Note:
This feature is only available to you if you have booked the “Advanced” or “Pro” package. To make changes to your current package, please get in touch with your contact person or contact customersuccess@alasco.de.
Overview
- How to configure the reference base for cash outflow planning
- How to create cash outflow planning in Alasco
- How to close a month
- How invoices influence the cash outflow
- How to evaluate and export the cash outflow
By planning the outflow of funds in Alasco, it is possible to plan the financing of a construction project at an early stage and secure it at all times. The cash outflow table at order, project and multi-project level is updated automatically each time an invoice is received, saving you time-consuming adjustments.
Reference basis of the cash outflow
Before you carry out cash outflow planning in Alasco, we recommend that you adjust the reference base of the planned and already disbursed amounts in the master data. The bases can be configured by an admin in the master data under the menu item “Forecast settings” in the tab “Cash outflow”.
By default, cash outflow planning is based on the order volume and released and paid amounts are included in the amounts paid out.
Here you also have the option of basing your cash outflow in the project not only on the order volume, but also on the much more accurate real-case or worst-case contract forecast. Depending on your forecast settings, amounts such as commission, risks, receivables or contract terms (discounts, cost allocations, insurance and cash discounts) are also taken into account in your cash outflow planning, enabling you to plan much more accurately.
Initial cash outflow forecast
The cash outflow table shows you the cash outflow at the level of the contract units and also contains the contracts contained in them. There are two ways in which the funds outflow of an allocation unit can come about.
You can either plan the cash outflow directly in the contracting unit on the basis of the contracting unit budget or you can create orders in the awarding unit and plan the cash outflow on the basis of the order volume in each order.
For the first option, select the contract units under the “Costs” menu item. Then select any contract unit and you will find the sub-item “Cash outflow”. Here you can now decide whether the cash outflow for this contract unit should be calculated on the basis of the contract unit budget or the total order volume of the subordinate orders. You can then distribute the cash outflow across the individual months as described below. Here you can also adjust the cash outflow again at a later date.
To define the cash outflow at the contract level, select the contract for which you want to plan the cash outflow under the “Costs” menu item on the “contract overview” tab. Select the “Cash outflow” sub-item in the top bar of the contract.
In the table that appears, you can plan the outflow of funds for future months by entering a start and end date for the contract. You can also adjust the outflow of funds here at a later date.
The cash outflow allows you to distribute both the planned and the ordered contract volume (main contract + accepted change orders) or the contract unit budget over a selected period on a monthly basis. This is possible by a quick adjustment over various pre-set distribution curves (linear, normal and S-curve distribution). The total contract volume / contract unit budget still available is distributed over the future period. It is also possible to set all values for future periods to zero by clicking on 0.00.
Tip:
We recommend that you set up the automatic distributions from the start in order to get an initial approximation of the cash outflows across all orders and thus for the entire project.
In addition, the cash outflow can be created manually. This is possible by “dragging up” and “dragging down” the bars, by entering percentage values or absolute payment amounts directly in the cash outflow table.
Manual entry can be used in particular to map payment plans. It is also possible to distribute only part of the contract volume / contract unit budget. To do this, we recommend that you first click on the lock icon in the “locked/unlocked” column to protect amounts that have already been fixed from being changed. Enter the desired values in the fields of the corresponding months or drag the individual columns in the graphic up or down with the mouse. The undistributed budget is displayed in the upper right corner under the contract volume / current budget, as well as in a column in the overview of the cash flow planning.
Tip:
To quickly enter values, you can navigate through the table using the “Tab” or arrow keys, in a similar way to an Excel list.
Adjustment of cash outflow through payments received
The amounts paid are displayed in the table in the current month. At the end of the month, the system automatically closes a month. Once a month is closed, the planned amount is set to zero and the amount paid is fixed.
You can also close a month manually by clicking the “Done” button, for example, if it is certain that no further payments will be made in the current month, even though it is not yet closed. Once a month has been closed manually, it cannot be undone. The amounts paid consist of the released and paid invoices. These are displayed with the status, amount and date when you move the cursor over them.
Note:
As an admin, you can set whether either released and paid amounts or only paid amounts should be included in the cash outflow planning in the “Forecast settings” submenu in the “Cash outflow” tab in the master data.
Incoming payments may result in changes to planned payments for future months. You can define how payments that unexpectedly do not occur in the current month should be handled.
Manually distribute payments: To do this, you can use the lock icon to freeze all months. In this case, the excess order volume would be transferred to the undistributed contract volume and you can then manually distribute it.
Postpone payments to a specific month: Another option would be to lock all months except one (e.g. the following month or the last month) using the lock icon. This would have the effect that the planned amount in this month would automatically change by the under- or over-coverage of the planning.
Distribute payments proportionally: If you do not fix any months, the remaining contract volume is distributed proportionally across all future months.
Note:
“Fixed” months can be changed, but are not automatically adjusted by the system.
Reporting cash outflow planning
It is possible to report on the cash flow planning at both the project and multi-project level. To do this, select the “Cash outflow” menu item in the “Costs” tab to evaluate the cash outflow across projects. If you only want to see the cash outflow for one project, select the corresponding project beforehand.
The cash outflow planning for all contract units and orders at monthly or quarterly level is displayed here and you have the option of quickly making adjustments to the cash outflow of the contract units or the individual orders. To do this, move the mouse pointer over an item and click on the “Edit” button that appears to adjust the cash outflow.
The figures in the table are displayed as net amounts by default, but you can switch to gross amounts. The gross amounts for cash outflow planning are calculated by the system using the sales tax rates stored in the orders.
The following settings are available to you in cash outflow planning:
- View and reporting by project group (only at multi-project level)
- View and reporting by project / real estate (only at multi-project level)
- View and reporting by contract award unit / cost group (only at project level)
- Show / hide zero lines
- Gross / net view
- Set displayed period
- Export to Excel or as PDF file
Note:
When you export the cash outflow table, the export is performed asynchronously. This means that you can start an export and exit cash outflow planning to work on another part of Alasco. When you return to cash outflow planning at a later point in time, the export is available and you can download it.
With the help of this function, the last 50 Excel or PDF exports are saved and you can download them again at a later point in time.
Click on the “Entire cash flow” button to display the cash outflow on a monthly or quarterly basis. You can also change the displayed period as you wish. To do this, either select one of the predefined filters or define your own period based on the months or quarters you wish to analyse.