Liquidity and the 13-week cash flow
By SuperdayReps · Wharton MBA · ex-Greenhill · investment banking interview coaching
6 min read · updated October 7, 2026
A healthy company plans in quarters and years. A distressed one plans in weeks, because the question is no longer whether it will be profitable next year but whether it can make payroll the Friday after next. The tool for that question is the 13-week cash flow, and in a restructuring almost everything else depends on it.
What it is
A 13-week cash flow is a week-by-week forecast of the cash a company will receive and pay out over the next quarter. Two things make it different from the models you build elsewhere.
It is built from actual cash, not accounting profit. It starts from the real bank balance and lists the receipts and payments themselves (the "direct method"), rather than starting from net income and adjusting for non-cash items the way a cash flow statement does.
It runs in weeks. A company can be fine for the quarter on average and still run out of cash in week five, because payroll, rent and interest fall on particular days. A monthly model hides that; a weekly one shows it.
The question it answers is narrow and urgent: when would cash fall below the minimum the business needs, and how much money is needed to get past that point?
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Frequently asked
- What is a 13-week cash flow?
- A week-by-week forecast of the cash a company will receive and pay out over the next 13 weeks, built directly from receipts and disbursements rather than from net income. It shows when cash would fall below the minimum the business needs, and so how much funding it needs and when. Lenders, especially DIP lenders, require one before they will lend to a distressed company.
- How is a 13-week cash flow different from a three-statement model?
- A three-statement model works on accrual accounting, starts from net income and runs in months or years. A 13-week cash flow tracks actual cash, week by week, from receipts and disbursements, starting from the real bank balance. It answers a narrower question: will the company run out of cash in the next quarter, and when.
- What is a variance report?
- A weekly comparison of the cash the company actually received and spent against what the 13-week forecast said it would. In Chapter 11 the forecast becomes the DIP budget, and the loan usually caps how far actual spending can run over it, so the variance report is how the lenders police the budget.
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