Best Cash Flow Forecasting Tools for UK Bookkeepers (2026)

Cash flow is the number one reason small businesses fail in the UK. According to HMRC data, nearly half of new businesses that close within five years cite cash flow problems as a primary factor — not poor product, not bad marketing. Late payments from clients, seasonal dips in income, unexpected VAT bills, and uneven payroll timing can all turn a profitable business on paper into an insolvent one in practice.

For UK bookkeepers and sole practitioners, this creates a genuine advisory opportunity. Clients who receive regular cash flow forecasts from their bookkeeper are far less likely to be caught short — and they are far more likely to stay loyal and pay for additional services. Research consistently shows that bookkeepers offering cash flow advisory charge 30 to 50 per cent more per client than those who only handle the compliance work.

The question is which tool to use. In 2026, the market splits into two distinct camps: dedicated forecasting add-ons (Float, Futrli, Fathom) that sit alongside your accounting software, and built-in forecasting features bundled with the accounting platforms themselves (Xero, QuickBooks Online). This guide covers both, with current UK pricing, honest limitations, and a clear framework for choosing.

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TL;DR

• Best dedicated tool for bookkeeping practices: Futrli (£37/mo per client, Sage-owned, 3-way forecasting included)
• Best for growing businesses needing a rolling 13-week view: Float (£99/mo, unlimited users, Xero/QBO only)
• Best built-in option (Xero users): Xero's Cash Flow Manager — free with every plan, up to 180-day forecasts
• Best built-in option (QuickBooks users): QBO Cash Flow Planner — free, 24-month view, good for basic planning

Comparison: Cash Flow Forecasting Tools for UK Bookkeepers 2026

Prices exclude VAT. Float and Futrli annual billing reduces prices by approximately 20%. Sources: vendor pricing pages, checked October 2026.

Float: Best for Growing Businesses and Finance Teams

Float is the UK-built cash flow forecasting tool that most CFOs and finance directors on Xero or QuickBooks will encounter first. Founded in 2012 and certified to Cyber Essentials (the UK government-backed security standard), it has been processing over 170 million transactions a year and serves more than 8,000 finance teams globally.

The core proposition is a rolling 13-week cash flow forecast built automatically from your connected accounting data, combined with monthly projections extending out to one or three years depending on your plan. Unlike spreadsheet-based forecasting, Float updates automatically when your accounting data changes — there is no manual import step.

What Float costs

Float prices by company size, not by user count. All plans include unlimited users, which suits practices where multiple team members need to review the same forecast.

• Essentials — £99/mo (monthly) or £79/mo (annual): companies below £2m annual revenue, single entity. 13-week view plus monthly forecasts to 12 months. 8 scenarios. Optional guided onboarding at £99 one-off.
• Growth — £199/mo (monthly) or £159/mo (annual): companies above £2m revenue, single entity. As Essentials but extends monthly forecasts to 36 months. Onboarding included.
• Scale — £295/mo (monthly) or £235/mo (annual): up to 5 entities in a multi-entity consolidation. Each additional entity beyond five costs £59/mo (monthly) or £47/mo (annual).

All prices exclude VAT. A 14-day free trial is available with no credit card required. Float also offers a 30-day money-back window on annual plans. Source: floatapp.com/pricing, checked October 2026.

One critical limitation: Float only integrates with Xero and QuickBooks Online. There is no Sage connection (though a Sage Intacct integration is on the roadmap). If a client uses Sage, Float is not currently an option.

Key features

• Automated 13-week rolling forecast from live accounting data
• Monthly forecasts to 12 or 36 months depending on plan
• Scenario planning with up to 8 saved scenarios
• Multi-entity consolidation with currency conversion (Scale plan)
• Role-based permissions (Admin, Editor, Viewer)
• Two-factor authentication mandatory for Xero users
• Shareable reports for board packs and bank presentations

Best for

Businesses above £500k annual turnover that are managing their own finances, or bookkeepers offering an outsourced finance function to a small number of high-value clients. Not designed as a multi-client advisory platform — if you have 20 bookkeeping clients all needing forecasts, the per-entity model gets expensive quickly.

Limitations

• No Sage integration (significant for UK practices with Sage clients)
• Essentials plan capped at 12-month forecasts — Growth plan needed for 3-year view
• Pricing is per-business, not per-practice, so costs scale with client count
• No 3-way forecasting (P&L and Balance Sheet are not integrated into the cash flow model)

Futrli: Best for Advisory Bookkeeping Practices

Futrli is the tool most used by UK bookkeepers who have gone beyond compliance and into advisory services. Acquired by Sage in 2022, it now sits inside the Sage ecosystem but remains available as a standalone subscription for practices using Xero, Xero Ignite, QuickBooks, and other platforms.

Where Float focuses on cash flow visibility for a single business, Futrli is built for the advisory model: a practice managing multiple client entities, producing professional reports, and presenting three-way financial projections (P&L, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow together). The "traffic light" confidence scoring system lets bookkeepers present forecasts to clients who have no financial background, with colour-coded signals that make the data immediately actionable.

What Futrli costs

Futrli prices by number of client licences. The accountant/bookkeeper tier (which most practices use) is priced per client entity:

• Single (1-5 clients) — £37/client/mo (billed monthly, excl. VAT). Starts from 1 licence.
• Starter (6-18 clients) — £258/mo for the tier (excl. VAT), covering up to 18 clients. Additional clients at £35/licence/mo.
• Professional (19-33 clients) — £493/mo (excl. VAT). Additional clients at per-licence rate.
• Enterprise (34+ clients) — £672/mo (excl. VAT). Additional clients from £11/licence/mo.

All plans include unlimited users, daily cash flow forecasting, 3-way forecasting, bespoke reporting, budgets and scenario modelling, free webinars, and 24/7 support. A 14-day free trial is available without a credit card. Source: futrli.com/pricing, checked October 2026.

The Starter tier works out at roughly £14–£43/client/mo depending on how many licences you fill — far cheaper per client than Float for a practice with ten or more advisory clients.

Key features

• Full 3-way forecasting: P&L, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow linked together
• Daily cash flow view with traffic light confidence scores
• Scenario modelling and budget vs. actual tracking
• 3-year forecast horizon on all plans
• 60+ report templates including board packs and investor presentations
• Payroll planning templates
• Automatic VAT and GST payment calculations
• Drag-and-drop report builder

Best for

Bookkeepers running 6 or more advisory clients who want a dedicated forecasting platform with proper reporting. The traffic light system and professional report templates make client meetings significantly faster — a bookkeeper with 12 advisory clients can generate a forecast pack in minutes rather than hours. If you are building an advisory service as a revenue stream alongside your compliance work, Futrli is the tool that most UK bookkeeping practices in this position use.

Limitations

• Pricing jumps significantly at the Starter tier boundary (1-5 clients at £37 each vs. Starter flat rate)
• Sage ownership raises questions about long-term Xero integration prioritisation
• Can feel feature-heavy for clients who only want a simple cash position update
• The interface has a learning curve; plan time for client onboarding

Fathom: Best for Reporting-Led Advisory

Fathom takes a broader approach than pure cash flow forecasting. Owned by Access Group since 2022, it combines financial reporting, KPI tracking, and forecasting in one platform — making it the tool of choice for bookkeepers who want to present comprehensive performance dashboards alongside cash projections.

The cash flow forecasting in Fathom uses a 3-way model and integrates with Xero, QuickBooks, and MYOB. It is particularly strong for the "board pack" use case: professional, white-labelled reports that bookkeepers can send to business owner clients monthly, covering performance, forecasts, and benchmarks in a single document.

Fathom restructured its pricing in August 2026 from a practice-level flat fee to a per-company-file model (billed in AUD, from approximately A$59 per company per month, with discounts for volume). This makes it less predictable for larger practices than the previous structure. For current UK pricing, see the full Fathom review on this site.

Best for

Bookkeepers who lead with reporting rather than pure forecasting — where the cash flow view is one module inside a broader client performance pack. Also suitable for practices that have MYOB clients, since Float and Futrli have weaker MYOB integration.

Limitations

• AUD-based pricing makes it harder to budget precisely for UK practices
• Per-company pricing can add up quickly for high-volume practices
• Less focused on short-term cash management than Float or Futrli

Xero Cash Flow Manager: Best Built-In Option for Xero Users

For clients on any Xero plan — from Ignite at £18/mo to Ultimate at £70/mo — the built-in cash flow manager is free and available immediately. It is not a replacement for a dedicated forecasting tool, but for many smaller clients it is entirely sufficient.

The Xero cash flow manager shows your expected bank balance over the next 7, 30, 60, 90, or 180 days, based on invoices due, bills to pay, and recurring transactions pulled from connected bank accounts. You can manually add one-off events (a large expected payment, a planned purchase) without affecting the actual books, which allows for basic scenario planning.

Xero Analytics Plus, available on Comprehensive (£55/mo) and Ultimate (£70/mo) plans, adds more sophisticated reporting and deeper data analysis. However, the cash flow forecasting feature itself — the 180-day view with drill-down into invoices and bills — is available on all Xero plans.

For practices managing clients on Xero Ignite or Xero Grow, pointing clients to the built-in cash flow manager is a zero-cost way to introduce them to financial planning before upgrading to a dedicated tool. If a client is looking at invoice finance or a business loan, the Xero cash flow view can also be exported and presented to lenders.

Key features

• Forecast horizon: 7, 30, 60, 90, or 180 days
• Real-time balance from connected bank accounts
• Drill-down into individual invoices due and bills to pay
• Add expected payment dates to overdue invoices for accuracy
• Scenario planning: manually add or remove events
• Weekly or daily breakdown view
• Collaborative — bookkeeper and client can both view

Best for

Clients on any Xero plan who want a simple, real-time view of their next 1 to 6 months. Particularly useful for sole traders and micro-businesses where VAT quarters and payroll timing are the main cash flow events. A bookkeeper using Dext alongside Xero to keep the accounts clean will find the cash flow manager is substantially more accurate because the transaction data is categorised correctly and current.

Limitations

• No 3-way forecasting — it is cash only, not P&L or Balance Sheet
• Limited to 180 days — not suitable for annual budget planning
• Accuracy depends entirely on invoices and bills being raised correctly in Xero
• No scenario comparison — you can only model one version of events at a time

QuickBooks Cash Flow Planner: Best Built-In Option for QBO Users

QuickBooks Online's Cash Flow Planner is included in all UK plans at no extra cost. It uses historical bank account transaction data to predict future recurring income and expenses, and extends up to 24 months — considerably further than Xero's 180-day limit.

The interface is built around a timeline view with selectable windows (1, 3, 6, 12, or 24 months). You can add manual "events" — projected future income or expenses — without these touching the actual books. QuickBooks also uses a machine learning model to predict when customers are likely to pay outstanding invoices, based on invoice amount, whether it was viewed and sent, and historical payment behaviour.

This ML-powered payment prediction is one area where QBO's built-in tool is genuinely ahead of Xero's. For a sole trader with a handful of regular clients, a planner that says "this client typically pays 12 days late" has real practical value.

After QuickBooks' significant UK price increases in 2026, the Cash Flow Planner is now one of the stronger arguments for staying on QBO rather than switching — it is a better built-in forecasting tool than most sole traders realise.

Key features

• Forecast horizon: 1, 3, 6, 12, or 24-month views
• ML-based invoice payment prediction
• Connects all bank accounts for consolidated view
• Manual event addition without affecting books
• Cash Flow Overview dashboard with overdue invoices and bills
• Available on iOS and web

Limitations

• No credit card transaction data included in the forecast
• No multicurrency support — not available on multicurrency-enabled files
• Manually entered transactions (not bank-feed imported) are excluded
• No 3-way forecasting
• Less useful for complex businesses with multiple revenue streams

A Note on Fluidly

Fluidly, once one of the better-known UK cash flow tools for bookkeepers, was acquired by OakNorth Bank in December 2021 and shut down permanently in April 2023. If you have seen it recommended in older articles or comparison guides, it is no longer available. The market has since consolidated further, with Sage acquiring Futrli and Access Group buying Fathom.

Decision Framework: Do You Need a Dedicated Tool?

Before paying for a dedicated forecasting tool, it is worth being clear about what you are trying to achieve. The built-in tools in Xero and QuickBooks are genuinely good for a significant proportion of bookkeeping clients — the question is where they fall short.

A dedicated tool like Float or Futrli makes sense when:

• A client needs a 3-way forecast (P&L, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow linked) — for a funding application, investor presentation, or annual budget process
• You are running multiple scenarios (hiring a new member of staff, taking out a loan, opening a second location)
• The client's business is complex enough that the basic invoice-and-bill view misses significant cash flow events (project billing, stock purchasing cycles, seasonal swings)
• You want to package forecasting as a paid advisory service with professional reporting
• A client needs more than 6 months of forward visibility

The built-in Xero or QBO planner is sufficient when:

• The client is a small sole trader with simple, predictable cash flows
• They just want to know "will I have enough to cover VAT in January?"
• No external reporting (investors, banks) is required
• Budget is a constraint — the extra monthly cost of a dedicated tool cannot be justified

The best practice management platforms for UK bookkeepers are increasingly packaging cash flow advisory as a default service rather than an add-on, which makes the business case for tools like Futrli clearer — the monthly subscription is recovered in a single advisory fee uplift.

Which Tool Should You Choose?

Here is a practical breakdown by scenario:

You have 1-5 bookkeeping clients who want cash flow oversight
Start with the built-in Xero or QBO tools. They are free, take minutes to set up, and for straightforward businesses they do the job. Add Futrli's Single plan (£37/mo per client) when a client needs a 3-way forecast or professional reporting.

You have 6-15 advisory clients and want to build a recurring forecasting service
Futrli's Starter plan at £258/mo for up to 18 clients works out at under £15 per client per month on a full tier. This is the most cost-effective option for a practice in this size range, with professional reporting and 3-way forecasting included. Pair with Dext to keep client data clean and current — the quality of the forecast depends directly on the quality of the underlying data.

You work with one or two businesses of £1m+ turnover where cash is actively managed
Float at £99/mo (Essentials) or £199/mo (Growth) is designed for this. The 13-week rolling view is what a finance director actually monitors. Limitation: Xero or QuickBooks is required.

You want to lead with reporting and add forecasting to a management pack
Fathom is the right fit. It is more reporting tool than pure forecasting tool, but the combination of KPI dashboards, 3-way forecasts, and professional templates makes it the platform most suited to a monthly "board pack for SMEs" service. See the full Fathom review for current pricing detail.

Your clients are on QuickBooks and not ready to pay for additional software
Walk them through the QBO Cash Flow Planner in a 30-minute session and set it up properly with connected bank feeds. The 24-month view and invoice payment prediction are more useful than most sole traders realise. The complete AI bookkeeping stack article covers how to layer tools for maximum value at minimum cost.

You have clients on Sage
Futrli is the only dedicated tool in this comparison with a Sage integration. Float does not currently support Sage. If your practice is primarily Sage-based, Futrli is the default choice for dedicated forecasting.

Recommended Workflow: Cash Flow Advisory for a 10-Client Practice

Sarah runs a 10-client sole practitioner practice in Leeds. She handles MTD VAT returns, annual accounts, and self-assessment for most clients — but three of them are growing businesses that she wants to move onto a paid advisory retainer.

Her current stack: Dext for receipt capture (connected to Xero for all clients), Xero as the accounting platform for eight clients, and QuickBooks for two.

For the three advisory clients, she takes out Futrli's Single plan at £37/mo each. In the first month, she builds 3-way forecast templates for each business, connects them to the live Xero data, and schedules a monthly 45-minute video call using the Futrli dashboard. She charges each advisory client £150/mo extra for the forecasting service — a net margin of £113/mo per client after Futrli's cost. Over 12 months, that is £4,068 in additional revenue from three clients, for roughly four hours of work per month.

For the remaining seven compliance-only clients, she points them to the Xero cash flow manager after their quarterly VAT return calls — a value-add that costs nothing and builds goodwill.

When two of her compliance clients grow to the point where they need funding conversations with banks, she upgrades them to advisory retainers and adds them to Futrli — at which point she is on the Starter plan at £258/mo for up to 18 clients, working out at under £14 per client if she fills the tier.

Related Reading

• Fathom Review 2026: The AI Financial Reporting Tool UK Bookkeepers Are Adding to Their Xero Stack
• Best Practice Management Software for UK Bookkeepers (2026)
• The Complete AI Bookkeeping Stack for UK Sole Traders (Under £60/Month)
• Best Accounting Software for UK Sole Traders (2026)

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