Cash Flow Statement Format in Excel (Free)

What Is a Cash Flow Statement

A cash flow statement is one of the three core financial statements (with the income statement and balance sheet) and shows how cash moved through your business over a period, split into three activities: Operating (day-to-day business), Investing (buying/selling long-term assets), and Financing (debt and equity transactions).

This is a historical statement of what already happened - distinct from a cash flow forecast or projection, which estimates what will happen. If you're building next year's numbers, see our cash flow forecasting model instead; this template is for closing out a period that's already complete.

Direct vs Indirect Method

The Indirect Method starts from net income and adjusts for non-cash items (depreciation and amortization) and changes in working capital (accounts receivable, inventory, accounts payable) to arrive at net cash from operating activities - it's the method most companies use because it ties directly to the income statement.

The Direct Method lists actual cash receipts and payments - cash received from customers, cash paid to suppliers, for operating expenses, interest, and taxes - and sums them directly. GAAP allows either method for the operating section, but few free templates actually build both: Vertex42 explicitly declines to build the indirect method ('I'll leave that explanation for the textbooks'), and this file builds both, live, with formulas.

Feed both tabs consistent numbers and they reconcile: in the built-in worked example, both methods arrive at the same $54,500 net cash from operating activities and the same $62,500 ending cash balance - a useful sanity check that your indirect adjustments match your actual cash activity.

Operating, Investing, and Financing Activities

Investing Activities cover cash spent on or received from long-term assets: equipment purchases (cash out) and proceeds from asset sales (cash in). Financing Activities cover cash from debt and owners: proceeds from new debt, debt repayments, and dividends paid.

Both the Direct and Indirect tabs share the same Investing and Financing sections and the same Summary block (net change in cash, beginning balance, ending balance) - only the Operating Activities section differs between the two methods.

Who This Template Is For

Bookkeepers, controllers, and small-business owners who need a real, populated worked example - not a blank binary file like Intuit's or the Australian government's downloads, which carry zero on-page guidance.

Use it to prepare your own statement, check your bookkeeping software's output against a manual build, or teach the direct/indirect distinction with real numbers instead of a textbook explanation.