What is Credit Cards Balance on Cash Flow Frog?
Credit card balance is one of the most important metrics of your current status.
For this reason, it is included in the Cash Flow Metrics that appear at the top part of the forecast page.
The balance shows the total upcoming charges of the credit cards you selected to show in a forecast Scenario.
How does it affect the forecast?
A credit card balance is a sum of transactions that have taken place in the past, therefore it doesn't directly affect your future forecast, it simply shows your current cash flow status, similarly to your Cash on Hand.
Future credit card charges should be added as Projections either suggested by Cash Flow Frog or can be manually added by the user.
How to edit the Credit Card balance
Credit card data is imported from your accounting software and you can edit the way Cash Flow Frog refers to each of your credit cards. However, credit card charges can't be edited since they have already occurred.
There are two options to handle your credit cards balance
Your company may have multiple credit cards and each card can be edited separately. The software can refer to each card as a regular credit card or include it as part of your Cash on Hand.
Let's go over each option to understand how it may be used.
Include in your Credit Cards Balance
This is the default and recommended setting. As long as a card is set to 'Include in Credit Cards balance", every charge will be added to the total balance and at any given moment you'll be able to see what is your total open Credit Card balance. The balance is updated when you make partial or full payment on the statement.
Here's an example - Let's say your credit cards balance is $1,000 and your card has just been charged $500 for a software license, because it wasn't actually paid out of your bank account it won't impact your historic cash flow.Now your credit card balance will be updated to $1,500. When you pay your credit card statement your balance will reset to $0 and the $1,500 payment will be reflected in your cash flow.
Include in your Cash on Hand
Selecting this option means that your credit card's charges will not be included in the total Credit Card balance, it will be part of your Cash On Hand balance.Cash Flow Frog will refer to each credit card charge as if it was paid immediately the same as a bank transaction, and deduct it from your Cash on Hand balance, even when the statement has not been paid yet.
For example - If your Cash on Hand balance is $100,000 and your card has just been charged $5,000 for marketing fees, your Cash on Hand will immediately show $95,000, even though the payment will be actually made only when you pay the statement.
Important tip - This option is for users who wish to see how much cash their business has right now if they deduct their credit card charges and to see the details of each credit card transaction. It may be confusing to see that your Cash on Hand is lower than your total bank balance. For this reason, we recommend keeping your credit cards set to the first option.