Business
A payment calendar: spotting a cash shortage before it happens
An order may be complete while payment arrives after rent or a supplier’s invoice is due. A simple calendar helps reveal that gap before it interrupts work.
Look at dates as well as totals
A payment calendar is a working plan of money coming in and going out by day or week. What matters is the amount available on a particular date. Australia’s government business portal, business.gov.au, explains how cash flow forecasting helps identify possible shortages. This is a general management principle; this article does not apply the guide’s local tax rules elsewhere.
A small workshop example
Imagine a fictional workshop with 80,000 roubles on Monday. It must pay a supplier 60,000 on Tuesday and rent of 40,000 on Thursday. A customer has promised to pay 100,000 on Friday.
Weekly receipts exceed payments, yet the workshop is 20,000 roubles short on Thursday. Friday’s payment cannot solve Thursday’s problem. All figures are invented solely to explain the idea.
Seeing the gap early, the owner could discuss a partial advance payment with the customer or agree on a different delivery and payment schedule. Both parties must confirm any new terms. A calendar does not authorize unilateral delays to payments that are due.
What to put in the first spreadsheet
Start with four columns: date, purpose, money in and money out. Add the balance after each transaction and label entries “confirmed” or “expected”. An anticipated order is not money in the bank.
For our workshop, a second scenario is useful: what if the customer pays a week later? That calculation shows when to contact the partner and which spending commitments need checking first.
Give someone responsibility for the sheet and reconcile it with actual payments. A calendar neither creates money nor guarantees profit. It provides time for agreed decisions and more predictable relationships with employees and suppliers.
Source
business.gov.au: planning cash flow. Checked on 13 September 2026. The workshop example and its discussion were prepared by the editorial team.