A cash flow forecast projects the actual cash moving in and out of your business each month, separate from profit. Unlike a P&L, it accounts for payment timing: invoices that haven't been paid, bills due before revenue arrives, and seasonal fluctuations. Twelve months of projected cash flow tells you when you'll run tight and how much reserve to carry.
Cash Flow Forecast for Catering
Pre-filled with real catering industry benchmarks
Catering cash flow is uniquely volatile because revenue arrives in large, irregular lump sums tied to events rather than a steady daily stream. A typical week might include a $12,000 wedding deposit on Monday, $4,000 in food purchases on Wednesday, and $3,500 in day-of staff payments on Saturday, with the final $12,000 balance due post-event. This timing mismatch, combined with seasonal concentration (60–70% of revenue in May through December), makes cash management critical. The saving grace is the deposit structure: most caterers collect 25–50% deposits at booking (often months in advance), which provides working capital for food purchases and early planning. But that deposit money is committed to a future event, not free cash. This calculator is pre-filled with typical catering expenses and seasonal patterns so you can model your cash position month by month and avoid the trap of spending future-event deposits on current-month overhead.
Cash Flow Forecast
Pre-filled with catering industry defaults. Edit any field to use your real numbers.
Monthly Revenue
$50,000
Total Expenses
$21,950
Net Cash Flow
$28,050
Catering benchmark: labor at 30.0% of revenue, COGS at 35.0%.