Money Matters

Cash flow statement template (download for Excel)

Download our cash flow statement template for Excel and follow the steps to organize your cash activity, complete each section, and calculate your closing balance.

Published August 26, 20261 min read Share

This article was originally published on July 11, 2024 but has been refreshed and re-published with new content on August 26, 2026.

A business can look profitable on paper and still struggle to cover payroll, supplier bills, or loan payments when they come due. A cash flow statement helps explain why by showing how cash moved into and out of the business during a specific reporting period.

Together with the balance sheet and income statement, it gives business owners, finance teams, lenders, and investors a clearer view of the company’s cash position. A standard cash flow statement format organizes these movements into operating, investing, and financing activities.

Learn how to prepare a cash flow statement using our Excel template, enter the figures for each section, and choose between the direct and indirect methods to build an accurate picture of your business’s cash flow.

Download the free cash flow statement template for Excel, then follow the six steps below to complete it.

Key takeaways

• A cash flow statement organizes cash movements into operating, investing, and financing activities for a specific reporting period.
• The Excel cash flow statement template helps you record the opening balance, enter cash inflows and outflows, and calculate the closing balance.
• Operating cash flow can be prepared using either the direct or indirect method, depending on your accounting records and reporting requirements.
• The ending cash balance should equal the opening balance plus the net change from operating, investing, and financing activities, plus or minus any effect of exchange-rate changes on cash and cash equivalents.
• GAAP and IFRS classify some cash flows differently, so businesses should apply the relevant framework consistently from one reporting period to the next.

Here’s what we’ll cover

How to make a cash flow statement in six steps

To prepare a cash flow statement, start with the opening cash balance, then calculate operating, investing, and financing cash flows before reconciling the net change to the closing balance.

The six steps below show how to create a cash flow statement for a single reporting period, using the same accounting framework throughout.

1. Enter the opening cash balance

Start with the total cash and cash equivalents available at the beginning of the reporting period.

The opening balance should normally match the closing balance from the previous reporting period. Enter it in the opening cash balance field of the cash flow statement template.

Cash includes cash on hand and demand deposits, such as checking account balances. Cash equivalents are short-term, highly liquid investments that can be converted into known amounts of cash with an insignificant risk of changes in value.

Under International Accounting Standard 7 (IAS 7), qualifying investments normally have a maturity of three months or less from the date they are acquired.

2. Calculate cash flow from operating activities

Operating activities show how the company’s core business generated and used cash. You can calculate this section using either the direct or indirect method.

Method	What to enter
Direct method	List cash collected from customers and subtract cash paid to suppliers, employees, landlords, utility providers, and tax authorities.
Indirect method	Start with the profit measure required by your reporting framework, then adjust for non-cash items and changes in operating assets and liabilities.

The indirect method makes the differences between cash flow and profit especially clear because it starts with profit and then adjusts that figure to determine cash flow.

Common indirect-method adjustments include:

• Depreciation and amortization: add these non-cash expenses back.
• Inventory: subtract an increase in inventory or add a decrease.
• Accounts receivable: subtract an increase in receivables or add a decrease.
• Accounts payable: add an increase in payables or subtract a decrease.
• Other operating assets and liabilities: adjust increases and decreases according to how they affected cash.

Apply these adjustments to calculate net cash from operating activities.

3. Calculate cash flow from investing activities

Investing activities generally cover cash used to acquire long-term assets and investments that aren’t cash equivalents, as well as cash received when those assets or investments are sold or mature.

Cash inflows	Cash outflows
Proceeds from selling property, equipment, or other long-term assets.	Purchases of property, equipment, or other long-term assets.
Proceeds from selling or maturing investments.	Purchases of investments.
Principal repayments received on loans the business made to others.	Loans made by the business to other entities.
Proceeds from selling intangible assets, such as patents or software rights.	Purchases of intangible assets.

Add the inflows and subtract the outflows to calculate net cash from investing activities.

4. Calculate cash flow from financing activities

Financing activities show how the business raises capital, repays debt, and returns cash to owners or shareholders. Common examples are shown below, although the classification of some interest and dividend cash flows differs between GAAP and IFRS.

Cash inflows	Cash outflows
Proceeds from bank loans and other borrowing.	Repayment of loan principal.
Proceeds from issuing common or preferred stock.	Dividend payments.
Other cash received from owners or investors.	Repurchases of the company’s shares.

Follow the accounting framework that applies to your business and use the same classifications consistently.

Add the inflows and subtract the outflows to calculate net cash from financing activities.

5. Calculate the net change in cash

Add the totals from all three sections:

If you hold cash or cash equivalents in foreign currencies, present the effect of exchange-rate changes separately when reconciling the opening and closing cash balances.

A positive result means cash and cash equivalents increased during the reporting period. A negative result means total cash outflows exceeded total cash inflows during the period.

6. Calculate the closing cash balance

Follow this formula to calculate your cash balance:

For example, assuming there are no exchange-rate effects, say operating activities generated $12,000, while investing activities used $9,000 and financing activities used $7,000. The net change in cash would be -$4,000 ($12,000 – $9,000 – $7,000). If the opening cash balance was $25,000, the closing cash balance would be $21,000.

In this example, the business generated positive cash flow from its core operations, but its overall cash balance fell because investing and financing outflows were greater than the cash generated from operating activities.

The closing balance should reconcile with the company’s cash records at the end of the reporting period. It will normally become the opening balance for the next statement.

If your calculation produces a negative closing balance, check the underlying records and classifications first. If the figure is accurate, review the underlying cash flow problems that caused the shortfall.

What is the difference between the direct and indirect cash flow methods?

Both the direct and indirect cash flow methods produce the same net cash flow from operating activities, but they use a different starting point and presentation.

Differences	Direct method	Indirect method
How it works:	Lists major cash receipts and cash payments from operating activities.	Starts with profit or loss under IFRS or net income under GAAP and adjusts for non-cash items and changes in working capital.
Starting point:	Cash collected and cash paid during the reporting period.	Profit or net income reported for the period.
Typical effort:	Often requires more detailed information about cash receipts and payments.	Can be easier to prepare from accrual-based financial statements because it starts with reported profit or net income.
IFRS treatment:	Permitted and encouraged under IAS 7; a separate reconciliation from profit or loss is not required.	Permitted; the calculation itself reconciles profit or loss to operating cash flow.
GAAP treatment:	Permitted; a separate reconciliation of net income to net cash flow from operating activities is required.	Permitted; the reconciliation is presented through the indirect calculation.

IFRS 18 changes the starting point for the indirect method for annual reporting periods beginning on or after January 1, 2027. See the IAS 7 requirements below for more detail.

What does IAS 7 require for a cash flow statement?

Under IAS 7, businesses reporting under IFRS Accounting Standards must prepare a cash flow statement that classifies cash flows into operating, investing, and financing activities.

IAS 7 requirement	What it means when preparing the statement
Use three activity categories:	Classify cash flows as operating, investing, or financing activities.
Choose how to report operating cash flows:	Use either the direct method or the indirect method.
Report most investing and financing cash flows separately:	Show major cash receipts and payments separately rather than combining them into one net figure. IAS 7 allows net reporting only in limited circumstances.
Present interest and dividends separately:	Disclose interest and dividend cash flows separately and classify them consistently from period to period.
Exclude non-cash transactions from the statement:	Do not include investing or financing transactions that did not use cash or cash equivalents. Disclose them elsewhere in the financial statements instead.

What changes to IAS 7 requirements take effect in 2027?

For annual reporting periods beginning on or after January 1, 2027, IFRS 18 amends IAS 7 so that businesses using the indirect method must begin the reconciliation with operating profit or loss. Earlier application is permitted.

It also changes how interest and dividend cash flows are classified, with specific requirements depending on whether investing in assets or providing financing to customers is a main business activity.

Cash flow statement template

Download our free Excel template today and use it with our six-step preparation guide to get a clear picture of your cash flow.

The template uses a clear cash flow statement format in Excel, with fields for entering the opening balance, recording cash flows for the reporting period, and calculating the closing balance.—so you don’t have to build a cash flow statement from scratch.

Once completed, the statement can support broader cash flow management by helping you monitor cash movements and compare results across reporting periods.

Download the free cash flow statement template for Excel today and use it with our six-step preparation guide to get a clear picture of your cash flow.

What information do you need to complete the template?

Before completing the template, gather the financial records for the reporting period. Depending on the method you use and your business activities, you may need:

• Opening cash balance.
• Bank and transaction records.
• Customer receipts.
• Supplier and operating payments.
• Payroll and tax payments.
• Asset purchases and sales.
• Loan and investor activity.
• Income statement and balance sheet figures, particularly if you’re using the indirect method.

Note that this template records cash movements for a completed reporting period. To project future inflows, outflows, and potential shortfalls, use cash flow forecasting instead.

What should you leave out of a cash flow statement?

Leave out transactions that did not involve cash or cash equivalents, such as acquiring equipment through a finance arrangement without an initial cash payment. You should also exclude transactions outside the reporting period.

Don’t include an investment in the opening or closing cash balance unless it qualifies as a cash equivalent. Cash paid to buy the investment or received from selling it may still appear under investing activities.

You may still need to disclose non-cash investing and financing transactions elsewhere in your financial statements, depending on the accounting framework you follow.

How do you check a completed cash flow statement?

Check that the closing cash balance equals the opening balance plus the net change from operating, investing, and financing activities using this formula:

Compare the closing balance with the cash and cash equivalents recorded in the company’s general ledger and balance sheet. Use completed bank reconciliations to verify the underlying bank account balances. If the figures do not match, review the reporting period, transaction classifications, omitted entries, and formulas in the Excel template.

For recurring or more complex reporting, financial reporting software can centralize financial data and automate report creation.

Cash flow management software can also automate bank reconciliation and provide real-time visibility into cash positions, while Sage Intacct cash management automation software supports these processes for growing finance teams.

Once the figures reconcile, cash flow analysis can help you examine where cash comes from, where it goes, and how those patterns change over time.

Frequently asked questions

Can you customize the Excel cash flow statement template?

Yes. You can edit the labels, add or remove rows, and adjust the categories to reflect your business activities. After customizing the template, check the formulas and make sure the operating, investing, and financing totals reconcile correctly to the closing cash balance.

How often should you prepare a cash flow statement?

For internal cash monitoring, you might prepare a cash flow statement monthly, quarterly, or whenever you need a clearer view of cash movements. If the statement forms part of your formal financial reporting, follow the reporting frequency and accounting requirements that apply to your business.

Can the same template be used for GAAP and IFRS?

The same basic cash flow statement format can be used as a starting point under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). However, the frameworks classify and disclose some cash flows differently, so adapt the template to the requirements that apply to your business and use those classifications consistently.

This article was verified by a US-based Certified Public Accountant (CPA). Accounting rules are complex and change frequently, and we recommend you seek any accounting advice from a qualified CPA.

Browse more topics from this article

• Accounting 101
• Cash Flow
• Small business