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Caleido’s direct cash flow shows the money that actually came in and went out, line by line: sales received, salaries paid, VAT paid to the tax office, loans drawn and repaid. It is not a separate calculation added on top of the bookkeeping. Caleido builds the profit & loss statement, the balance sheet and the direct cash flow from the same transactions, for actuals and budgets alike. This is called a three-way model.
The direct cash flow view is not yet available to every organization. Ask the Caleido team if you want it turned on for your organization.

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One entry, two dates

Every transaction in Caleido carries two dates that matter for reporting:
  • The transaction date (the accrual date) places the entry in the period it belongs to. The profit & loss statement and the balance sheet use this date
  • The payment date records when the money moved. The direct cash flow uses this date, and only counts transactions that have actually been paid
Take a purchase invoice dated 15 March with 30-day payment terms, paid on 14 April: Because the cash flow keeps the cost’s own row, you see exactly what the money was spent on, not just “change in payables”. Caleido gets the payment dates from the payment information in your accounting system, such as paid sales and purchase invoices and payroll and tax payments. For entries that pass through the balance sheet before they are paid, such as cost accruals, you can link the accrual to its payment so the cost lands in the cash flow on the right day. See Link payments to accruals.

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How the statement is structured

The Finnish direct cash flow template follows the familiar order:
  1. Operating cash flow. Sales and other income received, and costs paid, grouped like the profit & loss statement. Advances received and paid are shown separately, then the operating cash flow before VAT. After that come VAT collected, VAT paid and the VAT payment (refund) to tax office, so you see the VAT cycle as cash
  2. Investing cash flow. Cash in from and cash out to investments, such as purchases and sales of fixed assets and loans given
  3. Financing cash flow. Equity financing, loans received and repaid, dividends paid and interest paid
  4. Net cash flow, followed by the cash at the beginning of the period and the cash at bank at the end
Balance sheet accounts affect the cash flow through their movements. A debit and a credit on the same account usually mean different things: on a loan account, a credit is a new loan and a debit is a repayment. That is why each balance sheet account is mapped twice, once per direction. See Map accounts to the cash flow. Some accounts don’t belong in the cash flow at all:
  • Pass-through accounts, such as accruals, receivables and payables, only carry the entry until it is paid. The cash effect is shown when the payment happens, under the original cost or income row
  • No cash impact accounts, such as depreciation, never move money
  • Cash accounts themselves (cash at bank, cash at hand, payments in transit) are not flows. They give the opening and closing cash and are used to check that the net cash flow matches the change in cash

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Budgets work the same way

Budget items generate budget transactions with double-entry logic, just like real bookkeeping. Each generated entry gets a transaction date from the budget item’s dates and a payment date from its payment terms. One budget item therefore produces:
  • the cost or income in the profit & loss budget
  • the receivable, payable or other balance in the balance sheet budget
  • the cash in or out in the cash flow budget, in the month the payment is expected
For example, a sales budget item with 14-day payment terms creates revenue in the profit & loss in the invoicing month, a receivable and the VAT payable in the balance sheet, and the cash in from the customer two weeks later. You don’t need a separate cash flow budget. Open invoices can be added to the budget too, so the forecast knows when your customers are expected to pay and when you pay your suppliers. See Review receivables and payables.

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Why this matters

  • One source of truth. The three statements always agree, because they come from the same entries
  • Real cash timing. The cash flow forecast reflects payment terms, VAT periods and payroll payment days, not just the profit
  • Drill down to the line. Every number on the cash flow statement opens the transactions behind it, with the same counterparties and dimensions as in the profit & loss