Software Second Look: CashFlowTool by Finagraph

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Years ago I worked with a very smart guy by the name of Conrad Carlberg on a book titled, “Business Analysis for QuickBooks”. At the time, Conrad was a leading author of textbooks for Microsoft Excel, the majority of our book covered how to pull data out of QuickBooks and manipulate it within Excel to produce business measures that QuickBooks simply doesn’t provide. Among those measures were Business Analytics that most big businesses consider essential but most small businesses owners simply didn’t know, understand or begin to have a clue how to prepare. And, even a lot of their accountants and financial advisors didn’t have a clue how to prepare them either.

Even today, most people using QuickBooks simply don’t believe they need to spend the time or effort to produce analytics for their small businesses until they are asked by a lender to provide a ‘debt ratio’ or some other datametric they have never even heard of. When they ignore the request, they typically lose their loan, or even worse an existing loan gets called in by their lender.

The fundamental problem boils down to the fact that your chosen accounting software, whether it’s QuickBooks Desktop or QuickBooks Online simply doesn't provide the critical measures a business truly needs when it comes to clear indicators of how their business is performing, areas needing attention, and areas in wihch they are doing great.

Finagraph was one of the first Apps I reviewed that was designed to work with QuickBooks to take the tedious and time consuming work of combining certain numbers from a company’s income statement and balance sheet to produce ratios and metrics meaningful to almost everyone involved in how a company is performing.  One of their first advertisements claimed, “financial intelligence on demand” and it proved true because they did indeed “replaced hours of work with 1-click.”

Over the years since that first generation of the Finagraph product the current CashFlowTool has evolved to not only give businesses those critical KPIs but to give them future cash flow forecasts in meaningful displays designed to help them understand their cash position both today and tomorrow. Of course, all of this still takes place within seconds of CashFlowTool being connected to either QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop. In fact, CashFlowTool works with every version of QuickBooks with the exception of QuickBooks Self-employed.

With CashFlowTool's Interactive Visual Forecast Chart (shown below) you will see a bird's-eye view of your historical cashflow for the last 12 months as well as a future forecasted cash flow for the next 6 months.

The Interactive Visual Forecast Chart lets you:

  • See your future: Patent-pending CashLearn™ AI predicts your future with confidence, so you can understand your current and future cash flow situation.
  • Eliminate surprises: Never be surprised again. CashFlowTool will notify you immediately of any unexpected bills, overdue payments or out-of-cash predictions.
  • Make quicker decisions: Understand your cash flow with a simple, yet powerful heatmap of daily cash balances, highlighting any forecasted cash flow shortfalls.

CashFlowTool’s Cash Flow Calendar (shown above) features simple yet powerful heatmap display shades of green for positive cash balance days and red for any forecasted cash flow shortfalls for a rolling 6 months in the future.

  • Explore scenarios: Buying new equipment? Starting an expansion? With CashFlowTool you will see the cash flow impact before you make the decision.
  • What if: You can also quickly perform a powerful what-if analysis to decide the best time to get a loan or when to delay paying a bill, all so you can see the impact on your cash flow.

Hey, didn't I start out talking about analytics and datametrics? Today, everybody knows them by the slang, 'KPIs' which stands for Key Performance Indicators. Just like that very first version of Finagraph that turned out analytics in seconds, CashFlowTool also cranks out these KPIs almost instantaneously. In fact, their Dashboard (Excecutive Summary shown top of next page) will display over 30 important business metrics which you choose to suite your specific business needs.

  • Customize Dashboards with Ease: You can configure dashboards to your specific requirements such as a Sales dashboard, or a Top Customers dashboard. It's simple to customize the dashboard with any cards that you like and you can even share this dashboard with your team members.
  • Collaborate together: Keep everyone on the same page (even if you give them their own 'dashboard') by inviting your accountant, CFO, and other key team members, that way everyone stays in sync.

Business owners will really appreciate the CashFlowTool's Business Activity Center (shown below) which makes it easy to see and manage multiple businesses whether those businesses are using QuickBooks Desktop or QuickBooks Online.

With the Business Activity Center:

  • Business owners: Can see an executive summary of all your businesses to make quick decisions and prioritize actions.
  • Accounting professionals: Can see all your clients in one place to instantly know their cash situation.

CashFlowTool runs on Windows, Macs, and Android devices. Because it's a cloud based App you will easily see your cash flow from virtually any device you choose and from anywhere you have an internet connection. 

  • Dedicated Mobile App: Enable on-the-go cash flow control with the free CashFlowTool mobile app for iOS or Android. Comment or check your Cash Flow Calendar anytime, respond to alerts or make comments on new areas so no matter where you are, you can be in control of your cash.

Connecting CashFlowTool to QuickBooks

CashFlowTool is a cloud based App, but as I have mentioned more than once it will sync (connect) with either QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop. Obviously this means the methodology of connection differs, so let me briefly review it.  This is not intended to be an in-depth guide on connectivity, simply an overview of the various offerings.

Connecting to QuickBooks Online

Connecting CashFlowTool to QuickBooks Online is typical of any App within the Intuit QuickBooks App Center, the process follow the normal O-Auth connection process. You can find this outstanding analytical tool at their CashFlowTool landing page in the QuickBooks App Center. For more issues or problems regarding connectivity between CashFlowTool and QuickBooks Online please contact CashFlowTool support via the CashFlowTool website.

Connecting to QuickBooks Desktop

CashFlowTool uses a proprietary connector called the 'Finagraph Connect' add-in which is a Windows desktop application that gets installed on the same computer where QuickBooks Desktop is installed. This connector is downloaded during your initial installation of CashFlowTool when you select QuickBook Desktop as your accounting software connection.

If you have QuickBooks Desktop installed on your local machine, then Finagraph Connect gets installed on your local machine too. If you use Remote Desktop to access QuickBooks Desktop on a remote server, then Finagraph Connects must be installed on the remote server where QuickBooks Desktop is installed. For more details regarding the installation of 'Finagraph Connect', please contact CashFlowTool support via the CashFlowTool website.

It's said we never truly get over our 'first loves'; indeed, Finagraph was my first love as far as an analytics App was concerned, it was not only neat, but quick in terms of what it did that had taken hours to do the way that Conrad and I had instructed in our book. There have been a lot of other analytical and datametric Apps come along, some I really liked a lot, but as I take this Second Look and think back it kinda "makes my heart go pitty-pat." Maybe CashFlowTool by Finagraph can make your heart go "pitty-pat" too, why not check it out at www.cashflowtool.com.

Insightful Accountant is presenting two webinars with CashFlowTool. One on August 13 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time, "Intro to CashFlowTool - The Ultimate Cash Flow Management and Forecasting Tool" with Dave Fester; to register click here.

The second is Cash Flow Forecasting: Your Golden Ticket to Advisory Services on August 20 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time, with Dave Fester; you can register for that webinar here.