How to Build a 13-Week Cash Flow Forecast for Your Med Spa

A P&L tells you whether you made a profit last month. A cash flow forecast tells you whether you will be able to pay payroll in six weeks. For a growing med spa, the second is often more urgent.

Why 13 weeks?

Thirteen weeks covers a full quarter, long enough to see large upcoming payments and short enough to estimate with reasonable accuracy. Updating it weekly keeps it current.

Step 1: Start with today's cash

Use the actual balance in your operating accounts. Do not include money that is already committed, such as sales tax you have collected.

Step 2: Estimate weekly cash in

• Treatment revenue based on booked appointments and typical walk-ins
• Retail sales
• Membership charges on their billing dates
• Package and gift card sales, which bring cash early
• Card processor timing: deposits often arrive a day or two after the sale

Step 3: Estimate weekly cash out

• Payroll on actual pay dates, including payroll taxes
• Inventory orders and supplier payment terms
• Rent, loans and equipment leases on their due dates
• Software, utilities and insurance
• Marketing spend
• Estimated tax payments and sales tax remittances
• Owner distributions

Step 4: Calculate the weekly ending balance

Starting cash + cash in − cash out = ending cash, which becomes next week's starting cash.

Step 5: Set a minimum balance

Decide the lowest balance you are comfortable holding, for example enough to cover one payroll plus a cushion. Highlight any week that falls below it.

Using the forecast

When a tight week appears, you have time to act: delay a non-urgent purchase, adjust an inventory order, run a campaign to fill quiet days or arrange a line of credit before you need it, not during a crisis.

Remember prepaid services

Package, membership and gift card cash arrives before you deliver the service. Your forecast should include the product and provider cost of delivering those future sessions, or prepaid cash will make your position look stronger than it is.

Update weekly, compare monthly

Each week, replace estimates with actuals and roll forward one week. Each month, compare forecast with reality and adjust your assumptions.