If the next few months of cash look much like the last few, the planner built into Xero or QuickBooks Online is probably enough. A dedicated cash flow forecasting tool earns its place when a finance team needs to compare scenarios against a base forecast, plan further than six months out, or consolidate several entities and bank accounts into one view.
Both platforms have moved their planning features on considerably, so the built-in tools deserve their due, and the right way to choose is to know precisely what each one does.
What the built-in planners actually do
Xero now offers two planning surfaces. The original short-term cash flow projection shows 7 or 30 days as standard, extending to 60 and 90 days with Analytics Plus. The newer Cash Flow Manager, which grew out of Xero's analytics acquisition, projects further: plan tiers carry 30, 60, 90 or 180 day forecasts, with the 180 day view on the top plans. It draws on bank balances, invoices, bills and predicted recurring transactions, lets you set expected payment dates on overdue invoices and bills, and takes manual one-off or repeating amounts. Changes made in the projection stay in the projection; nothing writes back to the ledger. We cover the Xero side in depth in our guide to forecasting alongside Xero.
QuickBooks Online includes the Cash Flow Planner. It builds a forward view from your bank history, transactions with future due dates and events you add yourself, predicts when customers are likely to pay invoices based on their behaviour, and lets you set expected dates that sit apart from the accounting due dates. Its widest chart setting is labelled 24 months, and it helps to know what that window contains: nine months of history, the current month and 14 months ahead. It is a pattern view rather than a 24 month forward forecast. Two limits matter for growing businesses: the planner is not available when multicurrency is switched on, and planner events never become transactions in the books. Our QuickBooks Online guide goes further on all of this.
Both planners are included in the platform subscription, both keep forecast edits safely away from the accounting records, and both are genuinely useful at the job they are built for: showing whether the near-term cash position looks safe.
Where a built-in planner is enough
A single-entity business trading in one currency, with a predictable monthly rhythm of receipts and payments and one person keeping an eye on the balance, may not need anything more. If the next 90 days reliably resemble the last 90, a built-in projection answers the question that matters most days, which is whether there is enough cash to cover what is due.
The professional guidance points the same way. ICAEW's Business Finance Guide notes that a cash flow forecast can be created in a spreadsheet, an app or an online accounting system, and that it does not need to be complicated. What the guidance emphasises is the discipline: forecast the drivers, review regularly, act on what the forecast shows. The tool question only becomes interesting when the process outgrows the tool, which is also the point at which spreadsheet-based forecasting starts to strain.
Scenario planning means two different things
Both platforms describe their planners as scenario planning tools, and within their own definition that is accurate. In the built-in tools, scenario planning means adjusting the one live projection: add a cost, remove an expected receipt, nudge a payment date, and watch the line move. It is quick, and for a single question asked once, it works.
A dedicated forecasting tool means something different by the same phrase: scenarios that are created, named and kept, each one held beside the base forecast rather than written into it. The distinction sounds small and is not. A hiring decision is rarely one adjustment; it is a salary, employer costs, equipment and a revenue assumption, moving together. A finance team weighing that hire against a delayed office move needs both futures visible at once, against the same base, in the meeting where the decision gets made. One adjustable projection cannot hold two futures at the same time, so each what-if overwrites the last, and the comparison happens in someone's head or in a spreadsheet on the side.
Four jobs a weekly cash process adds
Finance teams of three or more people tend to run cash as a weekly process rather than an occasional check, and four requirements arrive with that shift.
The first is comparing decisions, not just adjusting a projection. Options need to be modelled as complete alternatives, reviewed side by side, and merged into the plan once chosen.
The second is working two horizons at once: a weekly view of the next quarter for operational decisions, and a monthly view a year or more out for planning ones. The built-in tools top out well short of that second horizon. Xero's longest built-in view reaches 180 days on the top plan tiers, and the QuickBooks planner's forward reach is 14 months of monthly pattern at its widest setting.
The third is one view across entities, banks and currencies. Both built-in planners work within a single organisation file. A group of three companies checks three separate projections and adds them up elsewhere, and a QuickBooks company that switches multicurrency on loses its planner altogether.
The fourth is a forecast the whole team works in. The built-in tools share visibility, so anyone with the right permission level can see the projection. What they do not provide is a shared working model: assumptions that different people own and update, with edit rights for the forecast's owners and a read-only view for everyone else.
None of this is a criticism of the built-in planners. These are the jobs of a dedicated forecasting workflow, and the platforms have been clear about where that boundary sits.
The platforms draw the line themselves
Xero did not build its newest forecasting capability in-house; it arrived through the 2024 acquisition of Syft, an analytics platform, and the stated ambitions for that acquisition included longer-term cash flow forecasting and multi-entity reporting. Meanwhile Xero's own App Store positions connected apps as the route to forecasting up to three years ahead, running different scenarios and multi-entity views, which is as clear a statement of the built-in boundary as anyone could ask for. QuickBooks has drawn a similar line in its own history: when its desktop product retired a cash flow projection feature, users were pointed to marketplace apps to replace it.
Forecasting depth, in other words, is a job the accounting platforms expect specialist tools to do. That is not a gap in the platforms; it is a division of labour, and it is the reason a category of dedicated forecasting tools exists at all.
How Float fits
Float is a dedicated cash flow forecasting tool built for exactly the four jobs above. It connects to Xero and QuickBooks Online, with Sage Intacct coming soon, syncing once a day with a manual refresh whenever you need the latest position.
Scenarios in Float are layers. Each one is created and named, its budgets stack on top of the base forecast, and the graph shows the base line and the scenario line together so the impact of a decision is visible against the plan you already have. Several scenarios can be compared on one view, and when a decision is made, its budgets move into the base. Every plan includes a set allowance of scenario layers, listed on our pricing page, with more available at additional cost.
The forecast runs on two horizons at once: a rolling 13-week view for the weekly cash process, alongside a monthly forecast to 36 months for planning. Multiple companies consolidate into one view in a display currency of your choice, with each company's cash still visible on its own line. Expected payment dates can be set on any invoice or bill without touching the accounting records, and role-based permissions per company keep editing with the forecast's owners while leadership reads the same live numbers.
Choosing between them
Stay with the built-in planner while one organisation, one currency and a near-term view answer the questions your business is actually asking. Move to a dedicated tool when decisions start arriving as comparisons, when the board wants a view past the built-in horizon, or when a second entity or bank account turns consolidation into a weekly spreadsheet job. The test costs nothing: run one real decision through each and see which one your team can stand behind in the meeting.
Frequently asked questions
Is the cash flow forecasting built into Xero enough for a finance team?
Xero's built-in forecasting is a strong near-term view, reaching up to 180 days on the top plan tiers, and for a single-entity business with a steady rhythm it can be enough. A finance team running a weekly cash process usually outgrows it at the point where decisions need named scenarios compared against a base forecast, a monthly view beyond six months, or consolidation across entities.
Does QuickBooks Online include cash flow forecasting?
Yes. The Cash Flow Planner builds a forward view from bank history, future-dated transactions and manually added events, predicts invoice payment timing from customer behaviour, and keeps every planner change out of the accounting records. Its widest view shows 14 months ahead as a monthly pattern, and it is unavailable when multicurrency is enabled.
How far ahead can the built-in planners forecast cash flow?
Xero's built-in views run from 7 days up to 180 days depending on plan tier. The QuickBooks Online Cash Flow Planner reaches 14 months ahead at its widest chart setting, which is labelled 24 months because it also displays nine months of history. Dedicated forecasting tools typically add a monthly horizon of one to three years on top of a weekly operational view.
Can Xero or QuickBooks Online compare cash flow scenarios side by side?
Both platforms support what-if adjustments to a single live projection, which is what scenario planning means within their built-in tools. Neither documents a way to save named scenarios and hold them beside a base forecast for comparison. Side-by-side scenario comparison is one of the defining capabilities of dedicated forecasting tools.
What does a dedicated cash flow forecasting tool add?
Four things in practice: named scenarios compared against a base forecast rather than adjustments to one projection, a weekly operational view running alongside a monthly planning horizon of a year or more, consolidation across entities, banks and currencies, and a shared forecast with role-based edit and view rights. Which of the four matters first depends on the team, but most growing finance teams meet all four within a couple of years.
Can built-in planners consolidate cash across multiple companies?
No. Both built-in planners work within a single organisation file, so a group checks each company's projection separately and combines them outside the platform. In QuickBooks Online the planner is also unavailable entirely once multicurrency is switched on, which removes it for many multi-entity groups. Consolidated group cash in a single display currency is a dedicated-tool capability.
Do changes in a built-in planner affect the accounting records?
No, and this is one of the things both platforms get right. Expected dates, manual amounts and planner events stay in the projection and never alter invoices, bills or bank data in the books. Dedicated tools including Float follow the same principle, so forecasting stays a safe space to test decisions.
Who controls access to a shared cash flow forecast in Float?
Float uses role-based permissions set per company, so the people who own the forecast can edit it while leadership and the wider team read the same live view. Access rides on your accounting platform's authorised integration rather than shared logins, which keeps the forecast current for everyone without opening edit rights to everyone.
How much does a dedicated cash flow forecasting tool cost?
Dedicated forecasting tools are typically priced as monthly subscriptions alongside the accounting platform they connect to. Float's current plans, scenario allowances and a free trial are on our pricing page.
If your team's next hire, price change or big purchase is going to be debated over a projection that can only hold one future at a time, the quickest way to see the difference is with your own numbers. Start a free trial and Float will build your base forecast directly from your Xero or QuickBooks Online data, ready for your first scenario.
