Questions and answers

A plain .xlsx file with a START HERE guide and six working tabs: DASHBOARD, 13-WEEK DIRECT, VARIANCE LOG, WORKING CAPITAL, SCENARIO TEST and AI PROMPTS. 324 formulas.

If you already update a free template every week, keep it. The free starter from CFO Brain is one tab of this workbook. What the full workbook adds: a cash floor tied to a status message, a Friday variance log that flags a line missing in the same direction three weeks running, a scenario test for a hire or a new monthly cost, a working-capital view, prompts that already know your numbers, and a 15-minute routine to keep it current.

Some do, and if you use yours every week, keep it. What this adds: you plan every line yourself for 13 weeks, you set a cash floor and see the week you would cross it, a Friday variance log flags assumptions that keep missing, and a scenario test shows what a hire does in a bad quarter. No subscription, no bank connection.

Your monthly P&L looks back: it tells you what happened last month, usually weeks after the month ended. CFO Brain looks 13 weeks ahead, in cash, in the weeks money actually lands and leaves. Keep both. The P&L tells you whether you made a profit. The forecast tells you whether week 9 is tight.

Yes. The workbook has no currency symbol, so it works in dollars, euros, pounds or shekels. You set your currency once on the dashboard and the AI prompts use it. The simulator has a currency selector; it changes the symbol only and does not convert.

A standard .xlsx file, checked in Apple Numbers. Not yet checked in Excel or Google Sheets. There are no macros.

You could build the dashboard in an afternoon. The harder part is the 13-week roll-forward, the variance log that flags patterns, the scenario test and the prompts, wired together and checked. You are buying the assembled file and the routine, not the cells.

A file you already know how to open is the lowest-friction way to keep a weekly habit. It works offline and never asks for a bank login. If you want something that updates itself from your bank, this is the wrong tool.

No. CFO Brain is a spreadsheet workbook, not an AI agent. The formulas do the arithmetic. The AI PROMPTS tab holds three prompts with your numbers already filled in; you can copy one into an assistant you choose and ask it to explain the result. Nothing is sent anywhere unless you paste it.

You pay on Link's secure checkout. You get a download page and a receipt by email. If you lose the page, write to hello@getcfobrain.com with your order number and we send you the file. Open the file in your spreadsheet app and start on the START HERE tab.

Yes. Link is the legal seller and sends the receipt with your order. Any VAT or sales tax is added at checkout, and the checkout shows the final amount before you pay.

14-day refund promise. Ask within 14 days of buying and you get a full refund, for any reason. Link processes it. Write to hello@getcfobrain.com.

Questions about using the file: write to hello@getcfobrain.com. We answer within 2 working days. If a formula in the file as delivered gives a wrong result because of a mistake in the file, we fix it and send you the corrected file, for 12 months after your purchase.

Yes for your own business, and your bookkeeper or accountant may open it. One purchase covers one business.

Because the work is in the assembly and the habit: 324 checked formulas, a floor tied to a status, a log that flags a pattern, a hire test and a 15-minute routine. If you already keep a 13-week forecast current, you may not need it, and the free starter uses the same weeks-of-cash calculation on one tab. It is one payment, with a 14-day refund promise.

There is no timed trial. The Cash Cliff simulator and the 13-week starter are free with no time limit, so you can try the approach before you buy. The workbook has a 14-day refund promise.

About 15 minutes, every Friday: type in your actual bank balance, log last week's real cash in and out, read the flags, and roll the forecast forward one week. Your first weeks-of-cash number takes about 15 minutes. Filling all 13 weeks properly takes longer the first time, so do it in two sittings.

No. There is no account, no bank login and no upload. The workbook is a file that stays with you, or in your own Google Drive or iCloud if you open it there. The simulator on this site runs in your browser and never sends your numbers anywhere. The only time numbers leave the file is when you choose to paste an AI prompt into an assistant, or share them with me in a Build Session you booked.

No. CFO Brain is a planning tool. Tax amounts and dates come from you or your accountant; the workbook only shows when the money leaves. Check important decisions with your accountant or tax adviser.

In the workbook, weeks of cash come from your 13-week forecast: the point where ending cash would hit zero. Next to it, "if sales stopped tomorrow" shows how many weeks your cash plus money owed to you, minus unpaid bills, would cover your fixed costs with no new sales. The simulator projects weekly cash in and out and finds the week the balance crosses zero. The exact rules are on the method page.

The level of cash below which you stop choosing and start reacting: pushing suppliers, chasing invoices late at night, skipping your own pay. A common starting point is two months of fixed costs; one to three is typical, higher if your sales are lumpy. In the simulator the floor is two months of the fixed costs you enter.

Yes. The numbers are inputs. At 8,000 or 300,000 a month, weeks of cash is calculated the same way.

No. You type your bank balance and the cash you expect in and out into the yellow cells; the tabs do the rest. Knowing which number matters and what to do when it drops is built into the START HERE guide.

For businesses that invoice and wait to be paid, or pay for stock before it sells, where the owner decides hires and spending. Not for businesses paid at the till, pre-revenue startups living on investor money, anyone who wants a bank feed, or anyone who needs tax advice or bookkeeping.

Rami Tanous, Berlin, Germany. Full details are in the legal notice.