Moving Company Cash Flow Template

Start with the 13-Week Cash Flow sheet. Enter your current cash balance, then fill in expected weekly inflows — scheduled local move completions with their balance-due amounts, any long-distance job final payments coming in, storage fees billed this week, and packing service revenue. For outflows, enter next payroll by crew, upcoming fuel and maintenance costs, packing material orders, and any insurance installments or truck payments due. The sheet calculates your ending cash position week by week and shows you clearly whether you can cover payroll without drawing on a line of credit.

Set up the Fleet & Truck Schedule once with all your current vehicles — enter each truck's loan balance, monthly payment, and remaining term. Those payments will populate the Annual Cash Flow sheet automatically so your statement stays accurate. Then use the Job Deposit Tracker to log every booked job as it comes in. Keeping this sheet current gives you a real-time view of how much of your cash balance is actually yours versus deposits you still owe service on — a distinction that matters most during the booking rush before peak season.

Before peak season starts (ideally in March or April), run the Seasonal Crew & Cash Planner for the full year. Enter your expected monthly volume and crew plan, and the sheet will show you exactly how much cash you need to build during the May–August surge to cover December through February without stress. Moving company owners who use this planning cycle stop being surprised by February — they know in October how much cash the slow season needs and have already set it aside. The model also helps you decide when to add a truck or hire another crew: the cash flow math is right there in front of you.

Moving company cash flow is seasonal in a way that catches a lot of operators off guard. June alone can account for 15–20% of a full year's revenue, and the summer surge creates a cash position that feels comfortable — until November arrives and volume drops by half while truck payments, insurance, and warehouse rent stay exactly the same. The net margins in moving (7–10% for well-run operations) leave little buffer for a slow winter, and companies that don't plan the seasonal cycle often find themselves drawing on personal funds or maxing credit lines just to get to March.

The other cash flow complexity unique to moving companies is the deposit structure. Most movers collect a deposit at booking — often 10–25% of the estimated job value — which shows up as cash inflow weeks before the job is actually performed. During a busy booking season, this creates a flattering cash picture: you might have $40,000 in deposits on hand that represents future labor, fuel, and materials you haven't spent yet. Understanding the difference between cash on hand and free cash — after accounting for the cost to deliver those booked jobs — is what separates operators who feel comfortable from ones who genuinely are. The job deposit tracker addresses this directly.

The practical workflow for moving company cash management is to update the 13-week view weekly during peak season and monthly during the slow season. The weekly view answers the operating question: can I cover next payroll without borrowing? The annual view answers the strategic question: am I building enough cash in summer to fund the winter? Running both on a regular cadence also makes it easy to see when adding a truck or hiring a second crew actually improves cash flow rather than just adding revenue — because in a capital-intensive, seasonal business, growth that isn't cash-flow-positive is a trap.