How to plan payments
This guide is about one question: will there be enough money over the coming weeks, and what to do if not. The payment calendar answers it; here — how to set it up once and how to work with it every week.
Video walkthrough: Cash and bank in ERPJS step by step — cash out, cash in, the cash book and a cash forecast.
Once: so the calendar knows everything
0. Rights. If the menu has no "Payment calendar" or "Planned payments", the user's role lists registers one by one and does not have the new ones yet. An administrator adds three lines to the role: report — PaymentCalendarReport, register — PlannedPayments and register — PaymentExpectations (access — the same as for "Cash Out" in that role). Roles that grant access to all registers and reports need nothing.
1. Accounts in payment modes. The calendar counts "money now" from the accounts set in payment modes: cash desk, current account, card. A payment mode without an account adds no money. The check is simple: "Money now" in the calendar should match what you see in the bank and the cash desk. If it does not — an account is missing in payment modes, or some receipt has not been entered.
2. Planned payments. The calendar picks up customer and vendor invoices by itself. Everything that has no invoice has to go into Planned payments — one record per regular payment:
| What | Type | Repeat |
|---|---|---|
| Warehouse rent, 2,400 every month on the 18th | Money out | Every month |
| Salaries twice a month | Money out | two "Every month" records — on the 7th and the 22nd |
| VAT return | Money out | Every quarter |
| A client's service subscription | Money in | Every month |
| Loan repayment, once | Money out | No |
Salaries that differ every month are entered at an approximate amount: the calendar is a forecast, not bookkeeping, and seeing 10,000 of salaries is better than seeing nothing.
3. A tile on the dashboard. In the dashboard settings, switch on the "Cash forecast" tile. It shows the same as the calendar's summary: the balance at the end of four weeks, and if there is a gap ahead — the lowest balance and the date from which money runs short. Clicking it opens the calendar already run.
Every week: five minutes with the calendar
Open Nominal Ledger → Reports → Payment calendar and press "Run" — the default period is already from today for four weeks.
Look at the summary. If "Cash gap" says "No cash gap" and the "Lowest balance" looks calm, you can stop reading. If there is a gap, you can see from which day and how deep it is.
Go through "Overdue". These are invoices whose due date has passed — they are not in the forecast, because nobody knows when they will be paid. For every large customer debt, find out when to expect the money and set it with the calendar icon on the line — the invoice moves to the forecast on that day. Mark a bad debt in the same window with the "Do not count in the payment calendar" checkbox. The same with vendor invoices: when will you pay them?
Mark what has been paid. If a planned payment has already been paid but is still in the calendar — the ✓ icon "Done: paid". Otherwise the calendar subtracts that money a second time.
If there is a gap ahead
The calendar shows exactly where money is short. What can be done, from simple to harder:
- Move a payment to a vendor. Agreed to pay later — the calendar icon on their invoice line, a new date. The vendor invoice and its due date do not change; only the forecast does.
- Speed up money coming in. See which customers are due to pay soon after the gap, and ask them to pay earlier. Once agreed — an expected date.
- Move a planned payment. A one-off — change the date in the record. A regular one — that is a decision about the payment itself.
After each change the report rebuilds itself, and the summary immediately shows whether the gap has closed.
What the calendar does not do
- It does not change documents. An expected payment date is a separate record; the invoice, its due date and the overdue reports stay as they are.
- It does not create payments. The "Done" mark only removes a repetition from the calendar; the money itself is posted with a payment or a cash order, as usual.
- It does not split the forecast by account. A customer invoice does not know which bank account the money will arrive on, so the forecast is one for all of the company's money. A breakdown by account exists only in "Money now".