Free Cashflow Tool for Trades

Will your cash run short before the invoices land?

Finished work doesn't pay the van lease, paid invoices do. Forecast six months of cash in versus cash out from your job values, payment terms and late-payer reality, and see exactly which month bites.

Takes ~2 minutes · Your figures stay in your browser until you choose to share them

6-Month Timeline

Cash in vs cash out

Lowest Month

When the gap is deepest

Late-Payer Drag

What slow payers cost

Funding Buffer

How much to have ready

About Tradie Cashflow Forecaster

In a trades business, finished work doesn't pay the bills — collected invoices do. You can have a full job book and still run out of cash, because the money you're owed lands weeks after you've already paid for the van lease, materials, wages and super. The gap between doing the work and getting paid is where healthy, busy trades businesses quietly get into trouble, especially when a chunk of clients pay well past your terms. The Tradie Cashflow Forecaster maps that gap over a six-month horizon so you can see the squeeze coming rather than discovering it when a payment run bounces.

How it works

You enter your own figures — average job value, jobs per month, your usual payment terms, the split of clients who pay on time versus late (and how many days late), your variable cost per job, and your monthly fixed costs (van or ute lease, insurance, tools, materials on account, wages and PAYG, superannuation). The tool then converts billed work into actual cash arrival: each month's revenue is split into on-time and late tranches, and each tranche is credited only in the month it genuinely lands, based on your terms plus the late-payer delay. Against that it runs your monthly cash out (fixed costs plus variable job costs), tracks a running balance month by month, and flags any month the balance dips below zero. The result shows your cash-in versus cash-out timeline, your lowest-balance month, how many months fall short, and roughly how much buffer you'd need to cover the deepest dip. Every number is driven by your inputs — nothing is assumed on your behalf.

Who it’s for

Trades and construction business owners — plumbers, sparkies, builders, and subbies — who are busy and profitable on paper but want to see whether their cash will actually cover costs before the invoices come in.

What you’ll see

Profit and cash are not the same thing: a fully-booked trades business can still hit a shortfall because outgoings are due monthly while invoiced work is collected on terms — and later still from clients who pay late.
The forecaster credits each job's payment only in the month it actually arrives, so it shows real cash timing rather than accrued revenue, and pinpoints the single tightest month across a six-month view.
Common levers to close the gap — deposits, staged progress claims, prompt invoicing, aligned supplier terms, and a standby overdraft sized to your lowest month — work best when you know how deep and when the dip is.

Frequently asked questions

The short answers are here. For anything else, ask below or get in touch.

Profit is what's left after costs on the work you've billed; cash is what's actually in the account on a given day. Your fixed costs — lease, wages, super, insurance — fall due every month regardless of whether clients have paid yet. Because invoiced work is collected on terms, and later again from slow payers, the money can land weeks after you've already paid to do the job. The forecaster models exactly that timing difference so you can see when outgoings outrun collections.

You tell it what proportion of clients pay on time versus late, and how many days beyond your terms the late payers typically take. It then splits each month's billings into an on-time share and a late share, and credits each share in the month it genuinely arrives — terms plus the late delay. That's what surfaces the late-payer drag: the work is done and costed long before that slower cash lands, which is often what tips a month into the red.

The tool suggests practical levers used across trades: collecting deposits before you start so materials aren't funded out of pocket, invoicing in stages as work progresses rather than all at the end, billing the day a job finishes and chasing early, lining up supplier terms that fall due after your clients typically pay, and arranging a standby overdraft sized to your lowest-balance month. On construction work, Security of Payment legislation also gives you statutory rights to claim progress payments — worth understanding before relying on goodwill alone. This is general information, not financial advice.

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Talk your results through with an advisor.

Use these results to make better decisions. If you'd like a second pair of eyes on them, an advisor can walk through what they mean for the business.