| name | cash-flow-forecast |
| description | Forecast cash flow and runway for a Well workspace from booked invoices and collected bank transactions. Use when the user asks for a cash-flow forecast, runway, how long until they run out of cash, projected balance, or expected inflows/outflows. |
Cash-flow forecast from Well
A trustworthy forecast is grounded in what actually happened — invoices raised, cash collected, and observed days-to-pay — not in optimistic projections. Every forecast must state its time window and filters, and flag thin history explicitly.
Build it from booked + collected
- Discover the schema first (see
well:querying-well-data).
- Starting position — current cash:
well_get_schema("account_balances") / accounts, sum the latest balance per account (note the currency).
- Expected inflows (booked) — open
invoices (issued, unpaid) with their due dates and outstanding amounts. Adjust each due date by the customer's observed days-to-pay where history exists (derive from past invoices + their settling transactions / invoice_transactions).
- Expected outflows (booked) — received/payable
invoices with due dates; plus recurring outflows visible in transactions history (rent, payroll, subscriptions).
- Project the balance forward per period (week or month): starting cash + expected inflows − expected outflows. Report the projected balance per period and the runway (the period the balance crosses zero, if any).
Rules
- State the window and filters behind the forecast (e.g. "next 13 weeks, EUR, excludes intra-account transfers"). A forecast without its assumptions is a vanity number.
- Flag thin history. If days-to-pay or recurring-outflow history is sparse (low n), say so — confidence is overstated on thin data.
- Distinguish booked (invoices/contracts that exist) from assumed (run-rate extrapolation), and label which is which.
- Don't sum across currencies without converting (see
exchange_rates).
Present it
A per-period table — opening balance, inflows, outflows, closing balance — the runway in plain terms ("≈ N weeks at current trajectory"), the stated window/filters, and an explicit confidence note when history is thin.
