IN THIS SECTION

• Overview
  • Difference between Forecasts and Budgets
• How a 3-way forecast works
• Viewing Forecasts
  • Filtering
    • Clearing Filters
  • Column Sorting and Ordering
    • Sorting
    • Selecting Columns
    • Changing Column Order
    • Resetting to Default
  • Enabling/Disabling Forecasts
    • Bulk Enable/Disable
• Creating a Forecast
  • Step 1 - General Settings
  • Step 2 - Rules
    • Start with a default linear regression rule
    • Start with a default rule that uses budgets to determine forecast values
    • Start with a default growth rule
    • Configure with AI
    • Start with a blank forecast
  • Step 3 - Accounts
  • Step 4 - Payment Patterns
• The Main Forecast View
  • Tabs
  • Actuals vs forecast
  • Editing Forecast Settings
  • Viewing and Editing Rules and Values
    • Default Rules
    • Account Name
    • Individual Cells
    • Add Rule
  • Adding and Editing Payment Patterns
  • Adding and Editing Scheduled Payments
  • Adding and Editing Taxes
  • Filters
  • Saving the Forecast
  • Balance Sheet Cell Info
  • Refreshing Actuals
  • Downloading to and Uploading from Excel
• Rules
  • Rule types
  • Rule Scope
  • Rule Priority
  • Date Range
• Payment Patterns
  • How a Payment Pattern works
  • Where the cash goes
  • Pattern settings
    • Common payment terms
  • Opening receivables and payables
  • Seeing the effect
• Scheduled Payments
  • Adding a scheduled payment
  • Settings for every type of scheduled payment
  • Payment
  • Loan repayment
    • Example
  • Pay the balance
  • When a scheduled payment is not applied
• Taxes
  • Adding a tax
  • Settings for every tax
    • Payment
  • Settings for GST, VAT or sales tax
    • Starting rates
  • Settings for Payroll withholding
  • Settings for Income tax
    • How the tax is worked out
  • Changing a tax from a month
  • One account for several taxes
  • Group forecasts
• Viewing Forecast on Main Joiin Reports

PRO: Forecasting is available in our PRO and MAX packages.

Overview

Joiin's Forecasting module lets you build a forward-looking projection of your finances directly in Joiin, generated from your own actuals or budgets and using configurable rules and/or AI - rather than entering every number by hand.

Difference between Forecasts and Budgets

A budget is made up of figures you enter manually - pulled in from Xero or QuickBooks, or typed into Joiin yourself. Figures are entered against a flat list of accounts, across the whole chart of accounts. You can then report on the Budget data, alongside actual data, using the Budget toggle on any of the Joiin financial reports.

A forecast generates its figures automatically from your recent actuals (or budgets themselves) using rules, patterns and/or AI - with figures entered manually on top if necessary. A forecast spans all three financial statements at once and you can view these three all in one place within the forecast itself. You can also report on the Forecast data, alongside actual data, using the Budget toggle on any of the Joiin financial reports, in the same way as Budgets.

You forecast your Profit & Loss, and Joiin derives the Balance Sheet and Cashflow from it - a 3-way forecast, where the three stay linked so any change flows through to your projected cash position.

The Balance Sheet is derived for you, but you can lay payment patterns over the top to refine it — for example, collecting revenue a month or two after it's invoiced - which controls when cash actually lands.

NOTE: This is an indirect, month-by-month forecast for medium-term planning (typically 12–24 months), not a daily or weekly invoice-level cash projection.

How a 3-way forecast works

A 3-way forecast links your Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet and Cashflow into a single connected projection. Business owners, accountants and CFOs use one to see where the business is heading — whether there's enough cash to cover an investment or a quiet period, how profit translates into actual cash, and what happens to the numbers under different assumptions. It's a core tool for planning, raising finance, and presenting to boards, investors and lenders.

A forecast is built in three linked steps.

1. Profit & Loss. Forecast values are generated for your revenue and expense accounts using rules — for example, a trend fitted to recent actuals, a fixed growth rate, or AI. This is the only statement you edit directly.

2. Balance Sheet. Derived automatically from the forecast P&L plus a few assumptions: which accounts represent your cash, receivables and payables, how earnings roll into equity, and how depreciation is handled. You don't type values into the Balance Sheet — you influence it through account mappings and payment patterns.

3. Cashflow. Generated from the P&L and Balance Sheet movements, exactly as Joiin produces your Indirect Cashflow report today.

The key idea: you only ever edit the P&L. The Balance Sheet and Cashflow are calculated from it, so the three statements always stay consistent with each other.

Viewing Forecasts

You can view a list of forecasts by selecting Forecasts from the left menu. The Forecast page shows all forecasts you have created. You can search, filter, sort and perform actions on forecasts from this page.

Filtering

The top section of the page contains a number of filters which allow you to narrow down the results.

Clearing Filters

Click on the Clear Filters icon at the top to reset all filters, columns and sort order to their default settings.

Column Sorting and Ordering

Sorting

You can click on the column heading to sort the results by that criteria. The initial click will sort ascending and an up arrow will be displayed in the column heading, e.g.

Click again to sort descending - the direction of the arrow will change:

Selecting Columns

You can choose which columns to display when viewing results. To do this

• Click on the cog icon at the top right
• Check/Uncheck the columns you wish to see/hide
• Click on Apply button to apply the changes

Changing Column Order

You can change the order in which columns are displayed when viewing results. To do this

• Click on the cog icon at the top right
• Click and hold the three-bar icon at the left of the column name and drag/drop it into the place required.
• Click on Apply button to apply the changes

Resetting to Default

You can reset the columns and sorting to the default values. To do this

• Click on the cog icon at the top right
• Click on the Reset button

NOTE: Any changes you make to the filter, columns and sort order will be saved in your browser for the next time you visit the page.

Enabling/Disabling Forecasts

You can control which forecasts are used when running reports by enabling or disabling them. See this section in the Budgets article for more information on running reports with Forecast data. This can be helpful if you have numerous forecasts covering different scenarios.

To enable or disable a forecast simply click on the toggle to the left of the forecast.

Bulk Enable/Disable

You can enable or disable multiple forecasts in one go by clicking on the Status column heading and selecting Enable all or Disable all. This will act on only the forecasts that are being displayed based on the selected filters - so this is helpful when used in tandem with the filtering capabilities

Creating a Forecast

To create a Forecast click on the Add Joiin forecast button on the Forecasts list page. There are four steps to creating a Forecast.

Step 1 - General Settings

Enter the basic properties that define the Forecast as follows.

If the forecast start date is outside the months your company has actuals for, the first step of the wizard now says which start dates to choose. For example, if your actuals end in July 2026, it will ask for a start date of August 2026 or earlier.

Step 2 - Rules

Choose how forecast values are initially generated. The rules set here apply across all P&L account types - you can further refine these rules by account, account type and category from the main forecast page.

NOTE: Depreciation & Amortisation accounts don't use these rules — they will have a special rule applied where they are held flat at their most recent level, because depreciation follows a schedule rather than a trend. You can change this per-account rule after creating the forecast.

You can choose from five options - for some options an image at the bottom gives a pictorial view of how the rule will affect the forecast values. For more information on Rules, see the Rules section below.

Start with a default linear regression rule

A linear best-fit trend line is fitted to the past actual values and extended forward. You can choose how many months worth of past actuals the trend line is fitted to, defaults to 12.

Start with a default rule that uses budgets to determine forecast values

Use values from a budget. This is useful if you already have budgeted values, for example imported from your accounting system, and want to use them as the basis for an additional forecast or a re-forecast. Under Source Budget, choose All enabled budgets or Select specific budgets. If more than one budget is used, their values are added together.

Only budgets for the forecast's company (or the companies in its group) and "All Companies" budgets can be used, and they must be in the same currency as the forecast. Budgets in a different currency are not included.

Values are taken from the budget for P&L accounts. Depreciation & Amortisation accounts are held flat at their most recent level instead. The forecast screen always uses the latest budget values, so if you change a budget, the forecast updates to match when you open it. Reports use the forecast's values as they were when it was last saved. If the budget values have changed since then, a banner tells you so, and you need to save the forecast to update your reports.

Note: an account that appears in the budget but has no actual values will not appear in the forecast.

Start with a default growth rule

Set a percentage Growth Rule - which will set the forecast value for each month, a certain percentage higher than a previous month. You set the Growth Rate (percentage), which defaults to 1%, and the Lookback period, which defaults to 12 months, to define how it behaves. e.g. with percentage set to 1 and Lookback period set to 12, each month, the forecast value will be 1% higher than the same month in the previous year.

Configure with AI

You can describe your forecast rules in words and Joiin AI will interpret this and create the Forecast rules based on this.

Start with a blank forecast

No rules are added to the forecast. All forecast values are zero.

Step 3 - Accounts

Set the account mappings that Joiin uses to generate the forecast. Joiin auto-detects the key Balance Sheet accounts from your chart of accounts. Adjust any if needed — you can also change them later in Edit Forecast.

Once completed, click Next to go to the Payment patterns step.

Step 4 - Payment Patterns

Set when forecast revenue and costs turn into cash. Payment patterns spread amounts into cash over time through Accounts Receivable (for revenue) and Accounts Payable (for costs). Without a pattern, amounts are collected and paid in the same month. This step is optional - you can click Create Forecast without changing anything, and you can change payment patterns later from Payment Patterns in Edit Forecast. See the Payment Patterns section below for how a pattern works.

The payment terms you can choose from are the common payment terms (see Common payment terms below). Each option shows a short description and a small chart of when the cash is collected or paid.

The list only offers the account categories, account types and accounts in this forecast. Depreciation & Amortisation accounts are not offered, because they are non-cash items.

Each item can only be on one row. Items already on another row are greyed out.

You can put an account type on one row and one of its accounts on another, for example Fixed Expense on Same month but Rent on 60 days. The more specific choice wins: an account beats its account type, which beats its account category.

Each selected item becomes its own payment pattern, which you can change later from Payment Patterns in Edit Forecast. This includes changing it to months and percentages other than the common payment terms.

NOTE: Payment patterns only take effect where Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable are mapped. If either is set to None on the Accounts step, a warning is shown on this step. You can still set the payment terms, but they have no effect until you map the account.

Once completed, click the Create Forecast button to create the Forecast - you will be presented with the Main Forecast Screen.

The Main Forecast View

When a forecast is created (or when you open one to edit) you land on the Edit Forecast page. This is where you view and refine your forecast.

Tabs

The forecast is shown across three tabs — Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet and Cashflow — each in standard report layout (layout can be changed - see below). Months run across the columns; account lines are grouped by category (Revenue, Cost of Sales, Expenses, and so on) down the rows.

With this 3-tab view you can quickly see how your Forecast affects the numbers - what your Net Profit is on the P&L, how your Cash balance, asset and liabilities look on your Balance Sheet, and how the month-to-month Cash in-and-out appears on the Cashflow.

Actuals vs forecast

Months up to your last complete actual month are labelled Actual and can't be edited. Forecast months follow on from there. The header shows when actual values were last fetched, with a refresh control to pull the latest actuals through.

Editing Forecast Settings

You can edit the settings of the forecast, such as mapped accounts and layouts, by clicking on the three-dot menu at the top right and selecting Settings - alternatively click on the Edit icon which appears when you hover over the Forecast name at the top left.

The settings that can be edited include those that are set during the Creation process - see above. In addition, the following settings can be edited.

Viewing and Editing Rules and Values

You can view and change the Rules and forecast values directly through the Profit & Loss tab on the Main Forecast screen. There are various ways to do this.

Default Rules

Click on the three-bar Default Rules icon at the top right to see details of all the Forecast rules that are scoped at the Global, Category or Account Type level. Account and individual cell level rules are not shown here - see below.

Each rule is shown, in priority order, with the details of the rule and its scope. See Rules section below for more detail.

You can edit a rule by clicking on the edit icon next to the rule - see below for more information on editing rules.

You can add a new rule by clicking on the Add button.

You can change the priority of a rule, that is within the allowable scope, by clicking on the drag handle next to a rule and dragging it up and down into the position you require.

You can delete a rule by clicking on the delete icon next to the rule.

After making any changes to rules, click on the Apply button to re-generate the forecast. 

Account Name

Click on an Account Name on the left hand side to bring up a side panel which shows the details of that account and the rules that apply to it across the whole forecast.

At the top, the name of the Account and a pictorial representation of how the rules apply will be displayed. In the bottom section a list of each rule that applies to this account will be displayed, in priority order - showing the details of the rule and its scope. See Rules section below for more detail.

You can edit a rule by clicking on the edit icon next to the rule - see below for more information on editing rules.

You can add a new rule by clicking on the Add button.

You can change the priority of a rule, that is within the allowable scope, by clicking on the drag handle next to a rule and dragging it up and down into the position you require.

You can delete a rule by clicking on the delete icon next to the rule.

After making any changes to rules, click on the Apply button to re-generate the forecast. 

Individual Cells

You can edit the rules or values of an individual cell (specific account + month) in several ways.

Cell Detail

Right-click over the cell and click Cell Detail to view the details of the rules that apply to that cell and how the values are calculated. The rules applied will be shown in priority order and the amounts generated from each rule shown so that you can see how the final value is derived. For a Budget Value rule, Cell Detail shows which budget(s) the value came from.

As with Account Name and Default Rules you can add, edit, delete and re-prioritise rules from within this section. You can also directly edit the cell value by clicking on the edit icon next to the main value at the top.

In-Line Editing

You can also edit values directly in the cell by double-clicking on a cell - this will open up that cell and row for editing - enter the values required and tab across to other cells to enter other values - once done hit Return or click on the check icon at the right to save the values and re-generate the forecast.

Cell - Add Rule

You can add a rule directly to a cell by right-clicking on the cell and selecting Add Rule - then select the type of Rule you would like.

This will bring up the rule edit pane, with the Account, Dates and Rule Types pre-selected - from there set the remaining values and click on Add to add the rule. The forecast will be re-generated.

TIP: It may be quicker to add rules using this method - as dates are pre-populated - you can add a rule on one cell then adjust the dates in the rule edit pane to make it apply across multiple months.

Add Rule

You can also add a rule by clicking on the Add Rule (plus) icon at the top right. You can specify any rules details you require and the rule will be applied and forecast re-generated when you click the Add button.

Adding and Editing Payment Patterns

You can add or edit Payment Patterns by clicking on the three-dot menu and selecting Payment Patterns. This brings up a list of all Payment Patterns on the forecast. See Payment Pattern section below for more information.

From here you can add a new Payment Pattern by clicking on the Add Pattern button. 

You can edit an existing pattern by clicking on the Edit icon next to the pattern.

When adding/editing a payment pattern, each Applies to choice can only have one payment pattern. A choice that already has one is greyed out, and hovering over it says so.

When Applies to is Account, you can select more than one account in the Account field. Use the search box to find accounts, or Select all to select every account that does not already have a pattern. The accounts you have selected are listed under the field. When you press Save, Joiin adds a separate payment pattern for each selected account, all with the same cash distribution. Each one shows as its own item in the Payment Patterns list, so you can later edit or delete it without changing the others. When you edit a pattern, the Account field shows only that pattern’s account. 

NOTE: If a pattern’s account is not shown in the forecast (usually because it is in a hidden section), its item shows the account with “(not shown in this forecast)”. When you edit that pattern, choose an account before you can save.

Click on the Apply button to apply the changes and re-generate the forecast.

You can delete a payment pattern by clicking on the Delete icon next to the pattern.

NOTE: If several payment patterns could apply to the same account, only the most specific one is used - an Account pattern beats an Account type pattern, which beats an Account category pattern, which beats “All accounts”. See the Payment Patterns section below for more detail.

Adding and Editing Scheduled Payments

You can add or edit Scheduled Payments by clicking on the three-dot menu at the top right and selecting Scheduled Payments. This brings up a list of all Scheduled Payments on the forecast, which pay down liability accounts such as loans on set dates. See Scheduled Payments section below for more information.

Adding and Editing Taxes

You can add or edit Taxes by clicking on the three-dot menu at the top right and selecting Taxes. This brings up a list of all Taxes on the forecast: GST, VAT or sales tax, payroll withholding and income tax. See Taxes section below for more information.

Filters

You can control how many months worth of actuals you see on the Forecast page by clicking on the Filters icon at the top right and selecting the number of months.

Saving the Forecast

After making any changes to the forecast (rules, values, patterns), to persist that Forecast permanently you must click on the Save Forecast button at the bottom right.

Balance Sheet Cell Info

On the Balance Sheet tab, you cannot edit any values directly but you can see how values are derived by clicking on the individual cells. A pane will open up on the left, showing how that number is derived - what payment patterns may have affected etc.

For an account with a scheduled payment or a tax, the pane shows the opening balance, what was added that month (for example loan interest, a new loan or tax), what was paid, and the closing balance. For a loan it also shows how much is due within 12 months. The Cash pane shows the same amounts from the Cash side.

Refreshing Actuals

When a forecast is generated it bases the forecast numbers on Actual account balances from past months. These actual values are pulled at the time the forecast is generated. In order to prevent forecasts changing unexpectedly, due to actuals changing, the original actuals used for the forecast are retained and a message is displayed showing when the actuals were last fetched.

You can click on the Sync icon to re-fetch the actuals and re-generate the forecast from the actuals. When you do this you have two options.

1. Overwrite the existing forecast with the new actual and forecast values.
2. Save the forecast as a new forecast.

NOTE: This applies to actuals only. Budget values used by Budget Value rules are always read from the latest version of the budget, so changes to a budget appear on the forecast screen without refreshing. Save the forecast to make reports use them.

Downloading to and Uploading from Excel

You can download the P&L Forecast to Excel. This allows you to edit the numbers offline, in Excel. Once done you can upload the spreadsheet back into the Forecast.

The download will use the selected Forecast layout - and include Excel formulas so that totals and Net Profit etc. calculate for you on the fly.

When uploaded, all the values from the spreadsheet file will be used to set values in the Joiin Forecast - therefore any existing Rules that exist on any forecast cells will be overwritten. You will be prompted to confirm that you wish to do this.

The download is the P&L only, so Scheduled Payments and Taxes are not in it. Values uploaded for a loan's interest account, or an income tax's tax expense account, are saved but not used: the loan or the tax sets that account's forecast.

Rules

A rule tells Joiin how to generate the forecast value for a P&L account in a given month. Every forecast month gets its value from a rule - whether that's the default rule you chose when creating the forecast, or a more specific one you've added since.

You can add a rule by clicking on the Add Rule button at the top right of the Forecast - or by clicking on Add Rule when you are viewing rules at the account or cell detail level.

Rule types

There are four types of Rules that can be applied:

Rule Scope

A rule applies at one of several scopes, from broadest to most specific:

• Global — every account
• Category — Revenue, Cost of Sales or Expenses
• Account Type — a group of accounts of the same type, e.g. Fixed Expense
• Account — a single account
• Cell — a single account in a single month

You select the Scope when adding a Rule from the selection at the top - then select the specific item for that scope, e.g. a specific Account or specific Category. If you are adding a rule from viewing an Account or Cell Detail, the scope will be pre-selected.

Where more than one rule could apply to a cell, the most specific scope wins - a cell-level rule beats an account rule, which beats an account type, then category, then global.

Rule Priority

Where two rules sit at the same scope, the priority order decides. When viewing rules you can drag & drop them up and down, within each scope section, to re-prioritise them. You can also set the Priority to a specific number when you add the rule.

Date Range

You can also set the Date Range a rule applies to - select the Month/Year Start and Month/Year End to set the date range for the rule. That rule will then only be applied for that particular period. For example you can override the default regression rule for the summer months and make the values fixed.

Payment Patterns

By default, the forecast assumes every P&L amount turns into cash in the month it is recognised — revenue is collected and costs are paid in the same month they appear on the P&L. In reality there is usually a delay: customers pay 30 or 60 days after invoicing, suppliers are paid on terms. A Payment Pattern tells Joiin how to spread a forecast P&L amount into cash over the following months, so the Balance Sheet and Cashflow reflect when the cash actually moves.

Payment Patterns don't change the P&L at all. They only change the timing of cash, by holding the amount in Accounts Receivable (for revenue) or Accounts Payable (for costs) until it is collected or paid.

How a Payment Pattern works

A Payment Pattern is a set of rows, each with a number of months after recognition and a percentage, adding up to 100%. 0 is the month the amount is recognised on the P&L (same-month cash); 1 is the month after, and so on.

For example, a pattern of 60% same month, 30% +1 month, 10% +2 months applied to revenue means that of £10,000 forecast revenue in March:

- £6,000 is collected into Cash in March

- £3,000 is collected in April

- £1,000 is collected in May

In the meantime the uncollected portion sits in Accounts Receivable — £4,000 at the end of March, £1,000 at the end of April, £0 at the end of May. The same applies to costs, with the unpaid portion sitting in Accounts Payable.

Which pattern applies is decided at the month the amount is recognised, and that pattern governs the whole spread for that month's amount - if you later change the pattern, it only affects amounts recognised from then on.

Where the cash goes

Payment Patterns route through the accounts you set in the Accounts step (or in Edit Forecast):

NOTE: Payment Patterns only take effect where the relevant account is mapped. If no Accounts Receivable account is mapped, revenue is always treated as same-month cash regardless of any pattern, and likewise for Accounts Payable and costs.

NOTE: Depreciation & Amortisation accounts are never routed through a Payment Pattern - they are non-cash items and are written down against the mapped accumulated depreciation account instead (see Step 3 - Accounts).

Pattern settings

Where more than one pattern could apply to an account, the most specific scope wins - an Account pattern beats an Account type pattern, which beats an Account category pattern, which beats an All accounts pattern. An account with no matching pattern is collected or paid in the same month.

TIP: You only need patterns for accounts that aren’t paid in the same month - for example, a Revenue pattern collecting over 30/60 days. An All accounts or Expenses pattern also applies to wages. To delay supplier payments but keep payroll costs paid in the same month, add an Expenses pattern for the delay, then add an Account pattern with Same month and select all your payroll accounts at once - for example Wages, Superannuation and Payroll Tax.

Common payment terms

You don’t have to enter the rows by hand. In the Add/Edit Payment Pattern dialog, select one of the common payment terms from the Common payment terms dropdown, and Joiin fills the Cash distribution rows for you. You can still change the rows after that.

The forecast works in whole months, so terms such as “20th of the following month” or “30 days end of month” are one month later - use 30 days.

The dropdown always shows which common payment term the rows hold. If you change the rows so they match none of them, it shows Custom. If you change them back, it shows the common payment term again. The order of the rows does not matter.

Selecting a common payment term replaces the rows. If the rows are Custom (months and percentages you entered yourself), Joiin asks first. Click Replace to replace them, or Cancel to keep them. Moving from one common payment term to another does not ask.

A pattern made from a common payment term works exactly like one entered by hand.

Opening receivables and payables

Payment Patterns govern amounts recognised in forecast months. The balances already sitting in Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable at the last actual month are handled separately by the Collect/pay opening AR & AP over (months) setting (see Step 3 - Accounts). That opening balance is moved into Cash in equal monthly slices over the number of months you set, defaulting to 1 - so with the default, all opening receivables are collected and all opening payables are paid in the first forecast month.

Seeing the effect

• On the Balance Sheet tab, click a forecast-month cell in the Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable or Cash account to open the cell info pane. This shows the opening balance, what was recognised, what was collected or paid, the opening-balance drawdown and the closing balance for that month, along with the Payment Patterns that were applied.
• On the Cashflow tab, the movements in Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable appear in the Operating section, exactly as they do on the Indirect Cashflow report.

NOTE: Amounts scheduled to be collected or paid after the end of the forecast are never collected within the forecast - they remain in Accounts Receivable or Accounts Payable at the final month. Extend the forecast duration if you need to see them land.

Scheduled Payments

NOTE: Scheduled Payments are a new feature that will be released soon.

Some liability accounts are paid down on set dates and never pass through the Profit & Loss, for example a loan, a hire purchase agreement or a tax owed at the start of the forecast. Scheduled Payments pays these accounts down in the forecast months. Each payment lowers the account's balance and Cash by the same amount, so the Balance Sheet shows what is still owed and the Cashflow shows when it is paid.

A liability account with no scheduled payment carries its last actual balance forward through the forecast.

There are three types of scheduled payment:

Adding a scheduled payment

1. In Edit Forecast, click the 3-dots menu and choose Scheduled Payments. The Scheduled Payments list opens.
2. Click Add and choose Payment, Loan repayment or Pay the balance.
3. Fill in the settings (see below) and click Save. The payment is added to the Scheduled Payments list.
4. Add any other payments, then click Apply. The forecast is worked out again with the payments.
5. Click Save on the forecast to keep the payments.

To change or remove a scheduled payment, use Edit or Delete on its item in the Scheduled Payments list, then Apply.

Settings for every type of scheduled payment

Every type of scheduled payment has these settings. The settings that only apply to one type are described under that type below.

An account can have several payments, and they add up. An account can only have one loan repayment or one pay the balance, not both. An account that has a tax on it is paid by the tax, so a loan repayment or pay the balance can't be added to it, but a payment can, for example a tax instalment.

NOTE: The forecast can only use accounts that are in the actuals. To pay down a new account, for example a new loan, add the account in your accounting system, post to it, then refresh the actuals.

Payment

A payment pays a set amount off the account. Each payment lowers the account's balance and Cash by the same amount.

Payments continue until the Month end, even if the account's balance goes below 0. Set the Month end to the month of the last payment.

Loan repayment

A loan repayment repays a loan with interest. Each month, interest is added to the loan and charged to the interest account on the Profit & Loss. Each repayment pays the interest first, and the rest lowers the loan.

Example

A loan of 100,000 at 6% with a Repayment of 2,000, Monthly.

Month 1

Interest is 100,000 x 6% / 12 = 500. The repayment pays the 500 interest and 1,500 off the loan, so the loan is 98,500.

Month 2

Interest is 98,500 x 6% / 12 = 492.50, so the loan is 98,500 + 492.50 - 2,000 = 96,992.50.

Each month the Profit & Loss shows the interest on the interest account, and Cash goes down by 2,000.

For a loan with only interest to pay, enter a Repayment equal to the monthly interest and put the loan amount in Balloon payment.

Pay the balance

Pay the balance pays what the account owes at the end of each period, on its due date, instead of an amount you enter. Use it for an account whose balance is paid in full, for example a VAT or PAYE balance owed at the start of the forecast. Cash goes down by the amount paid in the month it's paid.

Pay the balance uses the same settings as the Payment of a tax: Fill in from, How often, A period ends in, Months after the period ends that it is paid, and under More settings, Paid later for one period and When the balance is negative. See Payment under Taxes.

Fill in from starts at the first preset for the forecast's country, for example UK - VAT, quarterly. Choose another preset, or change the settings to match how the account is paid.

The balance at the start of the forecast is paid on the due date of the period it belongs to. If the forecast starts part way through a period, it's paid after that period ends.

If the account also has a payment, for example an instalment, the payment pays the oldest amount owed first, so nothing is paid twice.

To work out a tax on the forecast as well as pay its balance, add a tax instead (see Taxes). A tax pays its account's balance itself.

When a scheduled payment is not applied

A scheduled payment that can't be used is kept, but left out of the forecast. Its item in the Scheduled Payments list shows the reason next to the account. An orange warning icon also shows on the Balance Sheet and Cashflow tabs. Click it to see "Some scheduled payments are not applied" and each account with its reason.

When you edit a payment whose account can't be used, the dialog names the account and asks you to choose another before you can save.

Taxes

NOTE: Taxes are a new feature that will be released soon.

Businesses collect and pay several types of tax that never appear as income or costs on the Profit & Loss. They are held in a liability account on the Balance Sheet until they are paid to the tax office:

• Tax on sales and purchases (GST, VAT or US sales tax). The Profit & Loss shows sales and purchases net of tax, but customers pay, and suppliers are paid, the gross amount including tax. The tax collected on sales builds up in the tax account. Where the tax on purchases can be claimed back, as with GST and VAT, it is taken off. The balance is paid with each return, for example the quarterly BAS or VAT return.
• Payroll withholding (PAYG withholding, PAYE and NI, super or pension). Part of the payroll cost isn't paid to employees with the wages. It is held in the tax account and paid on its due date.
• Income tax (company tax, corporation tax). This is charged on profit before tax and paid after the financial year ends.

Taxes works these out for each forecast month. For each tax you choose the tax account, the rate, which sales or purchase accounts are taxed and when the tax is paid. Joiin adds the tax for each month to the tax account and pays the balance off on its due dates, so the Balance Sheet shows what is owed and the Cashflow shows when it is paid.

A tax account with no tax set up carries its last actual balance forward through the forecast.

To add a tax, open Edit Forecast, select Taxes from the 3-dots menu, click Add and choose the type of tax:

Adding a tax

1. In Edit Forecast, click the 3-dots menu and choose Taxes. The Taxes list opens.
2. Click Add and choose GST, VAT or sales tax, Payroll withholding or Income tax.
3. Fill in the settings (see below) and click Save. The tax is added to the Taxes list.
4. Add any other taxes, then click Apply. The forecast is worked out again with the taxes.
5. Click Save on the forecast to keep the taxes.

To change or remove a tax, use Edit or Delete on its item in the Taxes list, then Apply.

Settings for every tax

Every type of tax has these settings. The settings that only apply to one type are described under that type below.

NOTE: If a loan or a Pay the balance scheduled payment is already on the tax account, the dialog says so. Once the tax is applied, the tax pays the balance, and that scheduled payment is left out.

Payment

The Payment settings say when the tax account's balance is paid to the tax office. At the end of each period, Joiin takes the tax account's balance and pays it on the due date. Cash falls by that amount in the month it's paid.

Settings for GST, VAT or sales tax

As well as the settings for every tax, a GST, VAT or sales tax has these settings.

Each account has one rate. Leave an account blank, or enter 0, if it has no tax, for example wages, bank fees or insurance. If only part of an account has tax, enter a lower rate that gives the right amount of tax, for example 10% on an account where half the sales have 20% VAT.

Starting rates

Each account starts at the main rate, so clear the accounts that have no tax. For a company that syncs journals from its accounting system, each account instead starts at the rate its journals show over the last 12 months of actuals: the tax on its journal lines, divided by its net amount. So an account with no tax in the books, such as wages, starts at 0, and an account with a reduced rate starts at that rate. An account with no net amount in those 12 months starts at the main rate. Check the rates before you Apply, because a few unusual transactions can give an account an unusual rate.

Settings for Payroll withholding

As well as the settings for every tax, a payroll withholding has one more setting.

Each month, the part entered is added to the tax account instead of being paid with the account's other costs. The rest is paid as set in Payment Patterns. The Profit & Loss does not change: only when the cash is paid moves.

Use a separate payroll withholding for each amount paid to a different place or on different dates, for example one for PAYE and one for the workplace pension. The parts entered for one account across all the payroll withholdings in the same months cannot add up to more than 100%.

Settings for Income tax

As well as the settings for every tax, an income tax has these settings.

How the tax is worked out

Each month the tax is the rate on the profit before tax of the financial year to date, less the tax already charged this year. The financial year to date includes the actual months of the year before the forecast starts. So if the forecast starts part way through a year, the first forecast month includes the tax on the profit of the actual months, less the tax already booked in them. This can make the first month's charge large.

Profit before tax is all income less all costs, leaving out the tax expense account and any other Tax Expense account. A loss lowers the tax of the year, and a loss for a whole year carries forward to lower the tax of the next years. Interest on a loan in Scheduled Payments is a cost, so it lowers the tax.

NOTE: Income tax needs every company in the forecast to have the same financial year. In a group with different financial years, the income tax is not applied.

Changing a tax from a month

To change a tax part way through the forecast, for example when a rate goes up or the tax moves from quarterly to monthly payments, use Change from a month on the tax in the Taxes list.

This opens the tax's settings with the start set to a later month. Choose the month the change starts, and change the rate, accounts or payment. The tax account cannot be changed. When you save, the change is added to the Taxes list as its own item, and the earlier tax ends the month before. The earlier months keep their settings.

To undo a change, delete the later item and set the earlier tax's Month end and Year end back.

One account for several taxes

Taxes of different types can share one tax account, for example when GST and PAYG withholding are both held on one BAS account in Australia. Add each tax with the same tax account. They are added to the account together and paid together on the same dates.

When you save a tax on an account that another tax of a different type uses in the same months, the dialog shows "Paid together with ..." and the Payment settings of the tax you save are used for both in those months.

Two taxes of the same type cannot be on one account in the same months, for example two VAT taxes. Use one tax with a rate for each account instead, or Change from a month to change it part way through.

If a tax cannot be used, its item in the Taxes list shows the reason, for example "another tax of the same type on this account covers some of the same months".

Group forecasts

In a forecast with more than one company, the taxes are worked out on the forecast totals, not company by company. So a refund due to one company is set against the tax another company owes, and a loss in one company lowers the income tax of another. When this applies, a warning icon shows on the Balance Sheet and Cashflow tabs. Click it to see the details.

The starting name and rates come from the companies' country when they are all in the same country. If the companies are in different countries, the tax starts as VAT with no rate, so enter the name and rate that apply.

For income tax in a group with different financial years, see the NOTE under Income tax.

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