13-week cash flow

How it works

1. 1 Put in what's in the bank today and a usual week of sales. Card fees come off, and GST/HST you collect is held to one side, because it isn't yours to spend.
2. 2 Add the bills you know about: rent, wages, suppliers, the loan. Say how often each one comes, and CRA's dates for GST/HST, payroll and instalments go in for you.
3. 3 See the lowest week before it comes, try a slow stretch or a big buy, and print the 13 weeks with a row for what's really in the bank each week.

Free, with no account. The forecast, the dates and every download are worked out in your browser: your bank balance and money figures are never sent to us. Remember is off unless you turn it on, and then keeps your plan on this device only, so next week it can roll forward from what really happened.

Good to know

Why 13 weeks?

It's a quarter: long enough to see a GST/HST payment, a slow month and a big supplier bill coming, short enough that you can guess the numbers with some confidence. Week by week matters because a month can look fine in total and still have a week where rent and payroll land before the sales do. The BDC guide to managing cash flow has more on keeping one.

Why is GST/HST held to one side?

The GST/HST in your sales is collected for CRA. Less what you paid on your own purchases, it goes to them when your return is due, which can be months later. Until then it sits in your bank looking like yours. The chart hatches it so a good-looking balance doesn't hide a payment that's coming.

When is GST/HST due?

Monthly and quarterly filers pay a month after each period ends. Annual filers generally pay three months after the year ends; a sole proprietor with a December year-end pays by April 30 and files by June 15. If you owed $3,000 or more for the year, CRA may ask for quarterly instalments (verify). See CRA on filing and payment deadlines and who pays by instalments.

Do I have to register?

Generally once your taxable sales pass $30,000 over four calendar quarters in a row, or in one quarter (verify). Below that you're a small supplier and can choose. See CRA on when to register.

Payroll deductions

The tax, CPP and EI you take off wages, plus your share of CPP and EI, go to CRA separately from the wages. Most small employers send them by the 15th of the next month (verify; larger employers send them more often). See CRA on payroll due dates.

Income tax instalments

Sole proprietors who get an instalment reminder pay on March 15, June 15, September 15 and December 15. Corporations generally pay on the last day of each month, or each quarter for some small Canadian-controlled private corporations (verify). See CRA's instalment due dates for individuals and the corporation instalment guide.

What if a week comes out short?

Seeing it weeks ahead is the point: there's time to move a supplier payment, ask a regular customer to pay an invoice early, hold off a purchase or talk to your bank before you need to. The tool lists the moves that would lift the lowest week, and what each would leave you with.

Keeping it honest

A forecast drifts. Each week, write what's really in the bank in the last row, and with Remember on the tool asks for it and starts the next 13 weeks from there. Planning, payroll and tax dates for the year are on CRA's 2026 deadlines for businesses.

Guidance, not legal or financial advice.