cash budget

Cash budget

A forecasted summary of a firm's expected cash inflows and cash outflows as well as its expected cash and loan balances.

Cash Budget

An estimate of the expected cash inflows and cash outflows for a company or individual for a given period of time. A cash budget is vitally important because it measures the liquidity of a company (or individual) and therefore how much one can spend before beginning to have financial difficulties. See also: Budget.
Cash budgetor cash flow forecastFig. 17 Cash budgetor cash flow forecast. A typical example.

cash budget

or

cash flow forecast

an accounting statement which analyses expected cash receipts and payments over forthcoming trading periods with a view to anticipating any potential cash shortages or surpluses before they arise and thus allow appropriate remedial action to be taken. This action could take the form of tightened CREDIT CONTROL to get cash in from customers more quickly, or arranging short-term loans in advance to cover an expected cash shortage, or plans to invest profitably any expected cash surplus. Fig. 17 shows a typical cash budget. See BUDGET, BUDGETING, BUDGETARY CONTROL.