AI Cash Flow Forecaster
See your cash position weeks ahead, with scenarios and early warnings.
- Project range
- $6,000–13,000
- AWS running cost
- $50–240/mo
- Time to deploy
- 3–5 weeks
- Best-fit industries
- Construction, Retail
Executive summary
A forecasting tool that projects your cash position weeks and months ahead by combining receivables, payables, payroll, and seasonal patterns. It flags projected shortfalls early, models what-if scenarios (a delayed customer, a big hire, a new loan), and gives owners the confidence to invest or the warning to act — replacing a nervous glance at the bank balance.
Business problem
Most small businesses run on the current bank balance and a mental model of what's coming. Receivables slip, seasonal dips surprise, and a single late payment can trigger a crunch. There's no forward view to plan hiring, purchases, or financing with confidence.
Architecture
AWS services
Amazon EventBridge
Messaging- — Schedule data syncs and forecast runs
- — Trigger shortfall alerts
AWS Lambda
Compute- — Run forecasting and scenario logic
- — Assemble projections and narratives
Amazon S3
Storage- — Financial history and model inputs
- — Retention lifecycle
Forecast model
Compute- — Project cash from AR, AP, payroll, and seasonality
- — Confidence ranges per period
Amazon Bedrock
AI / ML- — Generate plain-language narrative and drivers
- — Model what-if scenarios on request
Amazon DynamoDB
Database- — Projections, scenarios, and assumptions
Amazon QuickSight
Observability- — Cash-position and scenario dashboards
Amazon SNS
Messaging- — Alert owners to projected shortfalls
Amazon CloudWatch
Observability- — Logs, metrics, and cost alarms
Data flow
- 1
On a schedule, EventBridge syncs accounting, bank, and payroll data into S3.
- 2
The forecast model projects cash by period from receivables, payables, payroll, and seasonal patterns.
- 3
Bedrock writes a plain-language narrative of drivers and runs what-if scenarios on request.
- 4
Projections and assumptions are stored in DynamoDB and visualized in QuickSight.
- 5
SNS alerts the owner when a shortfall is projected, with enough lead time to act.
Security considerations
- Financial data encrypted at rest and in transit; access-controlled.
- Read-only connections to accounting and banking by default.
- Least-privilege IAM; credentials in Secrets Manager.
- Assumptions and scenarios are transparent and auditable.
Cost considerations
- Bedrock narrative and scenario generation is the main variable cost.
- Scheduled batch runs keep compute low and predictable.
- S3, DynamoDB, and EventBridge are inexpensive at rest.
Scalability
- Serverless throughout; scales across entities and accounts.
- New data sources attach as read-only adapters.
- Forecast horizon and scenario templates are configurable.
Deployment roadmap
Phase 1 — Connect & baseline
Week 1- — Connect accounting, bank, and payroll data
- — Provision AWS foundation and establish a baseline forecast
Phase 2 — Build & validate
Weeks 2–4- — Build forecast model and scenarios
- — Validate against recent actuals
Phase 3 — Dashboards & alerts
Week 5- — Stand up dashboards and shortfall alerts
- — Tune assumptions with the owner
Future enhancements
- Financing and line-of-credit recommendations.
- Customer-level collection risk and DSO forecasting.
- Automatic reforecasting as actuals post.
- Integration with the accounts-payable and BI blueprints.