About projecting cash flow for your business
Projecting business cash flow helps you review money coming into your business and money going out of your business. In Quicken Classic for Windows, the business Cash Flow report focuses on transactions in categories that are set up as business categories, so results depend on how you categorize transactions.
What the business cash flow tools use
Quicken Classic uses your business transactions plus your scheduled bill and income reminders to help you review activity and anticipate near-term balance changes.
Business categories
The business Cash Flow report summarizes transactions that use business categories. If a transaction uses a personal category, it won’t be included in the business view of cash flow.
Business accounts (and when to include personal accounts)
You typically run the business report using your business checking and business credit card accounts. However, if you record business transactions in a personal account (for example, you paid a vendor from a personal credit card and categorized it with a business category), include that personal account in the report so those business-category transactions appear.
Bill and income reminders
Reminders drive forward-looking planning because they tell Quicken what you expect to happen and when.
Bill reminders track recurring business expenses, including due dates and expected amounts.
Income reminders track expected deposits (for example, client payments).
Create the business Cash Flow report
You create the business version of the report from the Business report group.
Go to Reports > Business > Cash Flow.
In Date range, choose the timeframe you want to review (for example, Year to date).
In Column, choose how you want the report to group results (for example, Month or Don’t subtotal).
Customize the report to include the right accounts
Customizing the report is the key step because it controls which accounts Quicken Classic looks at when it totals business-category transactions.
In the report, select Customize.
In the Customize Cash Flow dialog, select the Accounts tab.
Select Selected Accounts.
Select your business accounts.
If you have business transactions recorded in a personal account, select that personal account too.
Select OK.
Filter what the report includes
Use report filters when you need the report to answer a specific business question.
Control which transactions appear
On the Display tab, choose which transactions to include.
Amounts
Transaction types
Status (for example, Not cleared, Newly cleared, Reconciled)
Transfers
Subcategories
Control which categories appear
On the Categories tab, choose whether to include all categories or only selected categories.
Select Include transactions with any category (including uncategorized) to see everything included by the report’s current account selection.
Select Include only transactions with selected categories to focus the report on specific business categories.
Use this report when…
The business Cash Flow report is most useful when timing matters and you need to confirm whether money will be available when business expenses are due.
When vendor bills are due before expected client payments arrive.
When you want to decide whether you can make an equipment or software purchase this month.
When you need to plan for quarterly tax payments or other periodic business expenses.
When income is uneven month to month and you need to confirm you can cover fixed costs.
When you record some business spending in a personal account and want to see those business-category transactions in the business cash flow totals.
If results don’t look right
If the report totals don’t match what you expect, these checks usually explain why.
Confirm the correct Date range is selected.
Try a different Column setting to see more detail (for example, switch from Don’t subtotal to Month).
Make sure the transactions you expect to see use business categories.
If business transactions are recorded in a personal account, make sure that account is selected on the Accounts tab.
Look for totals under Uncategorized and categorize those transactions.
Requirements
This feature requires Quicken Classic Business & Personal.
Note for our Canadian Customers
The following terms will be different in the Canadian releases of Quicken.
Canada: "Cheque" / United States: "Check"
Canada: "Colour" / United States: "Color"
Canada: "Centre" / United States: "Center"
Canada: "Realise" / United States: "Realize"
Canada: "Behaviour" / United States: "Behavior"
Canada: "Analyse" / United States: "Analyze"
This feature requires Quicken Business & Personal. Learn how you can upgrade Quicken in minutes.