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Cash Flow Tools

Excel tools to help you keep your cash flow healthy by checking how much of your sales go to expenses and how much breathing room you have after covering fixed costs. If you understand them, you'll be able to use the templates with ease.

Expense-to-Sales Ratio

  • Definition: Shows what percentage of your sales goes straight to covering expenses​

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  • Formula: (Total Expenses / Total Sales) * 100

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Real-life use: If your sales are $20,000 and expenses are $17,000, your expense ratio is (17,000 ÷ 20,000) × 100 = 85%. That means only 15% of sales are left as free cash. This quick check helps spot if expenses are eating too much of your revenue.

Operating Cushion

  • Definition: How much of your revenue is left after covering fixed costs: your breathing room​

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  • Formula: (Sales - Fixed Costs) / Sales * 100

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Real-life use: If monthly sales are $20,000 and fixed costs are $14,000, then (20,000 − 14,000) ÷ 20,000 × 100 = 30%. That means 30% of your revenue is flexible. If the cushion drops to 5%, even a small dip in sales could put your cash flow at risk.

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All the tools mentioned here have ready-to-use versions in the Templates page, just download and start using them

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