Scenario Planning lets you model the financial impact of a business decision before you commit to it. You create a named scenario, define the income or expense changes involved, and Finoya immediately shows you how those changes affect your projected cash position over the next 30, 60, and 90 days, compared against Noya's baseline forecast.
Most business owners manage cash flow reactively, by checking the bank balance after a decision is made. Scenario Planning lets you check the impact before the decision, while you still have full flexibility to change course.
The Scenario Planning screen
The main Scenario Planning screen lists all the scenarios you have created. Each scenario shows its name and a Forecast button that opens the results for that scenario.
You can create as many scenarios as you need. Each one is saved to your account and can be revisited, edited, or deleted at any time. Common uses are to create a scenario for each significant decision you are evaluating, such as a new hire, a lease commitment, or a marketing investment.
How to create a scenario
1. Open Scenario Planning from the left navigation.
2. Click Add Scenario.
3. Give the scenario a clear, descriptive name. Use the actual decision you are modelling, for example: Hire Sales Manager, New Office Lease, or Q1 Revenue Growth 20%.
4. Add line items for each financial change the decision involves.
5. Click Forecast Now to see the projected impact.
Adding line items
Each line item in a scenario has four fields:
• Type: whether the line item is Income, Expenses, or Payroll.
• Category: the specific category within that type, such as Sales Revenue under Income or Professional Fees under Expenses.
• Frequency: whether the amount occurs monthly, quarterly, or as a one-off.
• Amount: the dollar value.
You can add as many line items as the scenario requires. A hiring scenario might have one payroll line item. A new office scenario might have a monthly lease expense plus a one-off fitout cost plus an increase in monthly utilities.
Tip Scenario line items layer on top of your current baseline data. You are modelling the change, not rebuilding your full financials from scratch. Enter only the new income or expenses the decision introduces. |
Types of decisions you can model
Decision type | How to set it up |
Hiring a new employee | Add a Payroll line item with the monthly salary and a monthly frequency. |
Taking on new premises | Add an Expenses line item for the monthly lease. Add a second one-off item for any setup or fitout costs. |
Marketing investment | Add an Expenses line item for the monthly budget. If you have a revenue target from it, add a corresponding Income line item to model the return. |
Revenue growth scenario | Add an Income line item representing the additional monthly revenue you are projecting. |
Client payment delay | Reduce a projected Income line item to model what happens if a major client delays payment by 30 or 60 days. |
Equipment or CapEx purchase | Add a one-off Expenses line item for the purchase amount. Add a second scenario with monthly finance repayments to compare the two options. |
Reading the scenario results
After clicking Forecast Now, the results screen shows two sets of forecast gauges and charts side by side:
• Your Forecasted Scenario: your projected Cash Flow Health score and income, expense, and profit and loss chart for 30, 60, and 90 days with your scenario line items applied.
• Noya's Forecast: the baseline projection without your scenario changes.
The difference between the two is the financial impact of your decision. If your scenario pushes the 60-day gauge from 68 to 45, the decision creates meaningful near-term cash pressure. If the 90-day gauge improves, the investment may pay back within the planning horizon.
The Noya Says panel on the right provides a written interpretation of the comparison, including which time horizon requires the most attention and what the most significant risks or trade-offs are.
Note Scenarios are for forward modelling only. They do not change your actual accounting data or your live Cash Flow Health score. You can model anything without consequence. |