What is a financial forecast?
A financial forecast is the quantified translation of your business strategy. It consists of a set of financial tables that help anticipate, structure, and steer your activity over the coming months or years.
It serves as a roadmap: a guiding trajectory to be compared with actual results, enabling you to identify gaps and take concrete action.
A financial forecast typically includes:
- Projected income statement and balance sheet: estimating revenue, expenses, net income, and business assets.
- Cash flow plan: a month-by-month view of incoming and outgoing cash.
- Financing plan (when applicable): outlining how your investments will be funded.
These forecasts are based on explicit assumptions, including revenue growth, planned hires, fixed costs, and investments. When well-designed, a forecast serves as both a management tool and a communication tool, whether for securing financing, structuring a fundraising round, or supporting business development.
But a good forecast is not a one-time projection. It must be updated regularly, compared with actuals, and used to support decision-making.
Why build a financial forecast?
Because uncertainty is costly, and approximation is riskier. As the saying goes, “ To govern is to anticipate; failing to anticipate is to court ruin.”
With a reliable financial forecast, you can:
- Anticipate cash flow tensions: visualise upcoming shortfalls and act in time (payment deferrals, financing needs, cost arbitrations).
- Evaluate the financial impact of decisions: hiring, salary increases, investments... every choice has a cost — your forecast helps you anticipate it.
- Simulate scenarios: rapid growth, inflation, stagnation... test your business model’s resilience.
- Communicate with financial partners: forecasts add credibility in discussions with banks, investors, or shareholders.
- Give direction to your teams: clear financial goals help align your staff around a shared trajectory.
Two types of forecasts, two distinct purposes
At We Doo Accounting, we distinguish between two complementary — but very different — forecasting approaches:
1. Internal Forecast (Operational)
Built directly within Odoo, this version connects to your actual accounting and analytics data, helping you manage performance on a monthly basis.
Used by managers and directors, it is a dynamic, adjustable, and focused solution for real-time business steering. It is not intended for external use — no separate deliverable is produced, as all the work is done directly within your Odoo instance.
2. External Forecast (Strategic / Financing)
Designed for communication with third parties (banks, investors, partners), this version is built using our dedicated forecasting tool, outside of Odoo.
It results in an official document issued and signed by a certified public accountant. This version supports strategic planning and is typically used for fundraising, loan applications, or major investments.
These two approaches are not mutually exclusive — they complement each other by offering both short-term operational agility and long-term strategic vision.
📈Operational Forecasting in Odoo
A forecast only has value if it’s connected to your business reality and capable of evolving.
Odoo provides a powerful, integrated environment for building and managing financial forecasts :
- An integrated financial budget module :
Odoo allows for the creation of structured budgets, directly linked to accounting accounts. Each budget line is easily configurable and can be broken down by month, cost center, or activity. Additionally, the actual/budget reconciliation is done and intuitively thanks to the various financial reports available in Odoo (Balance Sheet, Income Statement, SIG).
- Dynamic dashboards:
Reporting in Odoo enables you to visualise your forecasts and actuals through graphs, pivot tables, or customised KPIs.
- A collaborative approach:
Multiple users can contribute to the forecast construction based on their respective responsibilities (sales, HR, production, etc.), with clear tracking of the assumptions made.
Odoo transforms financial forecasting into a true collaborative management tool, connected to the reality of the business and capable of continuous adaptation.
The strategic or financing forecast
Need a strategic or financing forecast? Rely on We Doo Accounting
When the stakes go beyond simple budget tracking – fundraising, structural investment, external growth, dialogue with banks or shareholders – a more comprehensive forecast is necessary. In these cases, we work with you to create a strategic forecast or a financing forecast.
We develop a structured development scenario, modeled over several years, incorporating all dimensions: activity, margins, investments, cash flow, taxation, financing. The tool also allows for simulating different scenarios of evolution (optimistic, cautious, deteriorated) to better anticipate impacts and secure your decision-making.
A forecast that complies with the professional standards of accountants.
Creating a strategic or financing forecast is not limited to making assumptions about the future. It is a structuring document that can be presented to third parties: bankers, investors, partners, stakeholders. This document formalises your ambitions, your development assumptions, and demonstrates your ability to manage your business methodically.
By entrusting this mission to We Doo Accounting, you benefit not only from our technical expertise but also from the assurance that the work has been carried out rigorously, according to the standards of a recognized regulated profession. The work will result in the creation of a forecast document for external distribution, accompanied by a signed and dated certificate from an accountant. This document will be useful (and required) in the context of a banking file or a strategic committee.
It is a mark of seriousness that enhances your credibility with financial partners and commits the company to a coherent and monitored trajectory.
Turning to We Doo Accounting ensures a rigorous forecast, aligned with the expectations of financial partners and designed as a true strategic management tool. We do not deliver a file, we build a vision.
Why turn to We Doo Accounting for your forecasting?
Because you need more than an Excel spreadsheet: you need a strategic forecast, grounded in the reality of your business, and integrated into your ERP.
Here’s what we bring:
- Financial expertise: we translate your ambitions into clear, coherent, credible numbers. We know how to challenge assumptions, test the robustness of a model, and anticipate consequences.
- Odoo expertise: we configure budgets, analytical views, scenarios, and dashboards in your own Odoo environment. No separate files, no double entry.
- Collaborative approach: we work with you (and your teams) to ensure the forecast is understood, shared, and utilized. We train your employees to keep it alive.
- Regular follow-up: we establish periodic reviews of the forecast: variance vs actual, updating assumptions, decisions to be made.
With We Doo Accounting, you gain :
- A clear framework for decision-making
- A concrete financial vision of your strategy
- Real agility to steer, adjust, and move forward
With We Doo Accounting, you rely on experts who can transform data into actionable insights and indicators into informed decisions.
You have the numbers. Make them a true driving force for management.