This lesson describes:
• Entries for the Cash Flow page 
• General tab in Settings 
• Rows tab in Settings
• Currency tab in Settings
• Cash Flow page
• Distributed and Undistributed columns
• Charts detail window
• Financial fields detail window
• Present Value field

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The Cash Flow page provides a variety of features to help plan and manage costs at a high level for projects or programs. Collaborate and negotiate with portfolio managers on budget allocations for the projects. Track budget, forecast, actuals, and benefits for the project. Distributes cost allocations with curves. Calculate financials, such as net present value and return on investment. And create snapshots to monitor trends and track progress over time.

    
1. Accessing the Cash Flow
When accessing the Cash Flow page for the first time for a newly created project or program, enter the year and month it will begin and its expected duration. This information can be adjusted later if needed. To begin planning, decide if the costs will be entered manually or automatically from another source.

2. General tab in Settings.
In Settings on the General tab, click the dropdown for each cost field. For projects, the cost can come from integration with Unifier, or project current budget, or actuals on the cost sheet. For programs, the costs can come from a roll-up of costs from all the projects in the program.
In this example, the cost fields will manually be entered. When cost fields are set to manual, they can also be planned at a more granular level using capital and expense sub-costs. If enabled, the corresponding cost row is broken down into sub-rows on the Cash Flow page. On the Rows tab, specify which costs are displayed on the Cash Flow page.

3. Rows tab in Settings.
Planned Budget is the planned or estimated total cost of a project or program. Forecast is the remaining or forecast cost of the project or program. Actuals is the actual costs incurred for the project or program, such as invoices, payments, and accruals.
Benefits is the anticipated income or profitability of the project or program. Portfolio Approved Budget is the multi-year approved budget assigned to the project by the portfolio manager. And Variances is the differences between the costs rows.

4. Currency tab in Settings.
On the Currency tab, select to display currency symbols and banner for the Cash Flow page. If the base currency is different from the project currency, select which currency is displayed for costs. The Cash Flow page is now set to begin planning.

5. Cash Flow page.
In this example, start with the budget for the project, enter a total cost value. If using capital and expense sub-costs, enter the totals on these rows and they will roll up to the planned budget total. Next, allocate how much of the budget will be used for each planning period.
The planning period timescale is based on the start and finish dates of the project. Years can be expanded into quarters and expanded again into months. If you enter costs yearly, they are automatically divided for each quarter and month.

6. Distributed and Undistributed columns.
Use the Distributed and Undistributed columns to view how much of the total value is left to allocate. Costs can be distributed automatically using curve profiles, which are predefined at the workspace level in summary and settings. On the Cost field, click the context menu and select Apply Curve Profile. Select the curve to use and it will distribute the total cost based on the curve.
When finished, the planned budget values can be copied to the forecast and adjusted as needed. Costs can also be imported to save time on data entry. Download the template that matches if your costs are yearly, quarterly, or monthly. Update the templates and import the data.

7. Charts detail window.
The charts detail window gives a graphical view of the cost fields distributed. View incremental, cumulative, or both chart details. Use the time scale slider bar to focus on a particular time period.

8. Financial fields detail window.
Use the financial fields detail window to view or enter other cost-related project fields. Some financial fields can be calculated by the application. In Settings on the General tab, select the option, calculate financials. This will calculate Net Present Value, the difference between present value of future cash flows from current investments and project costs.
Payback Period, the estimated length of time to recover the cost of investment for the project. Internal Rate of Return, the rate investors will receive returns on their investments in the project. Return on Investment, the percentage of expected returns of an investment by investment costs of a project or portfolio.

9. Present Value.
Another helpful financial field to monitor is the Present Value or the current value of the project's future cash flow. This is automatically calculated based on the annual discount rate set in financial fields. All the costs and financial fields can assist in prioritizing project selection for a portfolio.
For example, projects may have similar forecasts and benefits. However, comparing Net Present Value and time phased values gives more insight into a project's profitability. You can also use portfolio optimization to maximize the net present value or other financial fields.

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