Edinburgh-based fintech Float is defining a new category called 'Cash Flow Intelligence' - an approach to financial forecasting that combines real-time data integration, automated calculations, and predictive insights to replace manual spreadsheet-based workflows.
The company has released a range of new platform updates that embody this Cash Flow Intelligence methodology, putting real-time financial forecasting at finance leaders' fingertips.
Despite the technological leaps of the past five years, particularly in the field of AI, finance teams are still predominantly working in spreadsheets which aren’t connected to live data sources.
The result is a growing divide between, on the one hand, future-ready leaders who have the real-time visibility they need for proactive adaptation, and those being held back by time-intensive manual workflows and static, siloed, often incomplete and inaccurate data.
'Our customers keep telling us "trust in numbers" should be our north star,' says Float CEO and co-founder Colin Hewitt. 'Cash Flow Intelligence gives finance teams unprecedented visibility into their organisation's cash flow, up to 13 weeks in advance.'
The growing chasm between future-ready finance leaders and those being left behind
New research shows reliance on spreadsheets is having dramatic impacts on business competitiveness.
Finance teams spend 65% of their time on data collection rather than strategic analysis, with 63% unable to forecast beyond six months.
Data quality is also a serious issue. Despite 64% of decisions being data-driven. 40% of respondents to a 2024 survey of 1,500 finance professionals said they didn't trust the financial data they worked with.
Cash Flow intelligence solves these issues by gathering real-time, actionable data from across the organisation in one central, easily-accessible location.
The platform uses automated workflows and machine-learning capabilities to uncover insights and trends in the data that might not be visible to the human eye, for example because it's too early to detect them using traditional, spreadsheet-based techniques.
'Cash Flow Intelligence tells the story behind the numbers, and it does so far more quickly than has ever been possible to date,' says Hewitt.
'Finance teams can create forecasts in seconds, using real-time data, so businesses can make decisions based on the position as it is today, right now, not at some point in the past.'
Fractional CFOs see immediate benefits
Cash Flow Intelligence's early adopters, particularly fractional CFOs with multiple clients, are already seeing significant results.
'I'm having far fewer awkward calls with clients who were getting impatient because I couldn't seem to be able to give them a straight answer,' says Mark Mountford, a fractional CFO at THE CFO Centre. 'I've got the data at my fingertips, so I know what's what within half an hour or less.'
The efficiency gains, Mountford continues, have also had a net positive impact on his business model.
He says: 'What used to be a six-month to one-year timeframe, with most of that spent doing prep work, is now a three-month timeframe. I can take on clients who previously would have been paying me just to make spreadsheets.'
Cash Flow Intelligence's core capabilities
Cash Flow Intelligence improves finance teams' workflows in four key ways:
- Real-time, multi-entity visibility
Finance leaders can instantly view consolidated data from across multiple business entities. This is particularly valuable for fractional CFOs serving clients with corporate groups.
- Proactive planning, up to 13 weeks in advance
Week-by-week, transaction-level cash flow visibility makes it possible to identify working capital gaps up to 13 weeks in advance. Scenario Planning mode can also model the impact of different payment timing adjustments
- VAT predictions
Direct integration with accounting platforms, enables upcoming VAT payment calculations, with automatic adjustments to budgets and forecasts. This removes the need for manual updates, and eliminates the risk of inaccuracies.
- Board-ready reporting
One-page visualisations provide clear views of current and future balances, budget variance, and payables/receivables, simplifying decision-making at the highest levels.
There's never been a better time to get ahead of the competition
Alongside the proliferation of AI technology, Cash Flow Intelligence's launch also comes at a time when businesses are increasingly favouring shorter forecasting cycles — a consequence of growing economic and geopolitical uncertainty.
The platform's focus on 13-week forecasting aligns well with this trend.
'Thirteen weeks is long enough to provide businesses with a reasonable amount of financial runway,' says Hewitt, 'but short enough to enable them to be more adaptable in a rapidly changing market.'
'Those who are thinking ahead will be better-positioned to weather uncertainty and seize new opportunities.' concludes Hewitt.
