How to build a 90-day deadline calendar so cash deadlines stop sneaking up

Most cash deadlines aren’t surprises. The BAS date was known in July. The pay runs were known when staff were hired. The supplier’s 30-day terms were known when the order was placed. What makes them feel like surprises is that nobody looked at them all together until the week they collided.

A 90-day deadline calendar fixes that. It’s not a budget and it’s not an accounting system — it’s a dated list of what has to go out and what’s expected to come in, reviewed every week. Done properly, it turns “we need it by Friday” into “we’ll be short in seven weeks — let’s sort it now”.

What is a deadline calendar, exactly?

It’s a list, sorted by date, of every amount the business has to pay or expects to receive over the next 90 days. Each row has a date, a description, an amount, whether it’s money in or out, and — the column most forecasts leave out — whether the date can move.

From that list you calculate a running balance. The lowest point of the running balance, and the date it happens, is your next real deadline. Everything else on this page is about filling in the list well and keeping it current.

Why 90 days rather than a month or a year?

Three reasons:

• It covers a full BAS quarter, so the biggest regular tax payment is always visible.
• It covers several pay cycles, including any month with an extra fortnightly pay run.
• It’s forecastable. Beyond about three months, receipts become guesswork for most small businesses. Within three months, you mostly know who owes you what.

It also gives you time. A gap spotted at week seven can be handled with a supplier conversation, a customer deposit, or calm funding. The same gap spotted on day two is an emergency.

Step 1: Set up eight columns

A spreadsheet is fine. Use these columns:

Column	What goes in it
Date	The day the money leaves or arrives
Item	“BAS Jul–Sep”, “Pay run 14”, “Supplier A invoice 2231”, “Customer X progress claim”
Out	Amount leaving
In	Amount arriving
Running balance	Yesterday’s balance minus out plus in
Fixed or movable	F for dates you can’t move; M for dates you might
Confidence	For receipts: high, medium or low
Notes	Who to call if it needs to move

Start the running balance with today’s real bank balance across your business accounts, not the accounting software’s figure.

Step 2: Put in the fixed dates first

These are the dates that don’t move, and they drive everything else.

Tax. The ATO’s BAS due dates are 28 October, 28 February, 28 April and 28 July for quarterly lodgers, and the 21st of the following month for monthly lodgers. If a date falls on a weekend or public holiday, it moves to the next business day, and eligible online quarterly lodgers may get an extra two weeks (except the October–December quarter, which already includes a one-month extension). Add PAYG instalments and any payment plan instalments too.

Payroll. Every pay run, with the full cost: net wages, PAYG withholding and super. Since 1 July 2026, super for each pay run must be received by the fund within seven business days of payday, so put a super line about a week after each pay day. The payday super page covers the rule.

Rent and loan repayments. Monthly, on their due dates.

Insurance and registrations. Annual premiums, vehicle registrations, licences and company fees often fall on fixed anniversary dates that get forgotten.

Step 3: Add supplier payments

For each supplier, add the due date of every invoice already received, plus an estimate for invoices you know are coming (regular stock orders, monthly services). Mark most of these M — movable — but only if you’d genuinely be comfortable asking. A supplier who has already moved you to cash on delivery is not movable; see supplier wants COD.

Step 4: Add receipts — honestly

This is where most forecasts go wrong. For each amount you’re owed, put it on the date it’s likely to arrive, not the date it’s due. If a customer usually pays 15 days late, forecast it 15 days late. Then mark your confidence:

• High — a reliable customer, an invoice already approved, or a contract payment with a fixed date
• Medium — usually on time, occasionally late
• Low — a slow payer, a disputed invoice, or a new customer

Large customers can be checked: the payment times guide explains how big businesses’ payment records are published.

Step 5: Find the lowest point

Calculate the running balance down the list. Look for:

• The lowest point and its date — your next real deadline
• Any negative stretch — how long it lasts tells you whether it’s a timing blip or a structural gap
• Low-confidence receipts sitting just before a big fixed payment — that’s where crunches hide

Then try the sensitivity test: move every low-confidence receipt back two weeks. If the lowest point drops sharply, you’re more exposed than the first version suggested.

Step 6: Decide what to do about any gap

If the calendar shows a gap, work through it in this order:

1. Move what can be moved. Ask the supplier or landlord early — six weeks out is a very different conversation from two days out. The asking for more time guide covers how.
2. Bring receipts forward. Invoice sooner, chase earlier, offer a reason to pay faster.
3. Fund what’s left. If the remaining gap is a one-off, a short-term facility sized to it may suit. If it shows up every month, a revolving facility may suit better.

When you’re ready to look at funding, the deadline planner shows what’s realistic in the time you have, and a 60-second enquiry gets a real person looking at it.

Step 7: Review it every week

Fifteen minutes, same time each week. Update the bank balance, tick off what’s happened, move late receipts, add new invoices and bills, and roll the 90-day window forward a week. A deadline calendar that isn’t updated becomes dangerous, because it gives false comfort.

Good habits:

• Do it on a quiet morning — Monday or Tuesday — so you have the week to act.
• Colour the fixed items so they stand out.
• Add public holidays. The Fair Work Ombudsman publishes each state’s list; a holiday can shift a pay run or a bank transfer by a day. Christmas 2026 falls on a Friday, with an additional holiday in several states on Monday 28 December.
• Share it with whoever else signs off payments — a business partner, a bookkeeper.

An illustrative calendar

Illustrative example only — no real business. A boutique builder pays its crew fortnightly on Thursdays and lodges BAS quarterly. Its October calendar shows:

Date	Item	Out	In	Balance	F/M
1 Oct	Opening balance			64,000
1 Oct	Pay run	38,000		26,000	F
8 Oct	Super for 1 Oct run	4,100		21,900	F
10 Oct	Progress claim, job A		72,000	93,900	High
15 Oct	Pay run	38,000		55,900	F
22 Oct	Super for 15 Oct run	4,100		51,800	F
28 Oct	BAS Jul–Sep	41,000		10,800	F
29 Oct	Pay run (third in October)	38,000		-27,200	F
30 Oct	Timber supplier	22,000		-49,200	M
6 Nov	Progress claim, job B		85,000	35,800	Medium

Spotted on 1 October, the builder has four weeks to act. It asks the timber supplier to move to 7 November (accepted), invoices job B a week earlier, and arranges a small facility for the remaining gap around the third pay run of October. Spotted on 28 October, the same gap would have been a crisis.

What does the calendar tell you over time?

After a few months, patterns appear. Maybe every BAS quarter creates a dip. Maybe the months with three pay runs are always tight. Maybe one customer is consistently 20 days late. These patterns are more valuable than any single forecast, because they tell you what to fix:

• A BAS dip every quarter suggests setting aside GST weekly in a separate account.
• Tight three-pay-run months suggest a facility sized to one pay run, drawn only in those months — see the 2026–27 pay-run guide.
• A chronically late customer suggests renegotiating terms or pricing in the delay.

The cash crunch warning signs guide covers more of the signals worth watching.

How does this connect to the Deadline Desk?

The calendar is how you see a deadline coming. The Deadline Desk is who you ring when the calendar shows a gap you can’t close by moving dates. Ringing early — weeks before the lowest point, not days — means more options and a calmer decision.

See a gap coming? Talk to us before it arrives

The best time to look at funding is when the gap is still on the calendar rather than in the bank account. Ringing or enquiring doesn’t involve a credit check, your details stay with one team rather than being handed to a parade of lenders, and a real person looks at your numbers and calls you back.

If you send an enquiry, include the date and size of the lowest point your calendar shows — accurate figures mean the options you hear will fit the timing. Or ring the Deadline Desk on 1300 752 188.