In the current breakneck business world, sound cash flow management can be the difference between stagnation and growth. For a long time, businesses have forecast cash flow using the tool they know best: Excel. 63% of companies are still using Excel cash flow forecasting as an essential accounting tool.

Although Excel offers some degree of dynamism, it isn’t well-suited to real-time forecasting, which is necessary for businesses to keep pace with an increasingly dynamic environment. Your business needs additional support from specialist cash flow forecasting software. Here’s why.

Challenges of Using Excel for Cash Flow Forecasting in a Dynamic Business Environment

As the financial landscape has grown in complexity, forecasts that rely on a cash flow statement in Excel have become more and more problematic. Of all the problems that using Excel for cash flow forecasting causes, the most obvious is the huge number of man-hours that businesses have to pay for. Common challenges caused by Excel include:

• Time-consuming data entry
• Inaccurate insights
• Scalability problems

These difficulties underscore the necessity for a sturdier resolution—one that provides immediate insights, automated processes, and expanded capacity without jettisoning the comfortable interface of Excel. Cash Flow Frog is exceptionally good at this.

Enter Cash Flow Frog: Integrating Excel with Real-Time Cash Flow Forecasting

Excel cash flow forecasting still appears to be one of the main culprits in the static, manual world of forecast errors. At the same time, cash flow forecasting tools too often fail to provide the necessary dynamic, real-time nature of a modern digital business. Cash Flow Frog focuses on forecasting from a cash-flow perspective.

Forecasting software from Cash Flow Frog does away with static forecasting. When businesses use it, they have a system that is always updated with the most recent data. For businesses that operate in real-time, this is critical. Working with Excel is like being inside a highly complex, resilient fortress—it can do what you want it to do, but the cost of entry is high.

Key Features of Cash Flow Frog That Enhance Excel Workflows

Cash Flow Frog works with the same concept as Excel—you start with your current cash position, add and subtract the inflows and outflows you expect over a certain period, and then arrive at an ending cash position. But unlike Excel, Cash Flow Frog uses your current cash flow to give you a real-time picture of your cash situation.

Key features include:

• Dynamic forecasting
• Visual reports and dashboards
• Seamless integration
• Secure collaboration

In contrast to Excel, Cash Flow Frog works with popular accounting software such as QuickBooks and Xero to pull financial data directly into the forecast reports, which allows for either manual or real-time updates that ensure visualizations are accurate and current.

The Transition: Moving from Static Spreadsheets to Dynamic Forecasting

The transition from Excel to Cash Flow Frog can be smooth, primarily because Cash Flow Frog is adept at integrating with Excel and accounting software. Hence, the existing financial setup of a business does not need to change drastically—instead, it can integrate with Cash Flow Frog and allow the business to reap the benefits of real-time forecasting.

The Cash Flow Frog interface and experience are so similar to that of Excel that there is virtually no learning curve for finance teams. The data integration is so seamless and so smooth that businesses can continue using Excel (if they are not ready to completely vacate it) while a transition to the Cash Flow Frog system occurs.

How Real-Time Forecasting with Cash Flow Frog Solves Key Business Problems

There are several advantages to real-time cash flow forecasting. When the most up-to-date information is available, it allows companies to make more timely and better-informed decisions about the most essential part of the business—the cash flow. Another advantage of forecasting in real time is risk mitigation.

When a Cash Flow Frog customer is in a cash flow crisis, the software and its method allow companies to forecast inflows, outflows, and reserves at that most critical juncture. Finally, a third advantage is an optimized cash flow. Knowing today’s cash position and being able to forecast the next two to six weeks enables companies to strategically manage cash flow.

Why Now is the Time to Move Beyond Excel for Cash Flow Forecasting

The business landscape is moving quickly into the cloud, and cash flow management tools like Excel are being left behind. For companies that want to stay competitive in this fast-moving digital era, poor cash flow visibility is no longer an option. Businesses these days need and deserve accurate and real-time forecasting solutions.

The automation and ease of use provided by Cash Flow Frog deprive Excel of its remaining advantages and make it a prime contender for the forecasting toolbox in the modern digital business.

In Conclusion

In today’s complex corporate world, sizing up your cash flow is vital. If your cash flow isn’t what it ought to be, you might have to make cuts somewhere else, dip into your line of credit, or find some other quick cash fix, all of which can be detrimental to your business in the long run. Of course, predicting the cash flow is the trickiest part. Cash Flow Frog offers a real-time cash flow forecasting solution in this area.