This month looks fine — but what about next month?
Even with a diligent budget, there's often a quiet worry in the back of your mind. Your balance looks healthy today, but next month the credit card bill comes due, and two months from now your annual insurance premium hits. Knowing where you stand right now is useful, but if you can't see three months ahead, big expenses will always catch you off guard.
A budget's real job isn't just recording the past. The data you've already accumulated should help you see what's coming — and that's when financial planning becomes possible.
Exploring the cashflow page
4W1H's cashflow page shows your monthly cash movements from January through December. The summary cards at the top display your starting balance (back-calculated from January 1st), your projected year-end balance, and a summary of how your debt has changed.
The monthly list below shows cash inflows, outflows, and net change for each month at a glance. Past months are filled with actual transaction data. Future months are populated with your recurring transactions and estimated variable spending. Past and future sit side by side in one view, making it easy to see the full arc of your year.
Card payments vs. cash spending
When you pay with a credit card, no cash leaves your account at that moment. The actual cash goes out on the payment due date — often weeks later. Standard budgets don't separate these two events, so months with heavy card use look deceptively cheap, and the month the bill comes due looks like a sudden spike.
4W1H separates credit card spending from real cash outflows. Set the payment due date for each card in your settings, and the forecast automatically shows when that cash will actually leave your account. "This month's card charges hit on the 15th of next month" — that's reflected in the prediction.
Warnings for risky months
Any month where your cash balance risks going negative gets a warning indicator. Multiple card due dates overlapping, annual insurance or tax payments, a planned large purchase — you'll see these ahead of time, not after the fact.
Seeing a warning gives you options. You can reduce spending in the weeks before, transfer funds from another account, or decide to push a big purchase to the following month. Having time to react is far better than discovering the problem when it's already happened.
Improving forecast accuracy
Registering recurring transactions is the single most effective way to improve your cashflow forecast. Rent, phone bill, subscriptions, loan repayments — register them once and they automatically populate every future month in the forecast.
The more recurring transactions you have registered, the fewer gaps in the prediction. Once your fixed expenses are covered, only variable spending requires attention month to month. For a detailed walkthrough of recurring transactions, see the recurring transactions guide.
Get started
Cashflow forecasting gets more accurate as data accumulates. Start 4W1H now, register your recurring transactions, and begin recording from this month. Within a month you'll start seeing the shape of the months ahead. Try it free and see for yourself.