Learning goals

Explain why cash in differs from revenue
Link collections from the Revenue Plan roll-forward
Time the loan proceeds into February with a date test
Read total cash received and keep financing out of income

Concepts

Cash in is not revenue

The direct-method cash flow statement lists money movements, not accrued results. January shows $57,125.00 of cash in against $48,875.00 of billings — collections include money billed in 2025. Over the full year, cash received from customers is $689,156.25 against $690,000.00 of revenue: the $843.75 difference is the growth in receivables.

If the P&L is the studio's report card, the Cash Flow sheet is its bank statement — and the bank statement is what payroll runs on.

Collections link to the roll-forward

The first cash line is a link, not a retype:

='Revenue Plan'!C14

Cash Flow C6 (January collections): $57,125.00, read straight from the Revenue Plan's collection total. Column O sums to $689,156.25 for the year — identical to the Revenue Plan, because it is the same cells.

Loan proceeds land in February

Financing is not income, but it is cash. The build-out loan is drawn on Feb 2, 2026, and the model finds that month by testing the date header:

=IF(C$4=DATE(2026,2,1),'CapEx & Loan'!$C$12,0)

Cash Flow C7 (January loan proceeds): the month header C$4 is Jan 1, 2026, not Feb 1, so the line returns $0.00. D7 tests Feb 1, 2026, matches, and returns the $18,000.00 loan amount from the CapEx & Loan parameter block.

💡 Tips:

Comparing the month header to DATE(2026,2,1) keeps the timing self-documenting: the date lives in one place and the test cannot drift.

Total cash received

Row 8 adds collections and financing:

=C6+C7

Cash Flow C8: January $57,125.00 + $0.00 = $57,125.00. February reads $52,143.75 + $18,000.00 = $70,143.75. The FY total O8 is $707,156.25 — $18,000.00 of which is borrowed money that must be repaid, not earned.

Practice

Fixed case: Harbor Creative Studio LLC, a four-person design studio in Austin, Texas, planning calendar year 2026. Cached numbers are the Base scenario. Pale-green cells are formulas; white cells are typed inputs. The exercise opens on the sheet this lesson teaches. Cell C7 (January loan proceeds) is blank: retype the date-tested proceeds formula.

Open Cash Flow — The exercise opens on Cash Flow. CASH RECEIVED covers rows 6 to 8: collections, loan proceeds, and the total.
Retype the proceeds test in C7 — Cell C7 is empty. Type =IF(C$4=DATE(2026,2,1),'CapEx & Loan'!$C$12,0) and confirm: it should return $0.00 — the loan draws in February, not January.
Check February — D7 should read $18,000.00 and D8 (total cash received) $70,143.75. That February spike is the build-out money arriving before it is spent on row 16.
Verify the FY totals — O6 should read $689,156.25 (collections), O7 $18,000.00 (proceeds), and O8 $707,156.25 (total cash received).
Contrast with revenue — Open Monthly P&L: O8 revenue is $690,000.00 while Cash Flow O6 is $689,156.25. Confirm the difference ($843.75) equals the growth in receivables from Lesson 7.

Online exercise

The spreadsheet below is editable — follow the practice steps right on this page. Steps that need ribbon menus should be done in your own Excel with the downloadable practice file.

表格加载中…

Checklist

Work through each item; when every box passes, this lesson is done:

☐ Retyped the proceeds test in C7 and it returned $0.00; D7 reads $18,000.00
☐ O6 reads $689,156.25 collections and O8 reads $707,156.25 total cash received
☐ Can explain why February's cash in exceeds February's revenue by the loan draw
☐ Confirmed cash in minus revenue equals the change in receivables

💵 Lesson 12 · Cash in: collections and loan proceeds