Profit is not cash
Your P&L can show a profit while your bank balance falls, because rent, payroll timing, sales tax and loan payments do not line up neatly with revenue.
Cash flow, not profit, is what actually keeps the doors open week to week.
Why 13 weeks
Thirteen weeks is one quarter: far enough out to see rent, quarterly insurance and tax hitting, but close enough to be accurate. It is the standard window lenders and CFOs use for a reason.
What goes into it
Start with real available cash, then layer in expected sales, payroll runs, fixed costs, AP due dates and any debt service, week by week.
The output is a simple line: your projected balance at the end of each of the next 13 weeks.
Reading the low points
The value is in the dips. When week seven drops below your comfort floor after rent and an insurance payment, you see it five weeks early instead of the morning the check bounces.
Fixing a squeeze with one move
Most squeezes are solved by nudging a single payment a few days, not by financing. A forecast turns a panic into a calm, one-line decision: move this payment, stay above the floor.
How Kit helps: Kit builds and maintains your 13-week forecast automatically from live data, flags the tight weeks ahead of time, and tells you exactly which payment to move to stay clear.