Cashflow Assistant: the guide

• Owners of small New Zealand businesses on Xero
• Businesses with a bank feed, payroll and GST, where tax bills land in lumps
• Owners who want their accountant to see the same numbers

You don't know if there's enough in the bank for the next couple of months until a tax bill or a slow payer catches you out, and building a cash flow spreadsheet takes hours you don't have.

• One sentence every Monday: fine, or the week it gets tight and why
• A 13-week cash forecast built for you from Xero and your bank, asked for by Xero users
• Every New Zealand tax payment ahead on the right date: GST, PAYE, provisional and end-of-year
• Budget against actual each month, in your own profit and loss order, asked for by Xero users
• Double payments, new direct debits and costs that jumped, caught the same week
• Ask "can I afford a new ute?" and get an answer from the same numbers

The Monday check

At 7am each Monday you get one sentence on whether cash is fine for 13 weeks, four numbers (in the bank, owed to you, going out in 14 days, tax next), a chart of the weeks ahead and one or two questions. Answer a question in one tap from the email.

13-week forecast

Asked for by Xero users. Each week's money in and out, from invoices and bills in Xero, each customer's habit of paying, payroll, regular bank payments, tax and your usual sales. Every line says where it came from and how sure it is.

Change it in place

Expect an invoice in another week or take it out, and every number moves at once. It asks whether that's just this invoice or how the customer usually pays, and remembers. Every change can be undone.

Tax for six months

GST from Xero on your filing period, PAYE from your pay runs, provisional tax the way you pay it, and end-of-year tax, on New Zealand's due dates, moved to the next working day when they land on a weekend or holiday.

Budget against actual

Asked for by Xero users. Your budget in Xero against your profit and loss, line by line in Xero's own order, for the month and the year so far, emailed to the people you choose on the 5th working day. No budget yet? It drafts one from last year.

Worth a look

Two payments of the same amount to the same payee, a new direct debit, or a cost up by a third on last year, with the bank lines behind it. Mark it fine and it isn't flagged again.

Ask about your money

Questions like when you'll be lowest, who owes the most, or what a purchase does to the next 13 weeks, answered from the same forecast with a chart against how it stands. It isn't financial advice and never recommends borrowing.

Your accountant's copy

A copy for your accountant with the tax figures and how each was worked out, sent once you OK it.

1. 1

   It reads Xero and your bank

   Early each Monday it reads your bank balance from the bank feed, and invoices, bills, repeating invoices, pay runs and your profit and loss from Xero.

2. 2

   It builds the 13 weeks

   Each invoice lands when that customer usually pays, each bill on its due date, payroll on its day, tax on Inland Revenue's dates, and your regular sales as a guess from the last 13 weeks.

3. 3

   It writes the check

   One sentence first, then the numbers, the chart, questions and anything worth a look, on screen and by email at the time you chose.

4. 4

   You answer, it updates

   An answer in the email or on screen changes the forecast straight away. The check as sent stays as it was in Past checks.

5. 5

   It learns how close it was

   Each Monday it compares last week's forecast with what is in the bank and says why it was out, so you can see how far to trust it.

6. 6

   Once a month, the budget

   On the 5th working day it sends budget against actual for the month just finished.

1. 1

   Your accounts

   Which bank accounts to count, from the bank feed in your AI control centre, and Xero, already connected there.

2. 2

   Tax and your safety level

   How you pay provisional tax, whether an accountant files your tax, and the least you want in the bank.

3. 3

   Who gets it

   When it comes, who gets it, your accountant's email if you want them to have a copy, and a 30-minute walk-through with us.

Every Buildloop assistant works off your AI control centre, which holds your company details, knowledge and settings, trains each assistant and passes what one learns to the others. The more it knows about your business the more accurate every assistant is, and each one you add makes the others stronger.

Your AI control centre keeps what it knows about your business in Content Sections you can open, check and add to, with what's missing shown. Each says whether it's for customers, staff or both. You start with About the business, Products and services, Pricing, Payments, Opening hours, Contact details, Locations and service areas, Booking and ordering, Delivery and collection, Returns, refunds and warranty, Terms and policies, Common questions, Staff knowledge, Other, and can add, rename or remove them; the AI suggests sections from what it reads. How we talk, Rules and Suppliers are kept beside them.

Xero

Needed. Invoices, bills, repeating invoices, pay runs, the profit and loss, budgets and your GST settings.

Your bank, through the AI control centre

Optional. Today's balance and recent payments, read every morning; without it, Xero's balance is used and the check says so.

Email

Needed. The Monday check, the monthly budget and your accountant's copy.

• Your accountant's copy waits for you each week until you let it go on its own
• It never moves money, pays a bill or changes anything in Xero
• A request to Get Paid to chase an invoice becomes a reminder that waits for your OK in Get Paid

NZ$49 a month, including 300 questions a month, then NZ$0.20 for each question after that. Cancel any time. Plus a one-off set-up and configuration fee, agreed after a short call about your business. Every account also has the AI control centre, NZ$49 a month, once for all its assistants.

• In development: the check is on screen now; the Monday email, the monthly budget email and your accountant's copy are being built
• Reads money, never moves it: no payments, transfers or changes in Xero
• Xero only for now, one organisation per business
• Not financial advice: it never recommends a loan, overdraft or other financial product
• Xero doesn't let other apps write budgets, so a budget drafted from last year is kept in Cashflow
• Provisional tax by AIM or ratio is shown as a guess until your accountant confirms it

• Your figures and bank lines are stored in Sydney, Australia, and only people in your business can open them
• What it reads from Xero and your bank is never used to train an AI model
• Your accountant only sees the copies you send them
• Emails are sent through our email provider, Resend