Good Cash flow planning must not only be pragmatic, but must also fulfill minimum criteria in order to be useful. Especially in times of crisis, the information should have two essential characteristics: Verifiability and timeliness.

Quality of the results: What makes good Cash flow planning ?

As with any financial decision, the information in a Cash flow planning must be reliable and up-to-date. This means that

• VerifiabilityThe information must be comprehensible and consistent so that it provides readers with a clear basis for making decisions.
• TimelinessThe data should be as up-to-date as possible - ideally to the day - so that it can actually contribute to the management of the company.

Verifiability: Why reliability counts

How do you ensure that your Cash flow planning data is consistent? By providing comparable and consistent data that is free of inconsistencies. Inconsistencies can occur either in the data provided or in comparison with past data. Typical questions that can help:

1. Does the current report match the previous ones?
2. Were figures presented differently in the past?
3. Where do any changes come from, and are they plausible?

By asking these questions, you can ensure that your Cash flow planning is solid and does not leave anything unclear.

Timely: Why up-to-date data is crucial

Time plays a decisive role in Cash flow planning . What good is the best information if it arrives too late? Who hasn't experienced it: waiting for evaluations from the tax consultant - sometimes weeks old when they finally arrive. But how is planning supposed to work if these figures are already out of date? Spoiler: Not at all.

So where does this up-to-date and timely data come from? The answer is simple: Directly from the bank account. Smart Cash flow planning starts right here and integrates the real-time data directly into the process.

And where does this information come from not? From traditional accounting. This is important, no question - but simply too slow for daily Cash flow planning .

Time is money, especially when it comes to your Cash position. Use up-to-date data, make decisions faster and always stay one step ahead of your company.

Summarized: What makes good Cash flow planning

Here is an overview of the qualities of ideal Cash flow planning to give you some guidance. Our blog post Theory: Reporting in the company covers this in more detail.