Review cash and manage commitments
The cash review workflow connects your bank evidence, upcoming payments and receipts into a single short-term picture. It requires Finance administrator access and an active Xero banking or manual bank ledger setup. The workflow lives at **Banking → Cash flow**. ## Before you begin - The Finance module must be enabled in your workspace. - You must be a workspace owner or administrator with Finance access. - Verify at least one bank account balance before creating a cash review. ## Step 1 — Verify opening bank cash 1. Open **Banking → Cash flow**. 2. Select **Opening cash** or **Verify cash**. 3. Choose the bank account. 4. Enter the **available cash amount** shown at your bank (excluding credit facilities or overdraft headroom). 5. Set the **observed at** date and time — this must be the actual time you read the balance, not today's date. 6. Enter an **evidence reference** (for example, your bank app or statement reference). 7. If the amount differs from the Xero accounting balance, explain the difference in the **Difference from Xero / restrictions** field. 8. Select **Save verification**. Verifications are revision-checked. Concurrent saves are rejected to prevent conflicting edits. The accounting balance from Xero is shown alongside your verified figure so you can compare the two. > **Accounting vs available cash:** The Xero accounting balance reflects your organisation's accounting view and may differ from your bank's available balance because of unreconciled entries, pending payments or restrictions. Record what is actually available, and explain any gap. ## Step 2 — Configure forecast accounts and reserve 1. In **Cash flow → Opening cash**, select **Forecast settings**. 2. Choose the bank accounts included in this forecast (accounts whose verified balances form the opening position). 3. Set the **currency** for the forecast. 4. Set a **cash reserve** — the minimum balance you want to maintain. The forecast flags any projected date on which cash falls to or below this floor. Settings are revision-checked. Only one set of forecast settings is active at a time. ## Step 3 — Add and manage payments The **Payments** tab in Cash flow (and the matching **Payments** tab inside each functional cash budget) shows a single shared register of all upcoming payments and expected receipts. Changes made in either location are reflected everywhere. ### Add a payment 1. In **Cash flow → Payments**, select **Add payment**. 2. Fill in: - **Description** — a clear label. - **Counterparty** — the supplier or customer name. - **Direction** — payment out or receipt in. - **Amount** — leave blank if unknown; the payment is treated as provisional until an amount and date are confirmed. - **Amount certainty** and **Date certainty** — set to **Confirmed** when the amount and date are known with certainty. Both must be confirmed for the payment to enter the base forecast. - **Expected cash date** — the date the payment is expected to clear your bank. This is not the invoice due date or a task deadline. - **Evidence** — the document, email or reference that supports the expected amount and date. - **Status** — *Draft* (unconfirmed) or *Confirmed* (reviewed). - **Cadence** — once, monthly or weekly. Monthly recurrence clamps each date independently to the last day of shorter months. - **Owner** and **Review date** — required for the payment to be decision-ready. - **Planning month** — used when the exact date is unknown but the month is agreed. 3. For expected receipts, set the **Receipt confidence**: *Expected* (excluded from the downside scenario) or *Certain* (included in the downside scenario). 4. Optionally assign a **payment account** to scope the payment to one of the selected forecast accounts. ### Create a payment from a bank transaction You can create future payment schedules directly from historical bank ledger transactions: 1. Open a bank account ledger (Banking or the combined Xero ledger). 2. Select one or more compatible transactions (same currency, account and direction). 3. Select **Create upcoming payment(s)**. 4. Hub pre-fills the payment editor with the historical transaction as evidence. Complete the remaining fields and save. Creating from a historical transaction records evidence only — it does not settle the new payment. ### Match a bank transaction to an existing payment When a bank transaction confirms that a scheduled payment has cleared: 1. Select the transaction in the bank ledger. 2. Select **Match to existing payment**. 3. Choose the payment occurrence from the list of compatible candidates (matching currency, direction and account). 4. Hub allocates the transaction amount to that payment occurrence. Partial allocations are validated server-side. Settled occurrences remain in the register for evidence but do not appear in the active forecast. Settled amounts and allocations cannot be silently removed — end the schedule and create a new one when replacing settled history. ### Link payments to a budget line (bulk) You can create payments in bulk from a budget month: 1. In **Payments**, select **From budget**. 2. Choose a **cash basis** budget and a **month**. 3. Hub previews the lines with entered plan amounts, their direction and any existing bills. 4. Set an **owner**, **review date** and optional payment dates for the rows you want to confirm. 5. Select the rows and **Save payments**. Only lines marked with a **cash** plan basis in the budget are eligible. Gross payroll amounts must first be converted to their cash equivalent. ## Step 4 — Review the cash projection Once you have verified bank cash, forecast settings and confirmed payments, the forecast view shows: - **Opening cash** — the sum of verified balances across the selected accounts. - **Daily events** — confirmed payments in date order. Same-day outflows are placed before inflows to give a conservative view. - **Running balance** — cash after each event. - **Lowest cash point** — the minimum projected balance and its date. - **Downside projection** — a parallel view that excludes receipts without *Certain* confidence. - **Unknown amounts and undated payments** — shown as separate totals alongside the dated result. These cannot enter the base forecast until confirmed. - **Reserve floor** — a dashed line at the chosen reserve level. Any day on which cash is projected to fall to or below the reserve is flagged as a breach. Task deadlines are shown as issues but do not enter the cash schedule. Overdue receipts whose expected date has passed are excluded from the projection. **Missing evidence checks:** The forecast distinguishes between missing values (unknown amount/date), payments needing review (no owner or review date), and source coverage issues. Direct repair links are shown next to each issue. > **Xero accounting reference:** If your organisation uses a Xero accounting reference point, you can optionally add the accounting balance and date when saving a review. This bridges observed movements after the reference date and is shown as a provisional parallel projection. It does not replace the bank-verified opening cash. ## Step 5 — Save a cash review A cash review records the state of your cash position at a point in time, together with a decision, an owner and a follow-up date. Reviews are immutable once saved — they cannot be edited. Subsequent corrections require a new review. 1. In **Cash flow → Review**, confirm you have reviewed the included payments and receipt dates. 2. Enter an **explanation** of any variance between this review and the previous one (required if variance exceeds 10%). 3. Optionally add an **accounting reference** (amount, date and evidence) for a provisional Xero-basis parallel view. 4. Add an **action** with an owner and a due date (Hub suggests a default action based on the decision status if you leave the action blank). 5. Select **Save review**. A review with unverified evidence or unresolved source issues is saved as **Provisional** — the status cannot be confirmed Green until all evidence checks pass. ## Finance reports Saved cash data is available in **Reports → Finance reports**: - **Cash movements** — a dated ledger of imported and manual bank movements. - **Cash budget actuals** — Xero cash actuals mapped to budget lines, with source dates and coverage. - **Cash reviews** — immutable saved reviews with their evidence and decisions. Finance reports support private saved views and CSV export. They are separate from the generic report runner and require Finance administrator access. ## What the review does not do - It does not authorise payments or mandate any banking action. - It does not contact external systems or create records in Xero or your bank. - A provisional review cannot be used as a confirmed cash approval. - Deployment of the feature does not establish readiness — the business still needs to verify bank balances, review payroll timing, add payments and choose its reserve.