Resources · Cash flow
A construction cash flow template,
thirteen weeks ahead.
An Excel workbook for residential builders who run the money themselves: list your jobs, the claims coming in and the bills going out, and it works out the week each one lands and flags any week the balance drops below your own threshold. Every input is blank, because the figures have to be yours. General information, not financial or tax advice.
Written by Brad Caldon, Founder, VIABUILD. Licensed builder (NSW) · Registered Building Practitioner (Class 1 to 9) · B.Construction Management (Hons) · Last reviewed 28 September 2026
The five sheets on this page as an Excel workbook with working formulas: shaded input cells left blank, and the expected payment dates, weekly balances and low-balance flag worked out as you type.
Excel spreadsheet (.xlsx), 172 KB. No form, no email address.
01 / What this is
A weekly cash position you can fill in
This template answers three questions for the next thirteen weeks, per job and across the business: what is coming in, what must go out, and what covers the gap between them. It is for the owner, office manager or bookkeeper of a residential building business who currently holds that picture in their head, in the bank app, or not at all.
It exists because of the shape of the work. The trades and suppliers who build a stage are paid on their own terms in the middle of it, and the claim for that stage cannot go out until it is complete, so the builder funds the gap on every stage of every job at once. The mechanics of that gap are in the construction cash flow reference, and how a forecast is built and stress-tested is in cash flow forecasting for builders. This page is the spreadsheet those two describe.
All amounts are in Australian dollars. Claims and bills are entered excluding GST, and the workbook adds GST at the rate in its settings so the forecast carries what actually reaches and leaves the bank. It is a planning sheet, not an accounting record and not financial or tax advice.
02 / How to use it
Six steps, then a short pass each week
The first pass takes as long as it takes to find every claim and bill. After that, the weekly pass only touches what changed.
- 01
List every live job
One row per job on the Jobs sheet, with the current contract value excluding GST and the claim stages as the contract names them. Overwrite the example row. The job name you type here is the one the other sheets must match.
- 02
Enter every claim in the next thirteen weeks
Claims already sent, and claims the programme says you will send. For each one, the date it goes out, the payment terms from the contract, and the extra days this client actually takes. The expected payment date works itself out, and it is the receipt date, not the invoice date.
- 03
Enter every bill and subcontract claim by due date
Supplier invoices and trade claims on the Money out sheet, each with the date it falls due under its terms. Where you withhold retention, enter the amount held and the release date the subcontract sets, so the release lands in the week it is owed.
- 04
Set the start, the opening balance and your threshold
At the top of the Weekly forecast sheet: the Monday the forecast starts, the balance actually in the bank that day, and the balance below which you want a week flagged. The threshold is yours to set; the template does not suggest one.
- 05
Add the cash out the jobs do not show
Wages, rent, insurances, vehicle and loan repayments, and the BAS remittance in the week it falls due, in the Other cash out column. These land whether the jobs claim or not, and a forecast without them flatters the position.
- 06
Read it weekly, and move it when the programme moves
Update the opening balance, mark what was received and paid, and read the flag. When a stage slips, move the claim date behind it the same day; the supplier payments mostly will not move with it.
03 / The workbook
What each sheet does
Five sheets. Shaded cells are for typing in; every other figure is a formula, so the forecast fills itself in from what you enter. The job name is the thread that ties the sheets together, so type it the same way every time.
Jobs
- Job. The job name or address, one row per live job. The first row reads Job A (example: replace); overwrite it.
- Contract value ex GST. The current contract sum excluding GST, with approved variations included.
- GST. Worked out from the GST rate on the forecast sheet.
- Contract value inc GST. The two added together.
- Stages. The claim stages as the contract's claim schedule names them, typed as text.
- Claimed to date ex GST. Added up from the Claims in sheet for this job.
- Left to claim ex GST. The contract value less what has been claimed.
Claims in
- Job. Exactly as it is written on the Jobs sheet, so the claimed-to-date total finds it.
- Stage or claim. The stage in the contract's words, or the variation number.
- Claim amount ex GST. The amount claimed, excluding GST.
- GST. Worked out from the GST rate on the forecast sheet.
- Claim total inc GST. The amount that should reach the bank.
- Date submitted. The day the claim goes out, or for a claim not yet sent, the day the programme says the stage will be claimed.
- Payment terms (days). From the contract, not from a template.
- Usual extra days. How many days beyond the terms this client actually takes to pay. Leave it blank if they pay on time.
- Expected payment date. The date submitted plus the terms plus the usual extra days. This is the date the forecast uses.
- Date received. Filled in when the money lands. A received claim drops out of the forecast, because it is already in the bank balance.
Money out
- Job. The job the bill belongs to.
- Supplier or subcontractor. Who is owed.
- Reference. The invoice, claim or purchase order number.
- Amount ex GST. The bill excluding GST.
- GST. Worked out from the GST rate; type over it for a bill that carries no GST.
- Total inc GST. The bill as it will be paid, before retention.
- Retention held. Any amount withheld from this payment, as the subcontract provides for.
- Due date. The date the bill falls due under its terms.
- To pay on due date. The total less any retention held.
- Date paid. Filled in when it is paid. A paid bill drops out of the forecast.
- Retention release date. The trigger date the subcontract sets for releasing what was held, diarised the day the retention is withheld.
- Retention released on. Filled in when it is released. Until then it stays in the forecast as cash out in the week it is owed.
Weekly forecast
Four settings at the top, then thirteen weeks. Week one also picks up anything overdue: a claim past its expected payment date that has not arrived, or a bill past its due date that has not been paid.
- Forecast start. The Monday of week one.
- Opening bank balance. What is in the bank that day, read from the bank.
- Low-balance threshold. The balance below which you want a week flagged. It is your number, set by what your business needs to carry.
- GST rate. Used by every GST column. Set at ten per cent; confirm the rate that applies to your work with your accountant.
- Week. One to thirteen.
- Week starting. Worked out from the forecast start.
- Opening balance. The opening bank balance in week one, then the previous week's closing balance.
- Claims in. Every claim not yet received whose expected payment date falls in the week, including GST.
- Other cash in. Typed in: anything else expected in the week, such as the deposit on a newly signed contract.
- Bills out. Every unpaid bill due in the week, less any retention held.
- Retention released. Every retention not yet released whose release date falls in the week.
- Other cash out. Typed in: wages, rent, insurances, loan repayments and the BAS remittance, in the week each one lands.
- Closing balance. The opening balance plus cash in, less cash out.
- Low balance. Shows LOW when the closing balance is under your threshold.
Instructions
- The six steps. The steps above, for whoever opens the file without this page.
- The traps. The six common cash-flow traps below, which the template cannot catch on its own.
Retention on a single claim can be checked with the retention calculator, and a claim built up from work completed and variations with the progress claim calculator, before the figures go into the sheets.
04 / Common traps
Where a cash flow spreadsheet goes wrong
None of these needs bad numbers, only unexamined ones. The formulas cannot catch them; the weekly read can.
Claim dates copied from the invoice
A forecast that books the money on the day the claim is issued ignores the payment terms and the client’s actual habits. The template asks for both so the claim lands in the week the money realistically arrives.
The forecast not moved with the programme
A stage slips a fortnight and the claim behind it slips a fortnight, while the bills for that stage mostly do not. A forecast still carrying the old dates is wrong in the direction that hurts, and it stays wrong quietly.
GST read as money you can spend
The GST collected on a claim sits in the account until the BAS falls due. The template forecasts in bank terms, GST included, so the remittance has to be entered as cash out in its own week or the balance between BAS dates overstates what the business can spend.
Overheads left out
Wages, rent and repayments land every week whether the jobs claim or not. A forecast built only from the jobs shows a healthier business than the one that has to make payroll.
Retention forgotten at the tail
Retention you hold on trades is a payable with a release date, and retention held on you is a receivable nobody sends an invoice for. Both need a date and an owner, or one surprises the position and the other quietly becomes a write-off.
The new deposit funding the old job
A deposit makes the balance look healthy, but it belongs to work not yet built. Spending it to cover another job’s dip works once per job and leaves a bigger hole, which is the pattern a rolled-up forecast exists to show early.
05 / FAQ
Common questions.
A rolling thirteen-week working horizon is a common convention rather than a rule. It is roughly a quarter: long enough to see the next BAS cycle and the next stage of every live job, and short enough that the dates in it come from real claims and bills rather than guesses. The far end will always be softer than the near end, and that is fine, because its job is early warning rather than precision. Beyond thirteen weeks, a coarser monthly view of start dates and the pipeline is usually enough.
This template forecasts in gross terms, the amounts that actually reach and leave the bank account, and carries the BAS remittance as its own cash out in the week it is due. That is the common convention, and it keeps the forecast’s balance matching the real account while making the tax liability visible instead of hiding it inside the balance. GST is worked out at the rate in the forecast settings. Reporting cycles and treatments vary between businesses, so confirm your own with your accountant or the ATO rather than a template. General information, not tax advice.
Weekly for the working horizon, plus the day the programme moves or a large variation lands. The weekly pass is short when claims and bills are already entered: roll the opening balance to what the bank says, mark what was received and paid, and read the flag. The event-driven update is the one builders skip and the one that matters most, because a schedule slip changes the cash position even though no invoice and no price changed.
Be glad it showed up in the forecast rather than the bank account, then use the time. The usual moves are bringing a claim forward by resequencing work so a stage completes earlier, deferring a start so its costs land later, asking a major supplier for extended terms before the money is owed, arranging a facility while the business still looks bankable, and chasing the receivables that were being politely ignored. Every one of those needs weeks of lead time, which is the whole argument for looking thirteen weeks ahead.
Only part of it. A ledger shows the bank balance, the invoices received and the invoices raised, which is the recorded past. It generally cannot see stages completed but not yet claimed, the timing of the claims ahead, or costs committed with no invoice yet, and those are most of a builder’s forward position. That is why many builders run the forward view beside the ledger, as this template does, rather than in it.
An Excel workbook with five sheets: Jobs, Claims in, Money out, Weekly forecast and Instructions. The input cells are shaded and left blank, apart from one example job name to overwrite and the GST rate. The totals, expected payment dates, weekly balances and the low-balance flag are formulas, so they fill in as you type. There are no example figures in it, on purpose: your contract values, terms and threshold are the parts that decide whether the forecast is true, and a figure borrowed from a template would be wrong somewhere the moment it left this page.
06 / Keep reading
The references behind this template
The knowledge nodes, calculators and sibling resources the sheets draw on.
07 / Cite this
How to cite this page
To reference this page, use the wording below and link the page rather than copying it, so readers reach the current version. Corrections to hello@viabuild.au.
Citation
Brad Caldon, VIABUILD, Construction cash flow template, a 13-week forecast in Excel, https://www.viabuild.au/resources/construction-cash-flow-template, last reviewed 28 September 2026.
Or keep the job numbers in one place.
In VIABUILD, the estimate becomes the job budget, and purchase orders are raised from its lines. VIABUILD connects to Xero, which stays your accounting system.