Automated cash flow forecasts based on seasonality

Purpose

1.1. Generate automated cash flow forecasts factoring in high/low revenue periods, supply surges, predicted seafood costs, promo seasons, holidays, and historical receipt trends for specialty seafood restaurants.
1.2. Provide actionable projections to optimize purchasing, scheduling, inventory, and marketing for fluctuating demand.

Trigger Conditions

2.1. Scheduled (daily, weekly, or monthly forecast runs).
2.2. Receipt of new POS sales data, inventory invoices, or payroll batch.
2.3. Manual override via admin dashboard.
2.4. Update from weather or seafood price feed APIs.

Platform Variants

3.1. QuickBooks
• Feature: Reports API, Cash Flow Forecasts
• Setting: Connect to “cashFlow” endpoint, set period=“custom”, auto-export to dashboard.
3.2. Xero
• Feature: Forecasting module, Reports API
• Setting: Link to “ForecastReport” API, configure seasonal parameter filter.
3.3. Sage Intacct
• Feature: Cash Management, Custom Reports
• Setting: Automate “Cash Management” report with scheduled export.
3.4. SAP Business One
• Feature: Financial Analytics API
• Setting: “GET /Reports(‘CashFlow’)”; filter by date & item group.
3.5. Oracle NetSuite
• Feature: SuiteAnalytics Workbook
• Setting: Schedule workbook for “Seasonal Cash Flow”, auto-email CSV.
3.6. Microsoft Power BI
• Feature: Custom Dataflows
• Setting: Source: POS+Inventory APIs, add “Seasonality Lookup Table”.
3.7. Tableau
• Feature: Scheduled extracts
• Setting: Setup extract: POS, pricing API, weather, map seasonality via calculated fields.
3.8. Zoho Books
• Feature: Cash Flow Reports API
• Setting: Connect to “getCashFlow” endpoint, schedule “quarterly” pulls.
3.9. Google Sheets
• Feature: App Script triggers, IMPORTDATA
• Setting: Script runs daily, auto-fetch POS/API data, analyze with seasonal formulas.
3.10. Airtable
• Feature: Automation + Scripting
• Setting: Scheduled “SeasonalForecast” script, sync via REST API.
3.11. FreshBooks
• Feature: Reporting API
• Setting: “cash_flow_statement” endpoint, schedule for seasonal intervals.
3.12. Stripe
• Feature: Balance API
• Setting: Daily “/v1/balance/history” retrieval, cross-ref historical promo dates.
3.13. Square
• Feature: Sales Report API
• Setting: Extract daily sales, aggregate by month & note local events.
3.14. Lightspeed
• Feature: Financial Reporting API
• Setting: “GET /reports/cashflow”, filter by seasonal promo codes.
3.15. Shopify
• Feature: Analytics API
• Setting: “AdminAPI/reports”, fetch seafood vs. non-seafood line splits.
3.16. Fishbowl Inventory
• Feature: Inventory Forecast Module
• Setting: Automate reorder triggers based on seasonal dips/spikes.
3.17. WeatherStack
• Feature: Real-Time Weather API
• Setting: Embed forecast feed, adjust seafood demand multipliers for inclement weather.
3.18. OpenAI
• Feature: Custom prediction model
• Setting: Feed historical POS, output “seasonal-adjusted cash flow forecast” JSON.
3.19. Amazon Forecast
• Feature: DeepAR+ algorithm
• Setting: Input: POS, calendar, events, seafood costs; Output: next 12-week flow prediction.
3.20. Yahoo Finance
• Feature: Financial Data API
• Setting: Pull relevant seafood market data, inject as cost variable to forecasting model.

Benefits

4.1. Predict and smooth out cash flow troughs and peaks for specialty seafood operations.
4.2. Prevent overstocking perishable inventory and under-ordering during surge periods.
4.3. Aligns supplier ordering and staffing to precise cash cycles.
4.4. Minimizes risk of cash shortfalls during seasonal downtime.
4.5. Enables proactive marketing and cost management based on real demand projections.