Cash Flow Forecast

The Cash Flow Forecast helps you see where your money is heading. By analysing your recurring transactions and spending patterns, Financio projects your future balances so you can plan ahead and avoid surprises.

Accessing the Forecast

1. Go to Planning from the main navigation.
2. Select Forecasts from the menu.

How Forecasting Works

Financio builds your forecast using two sources of data:

Recurring Transactions

These are bills, subscriptions, and regular payments you've set up in Financio. Since you've told us exactly when and how much, these predictions are highly accurate.

Examples include:

• Monthly rent or mortgage payments
• Weekly grocery budgets
• Fortnightly salary deposits
• Annual insurance premiums

Category Pattern Detection

Financio also analyses your transaction history to detect spending patterns by category. Rather than tracking individual merchants, the system aggregates your spending within each category to identify regular patterns — even when amounts vary between transactions.

The system can detect these recurring patterns:

• Daily — Weekday spending like daily lunches or coffee
• Weekly — Spending occurring every 5-9 days
• Fortnightly — Spending occurring every 12-16 days
• Monthly — Spending occurring every 26-35 days
• Quarterly — Spending occurring every 85-100 days

Examples include:

• Weekly grocery shopping (even across different supermarkets)
• Daily food and drink spending (weekdays only)
• Monthly entertainment subscriptions
• Quarterly insurance payments

For a pattern to be detected, you need at least 3 transactions in the same category within the last 3 months. Transactions that are already linked to recurring transactions are excluded from pattern detection to avoid double-counting.

Stale Pattern Detection

Patterns are automatically removed from forecasts if they become stale. A pattern is considered stale when it hasn't occurred within a reasonable timeframe based on its expected frequency:

For example, if you have a weekly groceries pattern but haven't had any grocery transactions in over 2 weeks, Financio will stop forecasting that spending until the pattern resumes.

Forecast Periods

Choose from three forecast timeframes:

Shorter periods show more detail, while longer periods help you plan further ahead.

Reading the Chart

The stacked area chart shows your combined account balances over time:

• Solid colours represent historical (actual) balances
• Dashed lines with lighter shading represent projected (forecasted) balances
• Each colour represents a different account
• Hover over any point to see the breakdown by account and the total

The chart clearly shows where your historical data ends and your projected data begins, so you always know what's real and what's predicted.

Balance Tiles

At the top of the forecast, two tiles show key figures:

Current Balance

Your total balance across all selected accounts right now.

Projected Balance

The minimum projected balance during the forecast period and when it will occur. This helps you identify potential cash flow crunches before they happen.

Selecting Accounts

Not all accounts are included in the forecast by default. You can toggle individual accounts on or off to focus on specific cash flow:

1. Scroll down to the Accounts section below the chart.
2. Use the toggle switches to include or exclude accounts.
3. Click Select All or Deselect All for quick selection.

Only transaction accounts (Cash, Bank Account, Savings, and Credit Card) can be forecasted. Investment accounts, assets, and loans are not included as they don't have predictable transaction patterns.

Forecasted Transactions

Below the accounts section, you'll see a list of all the individual transactions that make up your forecast. Each transaction shows:

• Date — When the transaction is expected to occur
• Description — What the transaction is for (merchant name for recurring transactions, category name for detected patterns)
• Source badge — Whether it's from a Recurring transaction (blue) or Category pattern detection (purple)
• Account — Which account the transaction will affect
• Amount — The expected amount (green for income, red for expenses)

Adjusting the Forecast

Each transaction has a toggle switch. Turn off individual transactions to see how your forecast changes without them. This is useful for:

• Testing scenarios — "What if I cancel this subscription?"
• Excluding one-offs — Remove a transaction that won't actually occur this time
• Fine-tuning accuracy — Disable pattern-detected transactions you know won't happen

When you toggle a transaction off, the chart immediately recalculates to show the updated projection.

Forecast Settings

Your forecast preferences are saved to your account:

Recurring Transactions Toggle

When enabled, includes all your set-up recurring transactions in the forecast. These are typically your most reliable predictions.

Category Pattern Toggle

When enabled, includes automatically detected category spending patterns. These predictions are based on your transaction history and may be less certain than explicit recurring transactions, but they're useful for capturing variable spending like groceries or dining out.

These settings are remembered across sessions, so you don't need to reconfigure them each time you view your forecast.

Tips for Better Forecasts

Set Up Recurring Transactions

The more recurring transactions you have set up, the more accurate your forecast will be. Take time to add your regular bills, subscriptions, and income.

Categorise Your Transactions

The more transactions you categorise, the better Financio can detect spending patterns. Category-based pattern detection works best when your transactions are consistently categorised, as it aggregates spending across all merchants within each category.

Review Category Patterns

Financio may detect category patterns that could be set up as recurring transactions. If you notice a pattern that's very consistent (like a weekly grocery shop), consider creating a recurring transaction for better reliability and more precise amounts.

Update Regularly

Keep your account balances current by recording transactions promptly. The forecast starts from your current balance, so accuracy depends on having up-to-date information.

Check Before Big Purchases

Before making a large purchase, check your forecast to ensure you'll have sufficient funds for upcoming bills and expenses.

Supported Account Types

The following account types support forecasting:

Investment accounts, assets, and loans don't support forecasting because their balances change based on market values, depreciation, or scheduled repayments rather than regular transactions.