Almost every workshop knows what it invoiced last month. Very few know what they will collect next month. And that second figure is the one that decides whether you can buy the steel, hire someone or take on a big order.
Invoicing is not collecting
A workshop can have the best month in its history and struggle thirty days later: if you invoiced €80,000 at 90 days and have to pay for material at 30, the problem is not profitability, it is calendar.
Three ingredients of a useful forecast
1. Today's real balance
Not what the banking app says: the book balance, which includes what you have already issued but has not moved yet.
2. Due dates, one by one
This is the real work. Every invoice needs its actual collection date, derived from that customer's terms: their days, their 30/60/90 instalments and their fixed payment day. A customer paying "60 days, on the 10th and 25th" does not pay at exactly 60 days, and that difference moves the curve.
3. What you have to pay
Supplier invoices, payroll, taxes. A forecast that only looks at collections is a wish list.
Look at the curve, not the table
A list of due dates is information. A projected balance curve is a decision: you see at a glance which week the line approaches zero, and then there is time to do something — pull a collection forward, renegotiate a payment, delay a purchase. By the time the problem shows up on the bank statement there is no room left to manoeuvre.
The circle closes with collection
The forecast improves by itself when invoices get paid on time: automatic due dates at issue, dunning that escalates, and a payment button on the invoice. Each of those three pushes the curve upwards, and the effect shows more than any cost cutting.