13-week cash flow model
Weekly receipts, disbursements, revolver, liquidity. Forecast a stressed company’s liquidity week by week, size the revolver inside its borrowing base, and say in which week the covenant breaks and how much new money would keep it whole.
Built in: Investment banking, Private equity, Equity research and hedge funds
By Surojit Chakraverti, founder of L3VLUP and an investor running a long-short healthcare and technology equities strategy.
On this subject: 13-week cash flow model.Updated 30 September 2026
Who builds it, and for whatA standard liquidity forecast for a company under financial pressure, and one of the first documents a restructuring adviser, lender’s adviser or distressed investor requests. It shows in which week cash plus available borrowing falls below what the lenders require, and by how much. The company’s finance team usually updates it weekly with its advisers, and creditors review it closely.
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| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Assumptions | ||||||||||||||||
| 2 | $m unless stated. Weeks W1 to W13; flows are weekly totals. | ||||||||||||||||
| 4 | Week | Unit | W1 | W2 | W3 | W4 | W5 | W6 | W7 | W8 | W9 | W10 | W11 | W12 | W13 | Notes | |
| 5 | Opening position | ||||||||||||||||
| 6 | Opening cash | $m | 5.0 | Start of week 1 | |||||||||||||
| 7 | Opening revolver balance | $m | 10.0 | Drawn at the start of week 1 | |||||||||||||
| 8 | Opening trade receivables | $m | 9.5 | Start of week 1 | |||||||||||||
| 9 | Inventory | $m | 12.0 | Held flat; used only in the borrowing base | |||||||||||||
| 11 | Receipts: collection timing and downside | ||||||||||||||||
| 12 | Sales invoiced | $m | 4.2 | 4.0 | 4.4 | 4.1 | 3.9 | 4.3 | 4.5 | 4.0 | 3.8 | 4.2 | 4.6 | 4.4 | 4.1 | Weekly | |
| 13 | Collected in week of invoice | % | 10.0% | Collection curve: the four shares should total 100% | |||||||||||||
| 14 | Collected 1 week after invoice | % | 30.0% | ||||||||||||||
| 15 | Collected 2 weeks after invoice | % | 40.0% | ||||||||||||||
| 16 | Collected 3 weeks after invoice | % | 20.0% | ||||||||||||||
| 17 | Collections of opening receivables | $m | 2.8 | 2.1 | 1.4 | Weeks 1 to 3; the remaining opening balance is not collected | |||||||||||
| 18 | Downside reduction in collections | % | 0.0% | Cuts every week’s collections; 0% = base case. Timing is unchanged | |||||||||||||
| 20 | Disbursements | ||||||||||||||||
| 21 | Purchases, % of sales | % | 55.0% | Purchased in the week of sale | |||||||||||||
| 22 | Supplier payments on delivery | % | 25.0% | Share of purchases paid in the same week; the rest two weeks later | |||||||||||||
| 23 | Other operating costs per week | $m | 0.4 | Utilities, freight and other; same every week | |||||||||||||
| 24 | Payroll | $m | - | 2.0 | - | 2.0 | - | 2.0 | - | 2.0 | - | 2.0 | - | 2.0 | - | Fortnightly: even weeks, W2 to W12 | |
| 25 | Rent | $m | 0.9 | - | - | - | 0.9 | - | - | - | 0.9 | - | - | - | 0.9 | Monthly, entered every four weeks: W1, W5, W9, W13 | |
| 26 | Interest and fees | $m | - | - | - | 0.7 | - | - | - | 0.7 | - | - | - | 0.7 | - | Monthly, entered every four weeks: W4, W8, W12 | |
| 27 | Taxes | $m | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.2 | - | - | - | - | Week 9 | |
| 28 | Maintenance capex | $m | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | Weekly | |
| 29 | Restructuring professional fees | $m | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | Weekly | |
| 30 | One-off disbursements | $m | - | - | 0.4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 0.8 | - | - | Weeks 3 and 11 | |
| 32 | Revolver and covenant | ||||||||||||||||
| 33 | Revolver commitment | $m | 20.0 | ||||||||||||||
| 34 | Advance rate on eligible receivables | % | 85.0% | ||||||||||||||
| 35 | Eligible share of receivables | % | 90.0% | Under 90 days old and not disputed | |||||||||||||
| 36 | Advance rate on inventory | % | 50.0% | ||||||||||||||
| 37 | Minimum operating cash | $m | 3.0 | The revolver draws to hold cash at this level | |||||||||||||
| 38 | Minimum liquidity covenant | $m | 3.0 | Total liquidity: cash + available borrowing, tested weekly | |||||||||||||
Select a cell to see its row, its schedule and the type of cell. Font colours: blue for inputs, black for formulas, green for links to other sheets. Scroll sideways to see every period.
Download
13-week cash flow model: the workbook
Excel workbook with working formulas, no macros and no external links. Work with it above first; it is the same model as the preview.
What the base case says
- Net cash flow before revolver, 13 weeks
- $-5.6m
- Minimum total liquidity
- $3.3m
- Minimum-liquidity week
- 12
- Peak revolver balance
- $13.9m
- Minimum covenant headroom
- $0.3m
- Weeks in covenant breach
- 0
Read from the workbook as served, every input at its default. Periods: W1, W2, W3, W4, W5, W6, W7, W8, W9, W10, W11, W12, W13. The figures are invented and move with whatever you type in.
What this model is
A 13-week cash flow model for a company under liquidity pressure. Receipts come from a collection curve applied to forecast sales and opening receivables; disbursements are scheduled by type and week; a revolver draws to hold minimum cash within a borrowing base.
Each week shows cash, available borrowing, total liquidity, headroom against the minimum liquidity covenant and any funding shortfall.
Uses: learning how a weekly liquidity forecast is built, and testing how a reduction in collections affects covenant headroom and the funding need.
Seats: Investment banking, Private equity, Equity research and hedge funds.
Careers that do this work: investment banking, debt capital markets, restructuring, private credit, distressed & special situations, private equity.
How the schedules connect
Every row in the workbook is tagged with the schedule it belongs to; the inspector above shows the tag when you click a row. These are the schedules this model is made of and where each one lives.
Cash receipts and the collections curve
Sales to cash, week by week
Assumptions, rows 12–18 · Receipts, rows 6–10 · Receipts, rows 13–16
Cash disbursements by calendar
What is paid, and on which Friday
Assumptions, rows 21–30 · Disbursements, rows 6–13 · Disbursements, rows 16–22
Borrowing base and availability
What the revolver will actually lend this week
Assumptions, rows 33–38 · Liquidity, rows 13–17
Liquidity forecast and covenant headroom
Cash, availability, headroom, shortfall
Assumptions, rows 6–9 · Liquidity, rows 6–10 · Liquidity, rows 20–25 · Liquidity, rows 28–34 · Summary, rows 5–13
What you should be able to explain
- Why liquidity is forecast weekly, and what a monthly view hides.
- How a collections curve turns a sales forecast into receipts, and why the receivables roll-forward is the check on it.
- What a borrowing base is, why availability shrinks as receivables age, and what a forced repayment does to cash.
- The difference between cash, availability and liquidity, and which one the covenant tests.
- What a shortfall means: the amount new money, a waiver or a deferral has to supply.
What a reviewer looks for
- Receipts modelled as sales, with no collections lag and no opening book.
- Payroll and rent spread evenly across weeks when they are paid in specific weeks.
- A revolver assumed available to its commitment when the borrowing base is smaller.
- Professional fees left out of a restructuring forecast, although they are among the most certain payments.
- A covenant tested on month-end cash when the documents test liquidity every week.
Conventions this workbook uses
Stated on the cover sheet too. A model is only as trustworthy as the decisions it tells you it made.
- Periods are weeks W1 to W13. Receipts and disbursements are totals for the week in which the cash moves. Balances, total liquidity and the covenant test are measured at the end of each week, after revolver draws and repayments.
- Payment calendar: payroll fortnightly in even weeks (W2 to W12); rent in W1, W5, W9 and W13 and interest and fees in W4, W8 and W12 (monthly items entered every four weeks); taxes in W9; capex and professional fees every week.
- Collection timing: each week’s sales are collected over the week of invoice and the three following weeks, in the shares set by the collection curve. Opening receivables are collected on their own schedule in weeks 1 to 3. The downside reduction is separate: it cuts every week’s total collections by a percentage without changing timing, and uncollected amounts remain in receivables.
- Suppliers: purchases are a share of sales in the same week. A share is paid on delivery and the rest two weeks later. Purchases before the forecast are assumed equal to week 1 purchases and are paid in weeks 1 and 2.
- The revolver draws only to hold minimum cash, limited to available borrowing, and repays from cash above the minimum. If the borrowing base falls below the drawn balance, the excess is repaid. The borrowing base uses end-of-week eligible receivables and flat inventory, capped at the commitment.
- Total liquidity is closing cash plus available borrowing. A funding shortfall is cash below the minimum once available borrowing is used up.
- Interest and fees are entered amounts and do not change with revolver draws.
Build it yourself
The starter workbook
The Liquidity sheet has been cleared: the cash roll-forward, revolver draws and repayments, closing cash, total liquidity and the covenant test. Build them from the receipts, disbursements and borrowing base so that the Summary sheet calculates again. The Checks sheet shows when cash rolls forward in every week and the revolver stays within the borrowing base.
Blanks: Liquidity forecast and covenant headroom. Free with any account. Compare with the worked model when you are done: download above.
The path around this model
Understand it, drill it, read the build, then apply it to a real company.
Read · Guide · 8 min
Restructuring Interview Questions: Fulcrum, Waterfall & Beyond
Read · Guide · 11 min
Credit and Covenant Modelling: What a Lender Actually Tests
Apply · Skill
Model Audit
Find the errors in a financial model before someone senior does.
Vocabulary: 13-Week Cash Flow, Borrowing Base, Liquidity, Covenant, Revolving Credit Facility (Revolver).
Questions about this model
Why thirteen weeks?
A quarter, at the frequency cash actually moves. It is long enough to see the payroll, rent and tax calendar turn over and short enough to forecast receipts customer by customer with some confidence. Beyond it the forecast becomes a budget, which is a different document.
What does the downside reduction in collections represent?
A downside case lenders commonly request: customers paying late or short when they hear the company is under pressure, disputes, and bad debts. It reduces every week’s collections by a percentage and leaves the collection timing unchanged. Apply ten percent and the model shows in which week liquidity falls below the covenant and how much borrowing remains available.
Why does the revolver repay when cash is above the minimum?
Because an asset-based revolver is a cash sweep in all but name: excess cash reduces the drawn balance and the interest on it, and the availability comes back when it is needed. The model draws what holds the minimum operating balance and no more, within the borrowing base, which is how such facilities commonly operate.
What happens when the borrowing base falls below the drawn balance?
The company must repay the difference, whatever its cash position, which is why a shrinking receivables book is dangerous even when sales are steady. The model forces the repayment and shows the cash it takes.
What does it cost?
Nothing to preview: the whole workbook is on this page, and a free account works with it online, every formula included. Every starter workbook downloads with a free account. L3VLUP Plus ($4.99/month) keeps one worked model each billing month, yours for good, and L3VLUP Pro ($25/month) keeps every one.