make checking it an action.

Show total closing cash alongside a separate view of cash available after protected reserves. If your opening balance includes a tax savings account, identify that reserved amount clearly. Reduce the remaining reserve as the relevant bill is paid, so the same commitment is not deducted twice from your available-cash view. Ask your accountant to check the treatment if you are unsure, particularly before changing owner withdrawals or using reserved funds.

Compare delayed-payment and lost-client scenarios

Duplicate the base forecast rather than editing away your original assumptions. In a delayed-payment version, move uncertain receipts into later weeks while leaving committed payments where they are. In a lost-client version, remove future receipts that depend on the paused client returning. Keep outstanding invoices separate, and assess their payment uncertainty explicitly rather than automatically treating them as lost.

Only remove delivery costs where you have checked they can actually be avoided; do not assume subcontractor or subscription commitments disappear with the revenue. Compare the lowest available-cash balance, when it occurs and which payments create the pressure. Treat those results as conditional on your assumptions, not predictions. If you expect difficulty meeting obligations, seek professional advice promptly rather than relying on an optimistic scenario.

• Delayed payment: what changes if your largest expected receipt arrives later?
• Lost client: what changes if no further work comes from the paused engagement?
• Combined pressure: what happens if the client stays paused and another invoice slips?
• Recovery: what cash costs arise before replacement work pays?

Set action triggers for spending, collections and new work

Choose a warning level based on your own unavoidable commitments and protected reserves, rather than a generic buffer. Write down what you will do if the forecast crosses it. Give each action an owner and a review date, even if that owner is you. Bring forward conversations with clients and suppliers where needed; do not assume you can change agreed payment terms unilaterally.

Review the forecast weekly: replace estimates with actual movements, investigate differences and add a new week at the end. The supplied research includes an example of detailed, line-item rolling 13-week cash-flow planning and a public-sector policy of regularly updating cash forecasts. Neither establishes consultant-specific thresholds, so use this as a working planning routine and check consequential decisions with your adviser.

• Collections trigger: an expected receipt slips, so contact the payment owner and revise the forecast.
• Spending trigger: available cash falls below your chosen warning level, so review optional commitments before making new ones.
• New-work trigger: the gap remains in the base forecast, so prioritise scoped opportunities with a credible route to payment.
• Advice trigger: the forecast suggests you may struggle to meet obligations, so seek professional support promptly.

How Invoices and payments helps

Use HappyNoodle’s invoices and payments workflow to support the collections side of your forecast: create invoices from the work, make payment simple and keep polite reminders connected to the right client. Alongside that workflow, maintain your weekly forecast using realistic receipt dates and notes from payment conversations. When an expected receipt slips, revise the forecast and follow up the relevant invoice. This keeps collection activity focused on identifiable payments rather than treating the whole outstanding balance as available cash.