Finance · Free tool
12-Month Cash Flow Projection
This projection answers a founder's first money question: with the cash in the bank today, a starting revenue, a monthly growth rate, and a cost structure, does the business reach break-even before the account runs dry? It is built for founders, finance leads, and advisors who need a quick twelve-month cash path before building a full model.
- OutputBreak-even month and cash path
- No sign-up
- Copy or print the result
- How it works ↓
Your entries stay in this browser. Use Fill example to see a finished page first.
What this finance tool gives you
The result opens with three figures: cash at month 12, the lowest cash balance, and the break-even month. Below them sit a bar chart of month-end cash and a Jan-to-Dec table of revenue, cost, profit, and cash. Copy the output or print it to anchor a board or bank conversation.
What you enter
- Currency: USD by default, or EUR or GBP (only changes how amounts are formatted)
- Opening cash: the bank balance you start month one with
- Month-one revenue: sales expected in the first month, in currency
- Monthly growth, %: how much each month's revenue rises over the month before (8 means 8%)
- Monthly fixed costs: rent, salaries, and other costs that stay the same every month
- Variable cost, % of revenue: costs that move with sales, applied to each month's revenue
Worked example
The tool's example starts with $48,000 in cash, $1,078 of revenue in month one, 8% monthly growth, $6,500 of fixed costs, and a 12% variable cost. January loses $5,551, leaving $42,449. By December revenue reaches $2,514 against $6,802 of cost. There is no break-even within 12 months, cash turns negative in month 10 at -$3,257, and it ends the year at -$11,998.
How does the 12-month cash projection work?
Revenue in month n = month-one revenue × (1 + monthly growth)^(n − 1). Cost in each month = fixed costs + revenue × variable-cost rate. Profit = revenue − cost, and cash = the previous month's cash + that month's profit, starting from opening cash. Every figure is rounded to the cent as it goes.
The break-even month is the first month where profit is zero or positive and revenue is above zero; if none of the twelve qualifies, the tool says so. It also flags the first month cash drops below zero, warns when growth is above 50% a month or variable cost is above 100% of revenue, and rejects negative amounts. Tax, late collections, and sales tax are not modeled.
Tips before you use the result
- Look at the lowest cash figure before the break-even month: a business can reach break-even and still run out of cash on the way there.
- The month labels run Jan to Dec regardless of when you start, so read Jan as month one of your plan.
- Keep rent and salaries in fixed costs and only true per-sale costs in the variable rate; mixing them makes break-even look closer than it is.
- Test a lower growth rate as well as your base case. At 8% a month, revenue more than doubles in a year, which is a strong assumption for an early business.
Frequently asked questions
What is a 12-month cash flow projection?
It is a month-by-month estimate of how much cash a business will hold over the next year. This version starts from your opening cash, grows revenue by a fixed monthly rate, subtracts fixed costs and a variable cost tied to revenue, and carries each month's profit or loss into the next month's cash balance.
How is the break-even month found?
The tool checks each month in order and reports the first one where profit is zero or better while revenue is above zero. Profit here is revenue minus fixed costs minus the variable-cost share of revenue. If no month in the twelve meets that test, the result reads None within 12 months, which is a signal to revisit price, costs, or funding.
Does the projection include taxes or late payments?
No. The table assumes every month's revenue arrives as cash in the same month and leaves out income tax, sales tax, and slow-paying customers. If your customers pay on 30- or 60-day terms, the real cash position will trail the projection, so treat the lowest-cash figure as an optimistic floor.
Is my projection saved or sent anywhere?
Your inputs are kept in this browser's local storage so the draft is there when you come back on the same device. Nothing requires an account, and there is no sign-up step. Clearing your browser data, or using the Clear button, removes the saved draft.
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Results depend on the figures you enter; check them against your own records before you rely on them. Last updated: September 2026 · Kurums editorial team.
