Assume you are thinking about starting a business and would like to forecast your cash needs for the next six months. You expect sales to be approximately $30,000 per month for the first 12 months and your purchases to support sales will be approximately 60% of sales. You anticipate about 20% of your sales will be cash and 80% collected the following month. Your supplier has agreed to extend credit for 70 days at no cost (i.e. you will pay your bills on a two month lag). Your monthly expenses for rent, wages, utilities, and so forth will be approximately $3,500 per month. You have deposited $15,000 in a checking account to begin your operations and would like to maintain a minimum balance of $5,000 in that account.

Create a simple monthly cash budget. spreadsheet file that contains a simple monthly cash budget for the next year for the business described in the above scenario.

Explain the purpose of creating budgets.

Will you need additional funds at some point? Justify your answer.