Explore cashflow with GrowthPath's free cashflow simulator

A simple cashflow simulator is a powerful way to teach people about the importance of cash flow. GrowthPath offers a free, simple cashflow simulator designed to help SMEs get a feel for tuning cashflow. Downloads for Windows and Mac. You set supplier and customer credit terms, initial cash, demand, and you can set customers to be unreliable payers to see how late and unpredictable payments affect cashflow.

New: V2now has a chart windows showing cashflows graphically, and a bank of ten starting values for simulations.

By playing with working capital drivers of cash flow, you can quickly see how interactions with customers and suppliers affect the business. The GrowthPath cashflow simulator lets you set initial cash and margin. During the simulation you can change customer and supplier credit terms, credit limits and payment behavior. You will learn that sometimes the business deteriorates to the point where nothing can save it.

It's a free download: Get it!. At the time of writing, we've uploaded a Windows program and an OS X version (tested on 10.7 Lion). It's written in Python, for linux users the source code is available as well. Published under an open-source licence.

Some notes on the simulator: Read more.

Even finance people can learn from the dynamic environment of a simulator. The tool we've developed allows for randomised customer payment behaviour.

I was surprised at how unpredictable payments can cause big swings in cash as customers run into credit limits due to late payments: this is never captured in a spreadsheet or traditional budgeting tool.

The tool is basic. We use it for teaching cashflow to non-finance people (or junior finance people). The model can be extended. To make it more realistic, the simulation should include a link between stock levels and customer service.

We use it in education programs for small business management, and we can make customised versions for in-house training. To help with training, you can define some scenarios in advance; if you want to do this, contact us, we'll give you a version with the scenarios you desire.

Stock is a big part of working capital: this model takes a simplistic view. If you want to model stock more accurately, contact us with your requirements.

Read more about GrowthPath's key cashflow service, Cashflow Search and Rescue™ Read more ...