See whether you're cash-positive. Enter the cash coming in and the cash going out for a period, and get your net cash flow and cash-flow margin.
Net cash flow is cash in minus cash out for a period. It's not the same as profit — timing of payments and non-cash items make them differ.
Subtract the cash that went out from the cash that came in over a period. If $20,000 came in and $15,000 went out, your net cash flow is +$5,000 — cash-positive.
Net cash flow = cash in − cash out
Positive cash flow means you're building a cushion; negative means you're drawing it down.
Net cash flow answers one narrow question: over this period, did more money arrive in the bank than left it? The calculator takes everything received — customer payments, deposits, a loan draw, the owner putting money in — and subtracts everything paid out — suppliers, wages, rent, loan payments, the owner taking money out — and reports the difference. The cash-flow margin then expresses that difference as a share of the cash received, so you can compare a $5,000 surplus on $20,000 of receipts with a $5,000 surplus on $200,000.
What it ignores is what makes it useful. It ignores timing of the underlying sale: work you invoiced in March but collect in May is May cash. It ignores non-cash items such as depreciation, and it ignores what the cash was for — a month that looks cash-positive because you took a $10,000 loan is not a month the business earned $10,000. Those omissions are the reason the number can move in the opposite direction to profit, and why you should read the two together.
Cash in of $20,000 and cash out of $15,000 give net cash flow of $20,000 − $15,000 = +$5,000. The margin is $5,000 ÷ $20,000 = 25%. Now suppose $6,000 of that $20,000 was a line-of-credit draw rather than customer money. Operating cash in was really $14,000, operating cash flow was $14,000 − $15,000 = −$1,000, and the business consumed cash while the headline said it generated it. The calculator cannot see that split; you can, by entering only operating receipts and payments and leaving financing out.
Profit is revenue earned minus expenses incurred, regardless of when money moves. Cash flow is money that actually moved. A landscaper who bills $30,000 in June, pays $22,000 in wages and fuel, and collects only $12,000 of the invoices has an $8,000 June profit and a −$10,000 June cash flow. Both numbers are correct. Only one of them pays the crew on Friday.
The commonest is entering sales instead of receipts — the number on the invoices, not the number that hit the account — which turns this into a profit calculator with the timing removed. The second is mixing periods: cash in for the month against cash out for the quarter. The third is forgetting the payments that do not pass through the operating account, such as a loan paid from a separate account or an owner paying a business bill on a personal card. The fourth is treating sales tax collected as cash in; it is customer money you are holding for the state, and it leaves again on the filing date.
One period, two numbers, is fine for a check-up. It is not enough to see the pattern — which months go negative, whether the buffer is growing, and how long customers take to pay. That needs receipts and payments logged by date and category so the month-by-month cash flow, the running balance and a simple 13-week forward view fall out automatically. The Small Business Bookkeeping spreadsheet is built for exactly that, in Google Sheets or Excel; pair it with the break-even calculator to see how far receipts can fall before the month turns negative, and the profit margin calculator to read profit alongside cash.
The cash that came in minus the cash that went out over a period. Positive is cash-positive; negative means you spent more cash than you took in.
No. Profit includes non-cash items and bills you've booked but not yet paid or collected. A profitable business can still run short on cash if customers pay slowly.
Related: revenue growth calculator · break-even calculator · profit margin calculator.
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Yes. The Cash Flow Calculator is completely free, runs in your browser, and never asks for a signup, email, or download. Enter your numbers and the result updates instantly.
It uses standard formulas and recalculates the moment you change a value, so the math is exact for the inputs you enter. Treat the result as a reliable planning estimate; for decisions with legal or tax consequences, confirm the figures with a qualified professional.
Yes. The calculator is mobile-friendly and works on any phone, tablet, or computer — there is no app to install and nothing to save.
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Last reviewed: September 2026. Free to use, no signup — Cash Flow Calculator by ToolWise Digital.
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