Building A Cash Flow

Building a 'Cash Flow':

To Edit a Cash Flow, click any blue lettering within your cash flow summary.  You will then be prompted to name your Cash Flow, give it a type (Income or Payment), and the payment type. 

Included in Project Cost / Contributes to Total Payment

If your Cash Flow is a Payment, you can specify whether or not it applies to your project cost. If the cash flow does apply to your project cost, you will see it as an additional line included in your total payment in the Proposal Summary Table on your proposal document.

 

Once you have defined the cash flow's basic parameters, you are ready to begin building your calculation in the Payment/Income Streams. A Payment/Income Stream is the specific calculation or number of calculations represented in the cash flow.

You will always start with one “Payment Stream,” but you can add as many as you need to complete your calculations. To edit the type of Payment Stream selected, click on the 'Edit Stream Type' button. From there, you can define the type of stream you would like to apply.

Stream Type:

• Amortization Schedule: A table that lists each regular payment over time. A portion of each payment would be applied to the principle and interest. Throughout the amortization, a larger percentage of the payment will shift towards the principle, and less will be applied to interest.
• Single Payment: A calculation that will occur one time for one defined year.
• Monthly Payment: An annual payment based on a Monthly Payment Amount
• Annual Payment: The total amount paid over one year, which would repeat each year.
• Equipment Replacement: This stream type will reference your company settings and apply replacement costs for Simple or Detailed Equipment for PV and ESS into your cashflow. You must define these values within your company settings.  

Payment Amount: The Payment Amount will define which specific reference variable will be used as your starting payment amount for the Stream. You can choose from our Energy Toolbase Reference Variable Database or create your own Custom Reference Variable. Your Custom Reference Variable can be a simple value or a calculation taken from ETB Sheets.

Once selected, you will see that variable being referenced for the Payment amount.

Payment Year: The year in which the calculation or reference variable will begin to influence the Cash Flow.

Changes Taxable Income: Whether or not the calculation will be applied to Local and/or Federal Taxes. Please consult a tax professional for advice if you are unsure what to select. Selecting “False” will always be a conservative approach.

Conditions: Conditions are very useful to place restrictions on how or when a calculation will happen. For Example: If the calculation of $.05 x DC Wattage is Less than the value of 1000, give me my Maximum Incentive Amount.

Adding Series & Cash Flows:

You can add more than one stream in a Cash Flow to show additional calculations that will be represented in the same Cash Flow column on a document but have multiple calculations that can be applied to the same year or range of years as the previous streams. They can also be applied to a different year or years in the Cash Flow as well. Click on the ‘Add Stream’ button to create a new stream within that Cash Flow. 

You can then save your transaction as it is, or you can add another Cash Flow to your Transaction. Adding more Cash Flows will result in separate columns in your document's financial analysis, each containing its own specific type of calculation with its own set of Payment or Income Streams. This is a very dynamic function and can accommodate virtually any type of financial model needed within the PV and ESS industry.

Once your Transaction is complete make sure it's saved and you will find it located within your transaction list to be pulled into any proposal you need.