Cohort 8 (Dec 2024)

💵 Learn the step-by-step approach to weekly cash flow modeling, helping healthy companies grow and getting troubled companies back on track


Carl Seidman CPA | Microsoft MVP

Principal, Seidman Financial | Microsoft MVP

Cash Flow Forecasting and Modeling - Level 1

Deloitte

KPMG

Riveron

AlixPartners

It’s vital to understand the finances of your business, the causes of cash bleeding, and remedies for improving working capital. In this program -- the 2nd highest-rated corporate finance course on Maven (behind Carl Seidman's Advanced Financial and Business Modeling) -- attendees will discover the various causes of cash flow constraints and how to address them, learn the step-by-step process for building a direct approach 13-week cash flow forecast model, and integrate it with a longer-term financial forecast. This program is geared toward professionals in corporate finance, private equity (PE), financial planning &amp; analysis (FP&amp;A), turnaround and restructuring, and distressed investing. ▫️ They didn't teach this in your MBA.▫️ They don't teach this at your company.▫️ They aren't teaching it in public training. Don't wait for cash flow challenges to arise. The time to learn how to manage them is now. Seidman Financial is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credit. Complaints regarding registered sponsors may be submitted to the National Registry of CPE Sponsors through its website: www.NASBARegistry.org. Seidman Financial is a division of Seidman Global LLC. ----------------------------------------------------📆 2025 COHORT STRUCTURE:---------------------------------------------------- 5 Sessions, 2 hours eachTuesdays and Fridays, 9am - 11am CDT﻿----------------------------------------------------Total Live Commitment: 10.0 hoursTotal CPE: 10.0 credits----------------------------------------------------

Nothing's more vital than knowing where cash is coming from & where it's going.

Finance and accounting professionals with a responsibility for cash flow forecasting, liquidity management, and working capital.

Finance and strategy professionals working in management consulting, turnaround, restructuring, bankruptcy, M&amp;A, and corporate development.

CFOs, Directors of Finance, Controllers, business owners, AR/AP analysts and clerks, FP&amp;A analysts.

Investment professionals working in private equity (PE), venture capital (VC), hedge funds, lender workout groups, and family offices.

Who is this course for

What you’ll get out of this course

<ul><li>Build a short-term cash flow forecast from the ground up, diving into sales, collections, costs, payments</li><li>Understand the nuances of operating expenses and expenditures, accrued expenses, payroll, capex, financing, and all balance sheet roll-forwards.</li></ul>

Build a robust 13-week cash flow forecast line-by-line and step-by-step that can be implemented immediately for your company or clients.

<ul><li>Dive into the mechanics of model-building and understand operating drivers behind distress and revitalization.</li><li>Determine what's causing cash bleeding, prioritize and offer promising courses of action.</li><li>Challenge yourself with live modeling exercises, flexing business scenarios.</li></ul>

Guide a real-life company through a turnaround, restructuring, and refinancing

<ul><li>Establish formulaic integration with underlying financial data </li><li>Build supporting schedules that connect raw accounting and financial data with the dynamic model.</li><li>Establish recurring processes for efficient cash flow updating, forecasting and reforecasting.</li></ul>

Connect the cash flow forecast models to underlying financial data that can be rolled forward and updated with back-end systems

<ul><li>Learn what effective cash management and presentation means for various stakeholders, recognizing that not every user of cash flow models sees them the same way as others.</li><li>Identify and transparently communicate to stakeholders cash flow assumptions that are strongest and weakest.</li></ul>

Discover different ways entrepreneurs, portfolio company CFOs, FP&A professionals, management consultants, and business owners manage cash.

<ul><li>Understand what liquidity and cash flow management look like for distressed companies.</li><li>Know the warning signs and remedies for strained cash flow.</li><li>Contrast managing cash in distress with optimizing working capital in normal and growing companies.</li></ul>

Master liquidity management for companies in distress and working capital management for companies in a phase of growth 

<ul><li>Understand how to aggregate weekly activity into monthly and quarterly financials.</li><li>Discover best practices for coding and classifying dates and line-items so they seamlessly and automatically drive integrated business models. </li></ul>

Adopt best practices and formula techniques for integrating a short-term cash flow forecast into a longer term cash flow model.

<ul><li>Carl Seidman is the FP&amp;A and turnaround expert that dozens of companies and firms use for their hands-on professional development.</li><li>His forecast models, templates, and processes are used by FP&amp;A teams, Fractional CFOs, FP&amp;A consultants, and turnaround/restructuring firms.</li></ul>

Ongoing access to the expert who leading management consulting and turnaround/restructuring firms hire to teach their consultants.

Indirect cash flows involve an understanding of cash flows from operations, investing, and financing activities. Direct cash flows involve isolating cash inflows from cash outflows. In this introduction to cash flow forecast and liquidity management, we'll explore the differences and benefits of each approach.

Direct vs. Indirect Cash Flows

We'll go through a crash course of intelligent and powerful Excel (and Google Sheets) functionality that will be leveraged to build a dynamic forecast model. We cover commonly-used functions as well as some of the new dynamic array functions and lookups that can be used to save time and eliminate mistakes.

Cash Flow Modeling Practices

After learning the nuances of direct vs. direct cash flow modeling and the functions necessary to build them, we'll cover the smart practices to implement for managing, presenting, and sensitizing models. We'll cover the different cash flow models you may see in turnaround, restructuring, bankruptcy, FP&amp;A, treasury, M&amp;A, and management consulting.

Structuring the Cash Flow Forecast Model

Research shows that people learn best by doing. We'll roll up our sleeves and introduce a real-life business case that will serve as the foundation for our financial model, supporting schedules, and financial and operating recommendations. We won't just play around with made up exercises. We'll go through scenarios you may encounter in your work.

Introduction to the Business Case

We'll examine the sales team's revenue forecast and challenge their assumptions. We'll review customer types and determine the right way to model them, considering their risk, terms, and the need for accuracy. Then we'll model collections of credit sales based upon agreed-upon-terms, anticipated collections of AR aging, and doubtful accounts.

Modeling Sales and Collections

We'll analyze direct costs, inclusive of materials, labor, fixed and variable overheads. We'll determine what the forecast needs to look like given expectation of sales and operating improvements. We'll then make assumptions about payments to vendors based upon agreed-upon terms, classification of critical vendors, and payment negotiations.

Modeling Direct Costs and Payments

Next, based upon the growth or contraction of the business, we'll forecast inventory activity from raw material acquired, to work-in-process, to finished goods and sale through COGS. We'll address changes the company can make to improve its inventory conversion process as well as alternatives for more effective purchasing.

Modeling Inventory Categories

More nuanced line-item categories, including prepaid and accrued expenses, require an understanding of how certain expenses are paid for in cash and accounted for in the financial statements. We'll explore prepaid expenses, such as software and insurance, and accrued expenses, such as professional fees, and how to model them correctly.

Modeling Prepaid and Accrued Expenses

Payroll, benefits, and payroll taxes can be challenging to model due to their timing. We'll discuss the different ways payroll, benefits, bonuses, and taxes are accrued and paid out.

Modeling Payroll, Benefits, and Payroll Taxes

We'll review the P&amp;L forecast for expenses such as rent, auto expenses, professional fees, insurance, utilities, and more and how they are paid. We'll model them in cash and affirm that any updates to the P&amp;L forecast will be correctly coded to the cash flow forecast.

Modeling Indirect Operating Expenses

One of the key reasons for forecasting cash flow is to ensure the company is on a path of healthy liquidity. In the event of default, the company may find itself in a forbearance, Chapter 11, or Chapter 7. Modeling term debt, a revolving line of credit, interest expense, and other forms of financing ensures the company know it isn't exposed.

Modeling Debt and Equity

Once the model is pieced together, we'll review what it tells us about the business. We'll identify the sources of distress and opportunity. We'll agree upon courses of action to remedy the situation. By running scenarios, we can go to the lenders and investors and share with them the plan for right-sizing the business and getting back on track.

Modeling Operating Improvements and Changes to Working Capital

It's one thing to put together a 13-week cash flow model. But it's another to build it so well that it can be seamlessly updated for new data, new time periods, and extended into the future with little concern for breakage. We'll integrate the 13-week cash flow with a long-term forecast model and discuss the ways we can maintain their integrity.

Tying it All Together

Networking doesn't stop there. You'll join Carl's private CFO and FP&amp;A community where you can keep in touch with other attendees, ask and answer a wide array of questions, share techniques and best practices, and refer business. This community is only open to former clients and attendees of Carl's programs.

ENCORE: The Seidman Financial Network

Course syllabus

"Fantastic! Taken multiple courses over 20 years. This was incredibly practical." -- Prashanth Setty, Independent Management Consultant

Meet Carl, your instructor and guide

"Carl does an excellent job balancing theory and practice into one concept. He knows how to read the advice and realize there is a wide range of people with various modeling experience so he can teach to the largest part of the bell curve." -- Kristian Wosik, Investment Banker

This program is CPE-eligible for up to 9.0 hours of continuing professional education credits.

What attendees of Cash Flow Forecasting and Modeling have to say:

Session 1:  4.5 hours + office hours

Session 2:  4.5 hours + office hours

Session 3: Office hours

Course schedule

"I appreciated Carl's deep dive into the various areas of the cash forecast model and also how each company can customize it to fit their particular needs." -- Amy Zarosinski, Chief Financial Officer (CFO)

Finance Manager, United Medical Supplies LLC

Submit your contact info and Carl will be in touch.

Stay in the loop about this course and upcoming announcements? Or do you have questions?

Students receive a certificate and 9.0 continuing professional education (CPE) credits for completing the course. 

"Great course that covers the fundamentals and focuses on practical application instead of just theory. Not much to improve. Loved the instructor." -- Diego Campos, Senior Consultant at Deloitte

Director, Transaction Execution (Accordion)

Senior Associate (Management Consulting Firm)

Frequently Asked Questions

<a href="https://maven.com/seidman-financial/the-fractional-cfo-power-skills-program" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Click here for more info</a>

The Fractional CFO Power Skills Mastermind

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Dynamic Excel for Finance

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Advanced Financial and Business Modeling

<a href="https://maven.com/seidman-financial/cash-flow-forecasting-and-modeling" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Click here for ﻿more info</a>

Cash Flow Forecasting and Modeling

<a href="https://maven.com/seidman-financial/managing-data-for-finance-with-power-query" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Click here for more info</a>

Managing Data for Finance with Power Query

<a href="https://maven.com/seidman-financial/financial-planning-and-analysis" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Click here for mo﻿re info</a>

Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) Technical and Strategic Mastery - Driving Growth and Enhancing Value

<a href="https://maven.com/seidman-financial/delivering-financial-presentations-with-executive-presence" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Click here for more info</a>

Delivering Financial Presentations with Executive Presence

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Data Visualization and Power BI for Finance

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"Detailed and high-level. This is a great course for any FP&amp;A professional. It was directly relevant to my job. You even learn about bank covenants!" -- Henry Spanier, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at Medical Research Company

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