EP Finance Forecast

EP Finance Forecast shows where your cash is heading, month by month. Past months come straight from your bank figures in EP Finance; future months start from your own patterns and are boxes you can type over to plan ahead. It is part of the EP Finance family and sits on top of the EP Finance ledger.

This page documents EP Finance Forecast 0.10.2.

Published by ElmsPark Studio.

Requirements

PageMotor 0.9 or later
EP Finance, with at least one bank or cash account and some transactions, imported with EP Finance Importer or entered by hand. Forecast is a member of the finance family and is supplied alongside EP Finance rather than picked up on its own

Getting started: the setup interview

The first time you open Forecast, it asks nine plain questions, one at a time, and builds your cash grid from the answers:

Who the forecast is for: a business, a fee earner, an association or club, or a household
When your year starts
Which accounts hold your money
Where your money comes from: tick suggestions, lines already in your books, or type your own
What you spend money on
Whether to split any line into smaller ones
How much to keep in the bank as a cushion, with one or two months of your usual spending worked out for you
How far ahead to plan, and how much history to show
The colour of the key rows

A summary repeats every answer, with “Change” beside each, before Build my cash grid. Skip it if you would rather set things up yourself; run it again any time from Settings.

Reading the grid

Grey columns are closed months: your bank figures.
Clear columns with blue figures are the forecast. Each box starts at the same month last year, or the average of the months you have.
This month has two columns. The green actual to date column shows what has gone through the bank so far this month, from your imported bank figures, and closes on your bank balance today. Beside it, forecast, whole month is the plan for the full month, which you can still type over.
Opening balance, total money in, total money out and the closing balance are the key rows, in the colour you chose. They change shade when a new year begins.
A year total column after each year gives the full year’s figures, even for months scrolled off the screen.
VAT and tax, loan and credit card repayments, and money moved to savings sit at the end of Money out. A minus figure on one of them is money that came back, such as a tax refund or a loan received.

Planning ahead

Type over any forecast box and press Enter or Tab: every later month updates. Clear a box to put the starting figure back. Clear all my changes resets the whole forecast.

Under the grid, What if… lets you try a decision before you make it: hire someone, buy something outright or over months, add a regular cost or money coming in, move a payment later, or put a line up or down. Each becomes its own row; switch it off to compare.

At a glance

The first tab answers the question first: are you fine, and if not, when does cash run short. Month tiles show your balance one rounded number at a time; tap one to see what comes in and goes out.

Traffic lights and notes

A box turns amber or red when a line is well above (spending) or below (income) its usual month, and green for a good surprise. Hover it to see by how much.

A box with a note has a small purple folded corner. Click it to read, edit or remove the note. To add one, point at a box and click the faint grey corner, or press Alt+N in a forecast box.

Regular payments and payment methods

Regular payments lists every payment that repeats, found from your bank figures, with new ones, price rises, two payments on the same line and ones not seen lately pulled to the top. Mark each Keep, Query or Cancel; a cancellation comes off the forecast from the month you choose.

Payment methods shows the share of money in and out by bank transfer, card, direct debit, standing order, cheque and cash, read from your bank’s wording.

Under Settings, Share with my adviser makes a private link that returns a summary of your forecast and nothing else. Your adviser adds it to EP Finance Adviser. Make a new link or stop sharing at any time.

Settings

Setting	What it does
Who is this forecast for?	Sets the words, the what-ifs and the lines offered under Your lines
Your year	The month your year starts
Colour of the key rows	Sixteen colours, or your own; a colour too light for white figures is darkened just enough
Which accounts count as cash	Ticked accounts make up the bank balance at the bottom of the grid
Safety floor	Forecast months below it turn amber; below zero, red
How much to show	6, 12 or 24 months back; 6 to 36 months ahead

If the grid will not show

Forecast refuses to draw a month whose lines do not add up to what the bank did, and names the month. Run the audit in EP Finance (Setup) to find the transaction behind it.

Changelog

0.10.5

Add a scenario to your forecast. Every scenario now has “Add to my forecast”. A scenario on a line (a late payment, a change by a percentage, a cut or a rise) goes on that line; any other asks which line it belongs on, with “A new line…” to name one there and then. Its amounts become figures in the boxes of that line (added to whatever the line already had, including figures you typed), and the scenario leaves Scenario planning so the money is counted once. To undo it, change or empty those boxes.
Cash grid is now called Cash flow forecast. The tab, and everything that refers to it, uses the new name.
Scenario planning says it plainly. Three short points open it: scenarios are for planning only and never change your books or your bank figures, and only come into your Cash flow forecast when you press Add to my forecast; the ones you switch on are included in At a glance, and switching one off takes At a glance back to your plan; removing a scenario removes only that scenario.
Scenario planning, clearly labelled. The part of the page where you try out scenarios now stands apart: a green panel headed “Scenario planning”, and inside it three numbered steps, “Try a new scenario”, “Your scenarios” (with how many you have and how many are switched on) and “Your forecast, with and without them” above the chart. The questions still read as questions: “What if… we hire someone”. For a business or a club, the open question that moves any line up or down by a percentage is now called “…your choice”.
At a glance is one clearly marked panel. The month tiles, the answer, the key figures and the month you tap now sit together in a panel headed “At a glance”, styled like Scenario planning but dark, so your plan and your scenarios never look alike. Scenario planning simply says a scenario shows in At a glance above. The month tiles still stay at the top as you scroll down through your scenarios.
Three things to know reads right. It points up to Scenario planning, and a scenario that only moves money between months (a late payment) is described as changing when money comes or goes, not as adding £0.
The Cash flow forecast shows your plan. It shows your bank figures, the figures you typed and the regular payments you cancelled. A scenario only comes into it when you press Add to my forecast. Scenario planning lives on At a glance only, where the answer, the months, the key figures and the chart show your plan with the scenarios you switch on. The Cash flow forecast’s CSV leaves scenarios out too, and adding a purchase from “When could we afford it?” adds it as a scenario.
One word for one idea: scenario. What the screen used to call a “what-if” is now a scenario everywhere: the button says Add scenario, a scenario’s line in a month’s detail reads “Scenario: Holiday”, and the chart compares your forecast with and without your scenarios.
“When could we afford it?” is for households. The affordability question, and Make it fit with it, now appears only when the forecast is set up for a household. For a business, a fee earner or a club, Scenario planning opens straight on the scenario questions.
Choose where the person works, in any book. The hire scenario now offers the UK, Ireland, France and the US whatever your book’s currency, with your own country first. A hire paid in another currency is worked out in that currency (“Amount a month (€)”), and you give the exchange rate, for example €1 = £0.85: the working then ends with the total cost in your own currency, and that is what the forecast carries. The rate has its own slider, so you can see what a swing in the exchange rate would cost.
Nothing hides under the month tiles. When the page moves to a scenario you have just added, or to a message, it stops below the frozen month-by-month tiles instead of behind them.

0.10.4

The month-by-month balance stays in view. On At a glance, “Your bank balance, month by month” stays frozen at the top of the screen as you scroll, so you can watch the months change while you move a what-if’s sliders further down.

0.10.3

A clearer answer at the top of At a glance. A badge and a short label say how things look at once: All clear, Month to watch or Action needed. The answer stays as the headline, and underneath it, the same four key figures as the Cash grid: in the bank now, your lowest point ahead, months under your floor and the end of your year.
At a glance opens on your bank balance, month by month, with the answer and the key figures straight underneath, then the month you tap, then the question of when you can afford something.
Clearer labels on the month you tap in At a glance. Each one now says which month and where its figures come from: from your bank statements for a past month, a forecast for a month ahead. The boxes read Money in, Money out and In the bank, each marked actual or forecast, and the change on the month is said in words.
“When can I afford it?” now reads “When could I afford it?”
One word for one idea: forecast. Where Forecast said “expected” it now says “forecast”, so two words never suggest two different things. The late-payment what-if asks which month the money is “Forecast in”.
This month stands out. Its two columns, actual to date and forecast for the whole month, now have orange headings and an orange frame around the pair, so you can find this month at a glance. The figures inside keep their usual colours, including the amber, red and green that flag a box well away from its usual.
This month compares actual with forecast. Tap this month in At a glance and you see three cards side by side: money in, money out and the bank. Each puts the actual so far, from your bank, next to the forecast for the whole month, with a bar for how much of the forecast has happened and one plain sentence, for example “30% of the forecast has gone out. £3,208 still to go out.” The mark on each bar shows how far through the month your bank figures go, so you can see at once whether spending is ahead of the calendar. Money out over its forecast turns red. Line by line, the same comparison sits in a fold underneath, with what is still to come on each line.
Forecast figures are marked as forecasts. Each key figure now carries a label: “Actual, from your bank” on the balance in the bank now, and “Forecast” on the lowest point ahead, the months under your floor and the end of your year. Forecasts are shown in blue, as in the cash grid, so the one actual figure never reads like the forecasts beside it. The end-of-year card gives the date of its closing balance. In this month’s comparison the forecast figures are blue too.
What if… on At a glance. The same what-if questions as the Cash grid now sit on At a glance, under a plain promise that trying things is safe: your books and bank figures are never changed, switching a what-if off puts every figure back exactly as it was, and removing one takes nothing else with it. Add one and the answer, the months and the key figures on the same page change straight away; each what-if is also its own green row in the Cash grid, and switching it on, off or removing it in either place does the same everywhere. A purchase added from “When could I afford it?” appears there too.
Make it fit: a game for the big question. “When could I afford it?” now sits at the top of What if… on At a glance, and asks what it is and, if you like, when. Leave the month blank and it finds the first month that works, as before. Pick a month and it tells you straight whether that month works. If it does not, it says how much you are short and opens Make it fit: a slider on each of your own lines (spend less on a money-out line, bring in more on a money-in line, never more than that line’s usual month), and a meter that fills as you find the money, from “Good start” to “You made it fit!”. It also says the month it would fit without any changes. When the meter is full, one button adds the purchase and each change as what-ifs, and the page shows your new lowest point, worked out from the plan itself. If your plan is already under the floor before the purchase, it says so rather than blaming the purchase for the whole gap.
What a hire really costs you. In the UK and Ireland, the hire what-if now works out the full cost to the employer. Type the take-home pay or the gross pay and it shows the working as you type: take-home, plus the employee’s income tax, National Insurance (or USC and PRSI) and pension, equals the gross; plus the employer’s National Insurance (or PRSI) and pension, equals the total cost to you. UK: England, Wales and Northern Ireland or Scotland, the workplace pension minimum, and the Employment Allowance if you claim it. Ireland: PRSI with its October change and credit taper, USC, and MyFutureFund. Each month in the forecast uses that month’s rates, from the official 2026 to 2027 UK figures and Ireland’s 2026 figures and Budget 2027. Where next year’s rates are not published yet, it uses the latest and says so. An estimate for planning, not a payslip. Elsewhere, and for hires added before this version, the simple on-cost percentage stays.
France, for the hire what-if. A euro book can now choose where the person works: Ireland or France (only countries that use the book’s currency are offered). France works the way a French payslip does: every employee and employer contribution on its own base (up to the social security ceiling, above it, up to four times it), CSG and CRDS, the company health insurance split, the 2026 single general reduction on wages under three times the SMIC, and income tax withheld at the default rate. Choose cadre or non-cadre, the size of your company, the health insurance premium and your accident at work rate. Checked against URSSAF’s own simulator at nine salaries, from the SMIC to €9,000, to within two cents.
The US, for the hire what-if. A dollar book now works out a hire’s full cost to you in the US, from the take-home or the gross pay. Federal income tax for a single person on a standard W-4, Social Security up to the 2026 wage base of $184,500, Medicare (with the employee’s extra 0.9% above $200,000) and federal unemployment (FUTA) use the 2026 federal rates. The rest depends on your state, so you type it: state income tax (0 in Texas, Florida and the other states without one), your state unemployment (SUTA) rate and its wage limit, and your workers’ compensation rate. The working shows every line as you type, and a line at 0% is left out. FUTA and SUTA are spread over the year here; in practice they fall early in the year. The federal figures were checked against PolicyEngine, an independent model of the US tax system, at four salaries from $30,000 to $250,000, to within a few cents a year. An estimate for planning, not a payslip.
The UK figures are checked independently too. Income tax and National Insurance for the hire what-if were compared with PolicyEngine’s model of the UK tax system at twelve salaries in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and in Scotland. All agree to within £2 a year, except one: at £150,000 in Scotland, PolicyEngine starts the 48% top rate about £12,570 early. Forecast follows GOV.UK’s own table there.
Slide a what-if to explore it. Every what-if you add stays on screen as its own card, with a slider for each of its settings: a purchase’s amount, month, months to pay over and interest; a regular cost’s or income’s amount, first month and how many months; a hire’s pay, start and end (“no end” at the far right); a late payment’s amount and both months; a line’s percentage and start; each Make it fit change. Drag to see the value; let go and the answer, the months, the key figures and the chart all follow. Money sliders reach three times the figure, and further each time you let go near the top. The newest what-if is marked and kept in view.
A safety floor of three months of running costs. The floor can now be set as months of running costs: three (the minimum we recommend), four, six, nine or twelve. That is the time to keep paying your bills and your staff while you sort out a problem, and more is better. Running costs are your money out over the next twelve months, counting loan repayments and tax but not money moved to savings, and not what-ifs. A floor in months follows your costs as they change. A fixed amount still works; if it covers less than three months, Settings says so and gives the three-month figure. The key figures show how many months of costs your floor covers, and the opening questions now suggest three months of running costs first.
The bank balance is the exact figure. In each month’s panel, “In the bank” now shows the full amount in whole units, the same as the cash grid (£14,273 rather than £14k), so it can be checked straight against the bank.
Each balance says which period it is. In the balance labels the period word is in bold: “In the bank now”, “End of your year” and “In the bank, end of October”, and this month’s “In the bank, 11 Oct”, so each balance reads as its own point in time.

0.10.2

This month now has an “actual to date” column. Once last month’s bank figures are in, the current month shows two columns side by side:
- actual to date: what has really gone through the bank this month, line by line, from your imported bank figures alone, closing on your bank balance today. Point at its heading to see how far the bank figures go;
- forecast, whole month: the plan for the full month, which you can still type over. It never shows less than what has already happened, and it is what the months ahead build on.
The column is there from the first day of the month, empty until the first bank line of the month comes in, so the grid keeps the same shape all month.
The small “so far” figures under this month’s boxes are gone: the actual-to-date column shows them instead.
Year totals are unchanged: they count the month’s forecast, not the actual to date.

0.10.1

Tidied the comments inside the code. Nothing changes in how Forecast works or looks.

0.10.0

First public release.

A cash grid in the layout owners read: months across, money in and money out down the side, the bank balance at the bottom. Closed months come from your bank figures; forecast months start from your own patterns and you can type over any of them.
A setup interview asks nine plain questions and builds the grid for you: who it is for (a business, a fee earner, an association or club, or a household), your year, your accounts, your lines and sub-lines, a cushion, how far ahead, and a colour.
What-ifs under the grid: hire someone, buy something, a new regular cost, money coming in, a payment arriving late, or a line going up or down, each as its own row you can switch off.
Year total columns for each full year, traffic lights on unusual months, and notes on any month, marked with a small folded corner.
At a glance, Regular payments (with Keep, Query or Cancel) and Payment methods tabs, a card on your EP Dashboard, and read-only actions for a connected AI assistant.
Share with my adviser: a private link that returns a summary of your forecast and nothing else, for EP Finance Adviser.