Cash Flow Calculator
A business can be profitable on paper and still run out of money — because profit counts the invoice you sent, while cash counts only what's actually landed in the bank. This checks whether more money came in than went out this month, how long your cash would last, and how much profit is stuck in invoices you haven't been paid for yet.
This month
Profit is an opinion. Cash is a fact.
The accountant's version of that saying is blunter, but the point holds: profit is a calculation, and cash is what's in the account. The two come apart because of timing. The day you finish a job and send the invoice, your profit-and-loss statement records the revenue — you "made" that money. But the cash doesn't arrive until the customer pays, which might be thirty days later, or sixty, or after three reminders. In the gap between those two moments, you can be perfectly profitable and completely unable to pay your own bills. Businesses don't fail because they're unprofitable for a month. They fail because they run out of cash while they wait to get paid.
This calculator ignores paper profit and looks only at movement of actual money. Cash collected this month, minus every dollar of cash that left — payroll, materials, overhead, loan payments, your own draw, taxes you set aside — is your net cash flow. Positive means you ended the month with more money than you started; negative means less, no matter how the jobs "priced out." Then it divides your bank balance by any monthly loss to show your runway: the number of months before the account hits zero if nothing changes. A comfortable runway buys you time to fix things. A short one, under three months, is an alarm.
The most useful and most uncomfortable field is the last one: money you've invoiced but haven't collected. That's your profit sitting in someone else's bank account. The tool shows what your cash flow would look like if you'd been paid for that work — and the gap between that figure and your real cash position is the exact size of your collections problem. If it's large, the fix isn't more sales; more sales just means more unpaid invoices. The fix is getting paid faster for the work you've already done: shorter terms, quicker invoicing, deposits up front, and steady follow-up. That's how paper profit becomes money you can actually spend.
A worked example: profitable and broke
A shop collects $18,000 in cash this month. It pays out $7,000 in payroll, $3,500 in materials, $2,500 in overhead, a $900 loan payment, $3,000 to the owner, $1,200 set aside for taxes, and $400 in odds and ends — $18,500 total. Net cash flow: minus $500. The account went down, not up. With $6,000 in the bank losing $500 a month, the runway is twelve months — survivable, but bleeding.
Here's the twist. The same shop invoiced $5,000 this month that it hasn't been paid for yet. On paper — counting that invoice as revenue — the business "earned" $4,500 this month. It's genuinely profitable. But in the bank it lost $500, because $5,000 of that profit is stuck in a customer's accounts-payable pile. That $5,000 gap is the whole story: not a pricing problem, not a spending problem, a collections problem. Get that invoice paid and the month flips from minus $500 to plus $4,500. That is the difference between profit and cash, and it's why a busy, profitable shop can still sweat every payroll.
Four cash-flow traps
Confusing profit with cash. A profitable month on paper can still drain your account if collections lag behind billing. Watch the bank balance, not just the profit-and-loss statement.
Letting receivables pile up. Every unpaid invoice is your money in someone else's account. The faster you invoice and collect, the more of your profit you can actually spend. Chasing payment isn't rude — it's the job.
Forgetting taxes are already spent. Money set aside for taxes isn't yours to use. Counting it as cash on hand is how a healthy-looking balance turns into a shortfall at filing time. Move it out of the operating account.
Growing without a cushion. Growth eats cash — you pay for labor and materials before customers pay you. Scaling up with a thin runway is when profitable businesses most often hit a wall. Keep a reserve before you push volume.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is cash flow, and how is it different from profit?
Cash flow is money actually moving through your account; profit is what you earned on paper. Late-paying customers make them diverge — you can be profitable while cash-flow negative in the same month.
How do I calculate my monthly cash flow?
Cash collected this month minus every dollar actually paid out. Positive means you built cash; negative means you drained it. This page totals your outflows and shows the net.
What is a cash runway and why does it matter?
How long your cash lasts at your current loss rate — bank balance ÷ monthly loss. Running out of cash ends businesses; under three months of runway is a signal to act now.
I'm profitable but always broke. What's going on?
Your money is likely stuck in unpaid invoices. That work counts as profit the day you bill it but as cash only when you're paid. The fix is faster collections.
Is this calculator really free?
Yes. No account, no email, no ads. It runs in your browser and the numbers you enter are never sent to us. We use basic traffic analytics, described in our privacy policy.
Estimates only: results are based on the numbers you enter. We work to keep the formulas accurate, but costs, taxes, and regulations vary by location — always verify your own numbers before making business decisions. MyPricingCalculator.com is not responsible for pricing or business decisions made with these tools.