How to create and use custom projections in sherloc

1. Open the projection builder

On the Performance page, scroll to Custom projections and click the + icon in its header. This opens Create a projection.

The create option is available once you have an Active forecast, because projections are built on it. If you don’t see it, check you have an Active forecast first.

2. Name it and set your starting point

Give the projection a name under Projection name that describes what you’re testing: this is what appears on the projection card later. Then choose your Starting balance, either From accounts (the combined balance of the accounts you pick under Starting balance accounts, such as your bank accounts) or Set a value (a figure you enter yourself).

3. Choose what flows in and out

Pick your Incoming accounts (money coming in each month, such as sales and other income, which the projection adds) and your Outgoing accounts (money going out each month, such as payroll and rent, which it subtracts).

If the same accounts appear on both sides, a Matching Accounts message tells you the chart may come out as a flat line. Change one side and it clears.

4. Create it and read the result

Click Create projection. It appears under Custom projections as a card with a chart of your balance month by month, the name of the forecast it’s built on and a Months runway figure. Use the card menu to Edit graph or Delete.

Click the card to open its detail page, with one chart line for each of your forecasts and a monthly table (starting balance, income, outgoings and the total), so you can see whether it holds up, dips negative, or grows the way you’d expect.

Example: seeing how long your cash lasts at your current pace. Name it “Cash over the year”, set a Starting balance of £100,000 with Set a value, pick your sales and other income accounts as incoming, and pick your payroll and rent accounts as outgoing. The card then shows how many months of runway that leaves.