What is cash flow management?
Cash flow management is the process of identifying how much money your business needs to cover its debts, overheads, and stock replenishment. Effective cash flow management ensures there is sufficient money to pay bills and expenses such as employee wages, purchase orders, and general operating costs.
What is cash flow management software?
Cash flow management software solutions, also called cash flow management tools, help businesses to manage past, current, and future cash flow. They also help to regulate the business’s financial health, optimise cash flow, and control the cash position.
Below, we list the 13 most effective tools for managing cash flow in a business.
With the right cash flow management tools in place, a business will be set up for success.
Cash flow management tools for forecasting
Cash flow forecasting gives businesses the confidence of knowing they can meet expenses and pay staff and suppliers on time. It also helps to identify problems or seasonal troughs, meaning the business can forward plan for times of low cash flow taking away the worry of where money will come from.
These cash flow forecasting tools estimate the cash coming into and going out of a business based on its past business performance.
1. Fathom
Fathom delivers actionable financial insights using cash flow trends from your latest business financials, or your existing budget to help streamline cash flow management.
It combines customised management reporting, and cash flow forecasting using comprehensive financial modelling to provide a clear picture of your business performance. Each figure from Fathom’s cash flow forecasts can be analysed and audited to discover exactly where the numbers came from.
2. Cube
Cube software was developed for the financial sector. From forecasting cash flows to scenario analysis, Cube provides a solid solution for all your cash management processes.
The platform is currently the only software to automatically transfer data from any spreadsheet into a multi-dimensional database.
3. Agicap
Agicap helps to provide an exact picture of the company’s current cash flow position by collecting cash flow data from your banking and business tools. The software provides an accurate analysis of your cash flow by tracking both inwards and outgoing cash in real time to deliver better cash flow forecasting.
4. Phocas
Phocas is a budgeting and forecasting interface that retains familiar aspects of spreadsheets but with intuitive forward-looking features. The software is cloud-based and connects to business process functions enabling businesses to access reports, budgets, and forecasts from anywhere at any time.
Forecasting demand and sales is a key function of several cash flow management tools.
Cash flow management tools for credit control
Some cash flow management tools can more accurately retrieve data directly from all source systems, while predictive analytics improve cash flow management and optimise credit control.
5. Invoiced
Invoiced is a simple and secure cash flow management tool for B2B. It helps with credit control by enabling users to create a network of suppliers and customers. Invoiced provides a fast and accurate way to send, process, and approve account payables and receivables.
6. QuickBooks
QuickBooks connects to your bank, credit card, and other payment platforms to show how the business is tracking in real time. It provides all the information needed to manage cash flow, improve credit control, and make smarter business decisions.
Connecting your business accounts to QuickBooks gives a complete view of your finances and saves time reconciling cash and credit with the benefit of real-time transaction data.
7. Unleashed B2B eCommerce Portal
Our own B2B eCommerce portal automates the B2B selling process, helping to reduce costs by removing manual processes and potentially costly human error. By eliminating manual order entry, you can streamline your business processes to boost efficiency and simplify transactions.
The platform improves your customers’ buying experience by allowing them to place and track orders quickly and easily. It also gives companies the option to set B2B sales as ‘pre-payment only’ to reduce credit risk and improve credit control.
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Cash flow management tools for small business
8. Xero
Xero helps SMEs to work smarter through its intuitive accounting software that features a range of cash flow management tools. From keeping financials up to date using bank reconciliation, tracking, and paying bills to sending online invoices and accepting online payments to provide a clear overview of business cash flows.
Xero automates tax, payroll, superannuation contributions, and GST calculations. The software also has the functionality to submit payroll details and business activity statements directly to the tax department.
9. Cashflow-Manager
Simple to use, Cashflow-Manager records business transactions, and creates customer invoices, while automatically calculating and recording GST.
The interface helps SMEs to manage accounts and it simplifies the completion and lodgement of Business Activity Statements. Cashflow-Manager also helps SMEs to create, track and review cash flow budgets.
Small businesses have increased need for cash flow management tools to ensure they avoid insolvency during growth stages.
Free cash flow management tools
Most cash flow management tools for businesses allow a free trial period of one month. Others offer basic services free of charge while the more advanced features must be purchased.
10. Anchor
Anchor is a cloud-based autonomous billing solution that gets businesses paid on time by simplifying B2B billing, collections, and payments with its fully automated end-to-end billing and collection software. Anchor removes the manual side of these processes and eliminates the risks of human error or fraud in B2B payments.
Anchor also fully automates the entire billing and payments cycle starting at the supplier and client agreement, through to managing invoices, payables, and reconciliation activities. That means no more late payments or lost revenue.
11. Causal
Casual guides business owners towards a better understanding of the components and implications of cash flow. It assists them to utilise strategies to improve cash flow that can lead to greater profitability.
The app also helps users track cash flow over time to identify trends that may influence their financial performance. This allows them to build and manage integrated simulations to create accurate projections and cohesively manage revenue and expenses.
12. Vena Solutions
Vena is a tool built for Microsoft 365 and embedded with Power Business Intelligence that enables businesses to work, plan and grow. Vena’s cash flow planning software lets you create and run driver-based models daily, weekly, or monthly.
With the flexibility of an Excel interface and OLAP cube technology in a single unified platform, the OLAP cube provides fast data analysis and can display and sum large amounts of information.
Vena seamlessly integrates and secures business data helping organisations optimise strategic planning with cash flow management scenario planning and what-if analysis.
13. Odoo Accounting
The Odoo Accounting app has a convenient customer portal that integrates with all key payment providers to facilitate rapid payments supported by automated follow-ups for any late payments.
The app automates supplier payables and receivables keeping track of deposits to simplify bank reconciliations and integrates bank feeds automatically from over 15,000 financial institutes predominantly in the United States, Canada, and New Zealand.
Tools you may not think are cash flow management tools
While not specifically cash flow management tools, there are a few other software solutions that can also help optimise cash flow for SMEs.
B2B Portals
B2B payments are a crucial part of cash flow management. Late payments can create a ripple effect on cash flow, and lead to several financial problems such as payroll delays and late payments to suppliers.
B2B portals are great for improving cash flow management through sales efficiency, flexibility, and integration with other business systems. This bakery chain in Western Australia claims to have saved $40,000 per year from adopting Unleashed’s B2B portal.
B2B portals help you optimise sales efficiency, making them a powerful cash flow management tool for manufacturers.
Customer Relationship Management software (CRM)
CRM technology is another tool businesses can use to raise cash flow.
CRMs help to increase average order value, boost order volumes, and reduce the average cost of sales. B2B CRMs can make a sizable difference in profitability and are at the foundation of most successful businesses.
Tools such as Prospect CRM can successfully enhance your sales pipeline to accelerate B2B sales and gain new and valuable customers more efficiently.
Inventory management software
Inventory management software, while not specifically seen as a cash flow management tool, will directly influence cash flow and profitability.
Inventory generally ranks as one of the largest costs to most businesses, absorbing a significant amount of available cash flow. A company’s cash flow is directly linked to inventory and as such inventory can equally affect cash flow in both a positive and negative way.
This is where inventory management software is a game-changer. It assists in optimising turnover, streamlining inventory, demand planning and inventory forecasting, and supporting lean practices – making it a critical cash flow management tool for any organisation that holds physical stock.
Benefits of utilising cash flow management tools
Cash flow management tools automatically retrieve more data, more quickly, pulling it into a single source of truth and providing instant access to precise, real-time financial data.
The core benefits of cash flow management tools include:
- increased efficiency and enhanced accuracy
- software automation for more streamlined, fast, and error-free processes
- cost savings through automated activities that improve cash flow
- streamlined payables, receivables, and accounts reconciliation activities
- predictive analytics to gather historical and current data for better cash flow forecasting
- screening to help eliminate fraudulent payments
- automated payment matching to reconcile and process batch payments.
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