Cash flow planning is a key element in managing a business, and better planning leads to better performance. Planned vs. actual lets you track your cash flow plan by comparing it with your actual cash flow.

Using planned vs. actual in Cash Flow Frog is simple and straightforward - all you have to do is save your cash flow forecast at a specific point in time and then compare the saved forecast with the actual cash flow from time to time.

The reason why you need to save the forecast at a specific point in time is that Cash Flow Frog updates your forecast on a rolling basis based on changes in your accounting data (e.g. new bills, invoices etc.).

To start, go to the Planned vs. Actual page:

Click on the Save Current Forecast For This Scenario button to save your current forecast.

Saving the forecast today means that you can start using planned vs. actual the next day, that is when part of the forecast becomes in the past and can be compared to actual data:

When you come back to the Planned vs. Actual page the next day (and every day after that) you will find a table that contains a comparison your planned cash flow (e.g. the part of your saved forecast that is onw in the past) with your actual cash flow:

The table includes the total cash balance as well as cash in and cash out breakdowns into account types, customers and vendors. You can also click on planned and actual amounts for a specific customer or vendor to see the full list of transactions that the amount is comprised of:

Whenever you want to update your plan click on the Update From Scenario button and your forecast will be saved again: