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Cashflow

The cashflow page gives you a 12-month financial forecast, combining data from your invoices, bank accounts, scheduled payments, manual entries, recurring patterns, and tax calculations. AI-powered insights highlight risks and recommendations.

Forecast Modes

FlowLance offers three forecast modes, each progressively more speculative:

Confirmed

The most conservative view. Only includes money that's confirmed or highly likely: - Paid invoices - Sent invoices (expected payment) - Scheduled payments - Manual entries you've added - User-confirmed recurring patterns (full amount) - Monthly business expenses (salary, fixed costs, pension, savings from your financial projections)

Analysis

Same data as Confirmed, plus AI-generated insights analysing your financial position. Uses Anthropic Claude to provide contextual recommendations about your cash health.

Predictions

The most comprehensive view. Adds speculative income on top of the confirmed data: - High-probability proposals (>75% probability, weighted by their probability percentage) - Unconfirmed recurring patterns (weighted by confidence score) - Remaining uninvoiced value from active projects

Page Tabs

The cashflow page has several tabs:

Overview Tab

The main view with your forecast chart, metrics, and insights.

Stats Cards: - Current Balance — Your bank balance plus manual entries - Projected Income — Expected income over the next 12 months - Projected Expenses — Expected outgoings over 12 months - Net Cashflow — Income minus expenses - Runway — How many months of expenses your current balance covers

Forecast Chart: A 12-month bar chart showing: - Income bars (green) - Expense bars (red) - Balance line tracking your projected bank balance over time - Buffer target line (amber dashed line) if you've set a minimum cash reserve - Tax markers for Self Assessment and Corporation Tax due dates

Insights & Recommendations: AI-generated cards highlighting: - Cash flow gaps ahead - Upcoming large payments - Revenue concentration risks - Suggestions for improving financial health

Risks: Rule-based warnings about: - Overdue invoices - Income gaps (months with no expected income) - Tax payments due - Balance dropping below your buffer target

Forecast Breakdown Table: A 12-month grid showing category-by-category detail: - Income (invoices, scheduled payments, recurring) - Salary - Fixed costs - Pension contributions - Tax set-aside - Manual entries - Recurring patterns - Net for each month

Expense Breakdown Card: A category donut chart showing expense distribution for the next 3 months.

Transactions Tab

If you've connected a bank account, this tab shows your recent transactions: - Transaction date, description, and amount - Category assignment - Filter and search capabilities

Scheduled Tab

Shows expected future payments: - Pending invoices with expected payment dates - Scheduled recurring payments - Overdue indicators for late payments

Tax Tab

Estimated tax liability for the current tax year:

  • Self Assessment estimate (for sole traders) — Income tax and National Insurance
  • Corporation Tax estimate (for limited companies) — Company profit tax, plus personal tax on salary and dividends

Tax is calculated based on your entity type (configured in Settings): - Sole traders: Income tax bands (20%/40%/45%) + NI Class 4 (9%/2%) - Limited companies: Corporation tax (19% or 25%) + personal income tax on salary + dividend tax (8.75%/33.75%/39.35%)

A disclaimer reminds you that these are rough estimates and not financial advice.

Patterns Tab

Recurring transaction patterns detected automatically from your bank transactions:

When FlowLance syncs your bank transactions, it analyses them for patterns — regular payments that repeat on a schedule (weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc.). Each pattern shows:

  • Description and amount
  • Detected frequency
  • Confidence score
  • Whether it's income or expense

Actions on patterns: - Approve — Confirm the pattern. Approved patterns are included at full value in your Confirmed forecast - Edit — Change the name, type (income/expense), amount, or frequency before approving - Dismiss — Ignore the pattern. Dismissed patterns won't appear again

Unapproved patterns still appear in the Predictions forecast, weighted by their confidence percentage.

Manual Tab

Add income or expense entries that aren't captured by bank integration:

Field Description
Type Income or Expense
Description What this entry is for
Amount The value
Date When it occurs
Recurring Whether it repeats (and at what frequency)

Manual entries are useful for: - Cash payments not going through your bank - Expected expenses you want to budget for - Adjusting your starting balance

Bank Integration

Connect your bank account to automatically sync transactions and balances:

Connecting via Plaid

  1. Go to Settings > Connected Accounts
  2. Click Connect Bank Account
  3. The Plaid Link widget opens — search for your bank and log in
  4. Select which accounts to connect
  5. Transactions sync automatically (hourly via cron)

Transaction Sync

  • Transactions sync automatically every hour
  • Uses cursor-based sync to only fetch new transactions
  • If your bank connection expires, you'll see an "Expired" status and a Reconnect button

Multiple Accounts

You can connect multiple bank accounts. All transactions feed into your cashflow forecast.

Financial Projections

The forecast uses your financial projections from Settings to calculate monthly business expenses. These include:

  • Salary — Monthly salary draw (for limited company directors)
  • Fixed costs — Regular business expenses
  • Pension contributions — With tax relief calculated (20% basic rate for sole traders)
  • Savings targets — Monthly savings allocation
  • Emergency buffer — Minimum cash reserve target (shown as a dashed line on the chart)

Configure these in Settings > Financial Projections. See Settings for details.

How the Forecast Works

  1. Starting balance — Your current bank balance (from Plaid sync) plus/minus manual adjustments
  2. Monthly income — Invoices due, scheduled payments, and recurring income patterns
  3. Monthly expenses — Salary, fixed costs, pension, savings, tax set-aside, and recurring expense patterns
  4. Running balance — Each month's balance = previous balance + income - expenses

The chart shows this as a rolling 12-month projection from today.