Setting up cash flow analysis

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If you want some help to decide what to do with your cash, have a look at the charts on the Accountant Role Center:

  • Cash Cycle
  • Income & Expense
  • Cash Flow
  • Cash Flow Forecasts

This article describes where the data in the charts comes from and, if necessary, what to do to start using the charts.

The Cash Cycle and Income & Expense charts

The Cash Cycle and Income & Expense charts are ready to go, based on the Chart of Accounts and financial reports. The accounts are where the data comes from, and financial reports calculate the relationship between sales and receivables. Some accounts and financial reports are provided. You can use them as-is, change them, and add new ones. If you add G/L accounts to your chart of accounts, for example, by importing them from QuickBooks, map the accounts on the Financial Reports page for the following reports:

Financial report name Where it's used
I_CACYCLE Cash Cycle
I_CASHFLOW Cash Flow
I_INCEXP Income & Expense
I_MINTRIAL As an income statement if you don't use the chart of accounts

Note

It's a good idea to keep the calculations that are provided for the financial report.

Enter accounts in the Totaling field for Total Revenue, Total Receivables, Total Payables, and Total Inventory. To map to a range of accounts, enter the account numbers separated by ".." as in 1111..4444. Alternately, to map to specific accounts, enter the account numbers separated by a vertical bar as in 2222|3333|5555.

Tip

Verify your mapping by choosing the Overview action.

Set up the Cash Flow chart

The Cash Flow chart is based on:

  • A chart of cash flow accounts.
  • One or more cash flow setups. These setups specify the accounts to use for general ledger, purchases, sales, services, and fixed assets.

To help you get going, Business Central provides some accounts and cash flow setups. You can add, change, or remove them.

To set up the accounts, search for Chart of Cash Flow Accounts, choose the link, and then fill in the fields. Hover over a field to read a short description. Repeat these steps for Cash Flow Setup.

Set up cash flow forecasts

The Cash Flow Forecast chart uses cash flow accounts, cash flow setups, and cash flow forecasts. Some are provided, however, you can set up your own by using an assisted setup guide. The guide helps you specify things like:

  • When to update the forecast
  • Which accounts to base it on
  • When you pay taxes
  • Whether to turn on Azure AI.

Cash flow forecasts can use Azure AI to create a more comprehensive forecast. The connection to Azure AI is already set up for you. You just need to turn it on. When you sign in to Business Central, a notification displays in a blue bar and provides a link to the default cash flow setup. The notification displays only once. If you close it, but then decide to turn on Azure AI, you can use the assisted setup guide or a manual process.

Note

Alternatively, you can use your own predictive web service. For more information, see Create and use your own predictive web service for cash flow forecasts.

To use the assisted setup guide:

  1. In the Accountant Role Center, under the Cash Flow Forecast chart, choose the Open Assisted Setup action.
  2. Fill in the fields in each step of the guide. Hover over a field to read a short description.
  3. Back in the Accountant Role Center, choose the Recalculate Forecast action under the Cash Flow Forecast chart.

To use a manual process:

  1. In the Accountant Role Center, choose the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature. icon, enter Cash Flow Setup, then choose the related link.
  2. Expand the Azure AI FastTab, then choose the Azure AI Enabled field.
  3. Back in the Accountant Role Center, choose the Recalculate Forecast action under the Cash Flow Forecast chart.

Tip

Consider the length of the periods that the service will use in its calculations. The more data you provide, the more accurate the predictions will be. Also, watch out for large variances in periods. They will also impact predictions. If Azure AI does not find enough data, or the data varies a lot, the service will not make a prediction.

Design details

Subscriptions for Business Central come with access to several predictive web services in all regions where Business Central is available. Learn more at the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Licensing Guide. The guide is available for download on the Business Central website.

These web services are stateless, meaning they use data only to calculate predictions on demand. They don't store data.

Note

You can use your own predictive web service instead of ours. For more information, see Create and use your own predictive web service for cash flow forecasts.

Data required for forecast

To make predictions about future revenue and expenses, web services require historical data from receivables, payables, and taxes.

Receivables

Due Date, Amount (LCY) fields of the Customer Ledger Entries page, where:

  • The document type is Invoice or Credit Memo.
  • The due date is between date that is calculated based on the values in the Historical Periods and Period Type fields on the Cash Flow Setup page and the work date.

Before it uses the predictive web-service, Business Central compresses transactions by Due Date based on the value in the Period Type field on the Cash Flow Setup page.

Payables

Due Date, Amount (LCY) fields on the Vendor Ledger Entries page, where:

  • The document type is Invoice or Credit Memo.
  • The due date is between date that is calculated based on values in the Historical Periods and Period Type fields on the Cash Flow Setup page and the work date.

Before it uses the predictive web-service, Business Central compresses transactions by Due Date based on the value in the Period Type field on the Cash Flow Setup page.

Tax

Document Date, Amount fields on the VAT (Tax) Ledger Entries page, where:

  • The document type is sales.
  • The document date is between the date that is calculated based on values in the Historical Periods and Period Type fields on the Cash Flow Setup page and the work date.

Before it uses the predictive web-service, Business Central compresses transactions by Document Date based on value in the Period Type field in the Cash Flow Setup page.

Create and use your own predictive web service for cash flow forecasts

For Business Central online, the model is published by Microsoft and connected to the Microsoft subscription. For other deployment options, you have to create Machine Learning resources in your own Azure subscription. You can find sample steps in the sample repo. The purpose of this task is to get the API URI and API key.

  1. Choose the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature. icon, enter Cash Flow Setup, and then choose the related link.
  2. Expand the Azure AI FastTab, and then fill in the fields, including the API URL and API key provided from Azure Machine Learning studio. Hover over a field to read a short description.
  3. In the Accountant Role Center, choose the Recalculate Forecast action under the Cash Flow Forecast chart.

See also

Analyzing Cash Flow in Your Company
Setting Up Finance
Work with Business Central
Forecasting API overview

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