Free tool

Can I Afford This Order?

See what this order could do to your cash before you commit. Put in what you have, the lowest balance you are willing to see, and when each payment on the order falls due. You get your cash week by week, with the order and without it.

Step 1

Where you stand today

Only cash you actually hold. An overdraft you have not used, a card limit or a loan you have not drawn is not available cash.
The amount you want left in the account no matter what, to keep the business running - payroll, rent, your suppliers, the bills that do not stop. We do not suggest a figure, because we do not know your business. Every finding on this page is measured against the cushion you choose, so changing it changes every answer.

Week 1 begins on this date. Only enter payments still to come, because your available cash already has everything you have paid so far taken out of it.

Looking 13 weeks ahead, Sep 28, 2026 to Dec 27, 2026.

Step 2

The order you're considering

Put this order's payments here and nowhere else. If you also list them under your other bills, the tool counts them twice and tells you no when the answer is yes. Duty, freight and customs usually get paid to someone other than your supplier, and later, so give each one the week it is actually due.

One order at a time. If you are weighing two, the second one has to go in under your other bills in step 3, or the answer is wrong in the direction that flatters it.

A first order is usually a deposit now and a balance when the goods are ready.

Step 3

What else is moving

Two figures get you an answer. You can adjust any individual week further down.

Include only cash you expect to receive even if you do not place this order. Enter receipts that depend on this purchase under ‘Money coming in from this order.’

Money you expect to actually land in your bank that week, not sales you expect to make. If a customer buys in week 1 and the money reaches you in week 3, it goes in week 3. Enter 0 if you expect none.

Used in all 13 weeks.

Payroll, rent, ads, tax, existing suppliers - the bills you would pay even without this order. The bills that break a projection are the ones that do not come monthly, so work from a full period of bank statements rather than from memory.

Used in all 13 weeks.

Enter your cash position above, or load the example.

How this works

One line of arithmetic, repeated every week. Your opening cash, plus the money that lands that week, less your other bills, less anything you pay on this order. That closing balance becomes the next week's opening balance, and so on to the end of the period. There is no forecasting in it and no model of your demand.

It runs twice, on the same base figures. Once with the order and once without it. Your receipts and your other bills are identical in both, so the only difference between the two lines is the order itself. That is what makes the comparison worth anything.

It measures against your cushion, not against zero. A week that ends exactly on your cushion passes. A week a cent under it does not. We tell you the lowest projected week-end cash, how far under you would go, and the first week it happens, because the first week is your planning deadline and the lowest week is the size of the problem. If you already start below your cushion, we show that separately and never call the result a pass.

It checks balances at the end of each week. It cannot see the order of payments inside a week, so a week that ends above your cushion can still dip below it on a Tuesday. The dates it gives are week-level planning dates, not verified payment deadlines. Confirm that cash arrives before payments leave within each week.

Money you hope to make from this order never changes the answer. You can enter it, and we will show you what it would do in its own panel. It stays out of the headline, because otherwise a hopeful number typed into a box turns a no into a yes. If the answer only works with those receipts in, that is the thing to look at before you commit.

A blank is not a zero. We will not give you a result while any week is empty, and we never fill one in for you. If a week really is zero, enter 0 and we will use it. A part-finished projection is wrong in a direction you cannot see.

It will not tell you what to do. It does not recommend a smaller order, it does not suggest asking your supplier for terms, and it will never tell you to borrow. It has no idea whether any of those are available to you. What it gives you is the projection. The decision is yours.

Everything stays in your browser. The arithmetic runs on your own device. Nothing you type is sent anywhere, saved anywhere, or visible to us.

Profitable does not always mean affordable.

Stay in the loop

Want to hear when new tools drop?

Get new tools and plain-English finance tips as they land. Unsubscribe any time.

We'll only use your email to send you new tools and the occasional note - unsubscribe any time. See the Privacy Policy.

← See all free tools