What You Need
Gather the order list, goods/service receipts, invoices and matched payment records for one cutoff and currency. State whether you are forecasting remaining payments, rather than gross purchase value or statutory expenses. Obtain actual payment terms and unresolved delivery dates from their owners; do not infer them from order totals.
Steps
- State the forecast basis and period explicitly.
- Split each order into amounts paid, received-but-unpaid and ordered-not-received, using actual evidence.
- Build one bridge across those mutually exclusive planning labels.
- Check that the three amounts sum to the order value.
- Check that total less paid equals the two unpaid labels combined.
- List unresolved delivery/payment facts before allocating amounts to months.
These labels and checks are OpenAid planning practice, not accounting-recognition rules, entries or statements of present legal liability.
Output: Fictional Bridge
Basis: remaining intended payments by expected payment month; cutoff October 31, 2026; forecast period November 1-December 31, 2026. All amounts are invented USD. The approved order quantities/prices remain intended under the supplied purchase terms; dates not supplied stay UNKNOWN.
| Order | Gross value | Paid | Received but unpaid | Ordered, not received |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PO-101 tablets | 4,000 | 1,000 | 3,000 | 0 |
| PO-102 printing | 1,800 | 0 | 600 | 1,200 |
| PO-103 venue | 2,200 | 0 | 0 | 2,200 |
| Total | 8,000 | 1,000 | 3,600 | 3,400 |
PO-101 was received October 25; its 1,000 deposit was paid October 10 and its remaining invoice is due November 20. PO-102 has 600 delivered October 29 and unpaid; its other 1,200 delivery date is unresolved. PO-103 service is planned December 10, with nothing paid/received and payment terms not supplied.
Check 1: 1,000 + 3,600 + 3,400 = 8,000. Check 2: 8,000 - 1,000 = 7,000, also 3,600 + 3,400 = 7,000. Only PO-101's 3,000 has a supplied payment date here. Keep the rest unscheduled pending actual terms;7,000 is not automatically the November-December cash total.
Exception: Part Delivery and Part Payment
The open-order report still lists PO-101 at 4,000 and PO-102 at 1,800; payables also lists 3,000 and 600. Adding all open orders 8,000 to payables 3,600 produces 11,600. That duplicates 3,600 against gross orders 8,000. If misrepresented as remaining cash,11,600 exceeds the actual 7,000 bridge by 4,600:3,600 duplicated plus 1,000 already paid.
Split the original order instead of adding overlapping reports. Do not move unpaid printing into a month merely to complete the forecast. Obtain PO-102's delivery/payment evidence and PO-103's payment terms.
Human Decision
The forecast owner confirms basis and expected payment months with responsible finance/purchasing roles. No recognition treatment or payment authority follows from this table. The cash-flow template handles the later timing view; the learning exercise tests classification with a different case.
Source Scope
GWSCPA Cash vs Accrual (April 15, 2023,US practice) distinguishes cash and recognition timing, without prescribing this bridge. CC 8 (November 27, 2024), CC 26 (September 16, 2026) and decision guidance (November 2, 2020) inform expenditure checks, dependency risks and recorded authority in England and Wales. Figures, labels and layout are original planning aids. No restricted-fund lesson, statutory entry or automatic liability determination is supplied. Checked November 1, 2026.