Features — Cash Flow Forecasting

A 13-week cash forecast that knows your business, and updates in real-time.

Inventory is cash in another form. Trade deductions are cash leaving on a schedule you did not set. Retailer payment terms are cash arriving later than your P&L suggests. Manta builds a rolling 13-week cash forecast from the live operating model, accounting for all of it, so your CFO is never making a capital decision on a guess.

The Problem This Solves

Most cash forecasts are built on assumptions that were wrong the moment they were made.

A cash forecast assembled from last month’s actuals and a set of manual assumptions is not a forecast, it is a snapshot of a business that no longer exists. The moment a retailer pays late, a deduction lands unexpectedly, or a purchase order shifts by two weeks, the forecast is wrong. And because rebuilding it requires manual effort, it stays wrong until someone has time to fix it.

  • Retailer payment terms of 60 to 90 days create a gap between revenue recognition and cash receipt that most forecasts do not model accurately.
  • Expected trade deductions, accrued but not yet taken, represent a known future cash outflow that rarely appears in a manually built forecast.
  • Open purchase orders are a committed cash outflow, but they sit in the ERP, not in the forecast, until someone manually adds them.
  • When the forecast is wrong, the CFO finds out at the bank balance, not with enough lead time to act.

Core Capabilities

The live forecast. Scenario modeling. Early warning. Payment intelligence.

THE LIVE FORECASTComing Soon

Built from your actual operating data. Updated every day without manual input.

Manta assembles the 13-week cash forecast from every live data source in the model — ecommerce settlement schedules, retailer payment terms and AR aging, expected trade deductions from the accrual engine, open purchase orders from the ERP, payroll and fixed cost schedules, and banking feeds. The AI engine synthesizes all of it into a rolling weekly cash position and updates it automatically as new data arrives. Your CFO does not rebuild the forecast. They read it.

  • Rolling 13-week forecast updated daily from live settlement schedules, AR aging, open POs, accrued trade spend, and banking feeds.
  • Cash inflows modeled by source: DTC settlements, Amazon payouts, retailer remittances, wholesale invoices, and distributor payments, each on their actual timing.
  • Cash outflows modeled by category: COGS and inventory purchases, trade deductions, freight and fulfillment, payroll, fixed costs, and open AP.
  • Forecast accuracy improves continuously as the AI engine learns the payment behavior and deduction patterns of each retailer and channel.

SCENARIO MODELINGComing Soon

Ask the forecast a question. Get the answer with the model already run.

The most valuable thing a cash forecast can do is answer a question before a decision is made. Manta lets your CFO query the forecast in plain language, describing the scenario they want to stress-test, and returns the cash impact with the model already run. No spreadsheet rebuild. No manual assumption changes. The question is asked, the model runs, and the answer is there.

“What happens to our cash position if we place the Q4 inventory buy two weeks early?”

Answered instantly, with the full 13-week impact shown.

  • "Can we fund this trade program without going below our minimum cash threshold?" — modeled against the live forecast, not a static assumption set.
  • "What is our cash position if Kroger pays 30 days late on the current open AR?" — retailer payment delay scenarios modeled in seconds.
  • Base, downside, and growth scenarios maintained simultaneously — your CFO sees the range of outcomes, not just the midpoint.

EARLY WARNING

Know about a cash shortfall before it becomes a crisis.

A cash crisis that is visible three weeks in advance is a planning problem. A cash crisis that surfaces at the bank balance is an emergency. Manta monitors the rolling forecast continuously and alerts your CFO the moment a projected cash low-point falls below the threshold your team defines, with enough lead time to act. The alert names the driver, the timing, and the magnitude. Your CFO arrives at the problem with context, not just a number.

“Projected cash low-point of $X in week 7. Primary driver: $Y in expected trade deductions from Target and Kroger landing in the same settlement cycle.”

  • Configurable cash minimum threshold — alerts triggered when the forecast projects a breach at any point in the 13-week window.
  • Low-point alerts delivered to the CFO and any designated finance team members — no one is waiting to discover the issue at month-end.
  • Scenario modeling available immediately from the alert — your CFO can stress-test responses before the first conversation with the bank or the board.

PAYMENT INTELLIGENCE

Your forecast accounts for how retailers actually pay, not how their terms say they should.

Payment terms are a contract. Payment behavior is a pattern. The two are rarely the same. Manta tracks the actual payment history of every retail account, when they pay relative to terms, how often they take early payment discounts, how deductions affect net remittance timing, and uses that history to build a more accurate cash forecast than any model built on stated terms alone. When a retailer that consistently pays 15 days late is in the forecast, the model reflects that reality.

  • Retailer payment history tracked by account — actual days-to-pay compared against stated terms, updated with every remittance.
  • Forecast cash inflows adjusted to reflect observed payment behavior, not contractual payment terms.
  • Deduction impact on net remittance modeled per account — when a retailer takes a large deduction, the net cash receipt is adjusted accordingly.
  • New retail accounts modeled on stated terms initially, then refined as payment history accumulates.

What the Forecast Is Built From

Every input that affects cash. In the model from day one.

Cash Inflows

  • DTC settlement schedules (Shopify, Amazon, Walmart Marketplace)
  • Retailer remittances by account and payment terms
  • Wholesale and distributor invoice due dates
  • Open AR aging by customer
  • Expected new orders based on sell-through velocity

Cash Outflows

  • Open purchase orders and inventory commitments
  • Trade deductions — accrued and expected
  • Freight and fulfillment costs — inbound and outbound
  • Payroll and benefits
  • Fixed operating costs
  • Open AP aging by vendor
  • Debt service and lease obligations

Adjustments & Timing

  • Retailer payment behavior history
  • Early payment discount elections
  • Deduction timing by account
  • Settlement delay patterns by platform
  • Seasonal cash flow patterns from prior periods

The Forecast in Context

The cash forecast and the P&L are the same model.

Most finance teams maintain a separate cash forecast and a separate P&L, and spend significant time reconciling the two. In Manta, the cash forecast is built from the same financial model as the P&L. When a trade deduction is accrued in the P&L, it appears as a future cash outflow in the forecast. When a retailer remittance is recorded, it updates both the AR aging and the cash inflow schedule simultaneously. There is no reconciliation because there is no separation.

  • P&L and cash forecast share the same underlying data model — changes in one are reflected in the other automatically.
  • Trade deductions accrued in the P&L appear as projected cash outflows in the forecast at the expected timing.
  • Retailer remittances update AR aging, cash inflow schedule, and P&L revenue recognition in a single event.
  • Inventory purchases entered as open POs appear as committed cash outflows the moment the PO is placed.

Related Features

Omnichannel P&L Engine

The cash forecast is built from the same model as the P&L. Trade deductions, freight costs, and channel revenue all flow into both simultaneously.

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Trade Spend & Deduction Recovery

Accrued trade spend from the deduction management workflow feeds directly into the cash forecast as projected outflows.

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On-Demand Reporting

Describe the cash report you need — 13-week summary, scenario comparison, board-ready cash bridge — and Manta builds it from the live forecast.

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A cash forecast your CFO can make decisions from, every day.

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