Frequently asked questions

Cadence is cash flow forecasting software for UK businesses. It takes the invoices you are waiting to be paid, the bills you have to pay and your budgets, and turns them into a week-by-week forecast of your bank balance. It then tells you what needs attention: who to chase, which weeks look tight and what a decision would do to your cash.

It is made by CadenceFi. CadenceFi is the company; Cadence is the product.

Cadence is built for owner-managed and growing businesses where the timing of money in and money out really matters: agencies, consultancies, professional services firms, design and tech businesses, and trades and construction businesses that bill by project or retainer. It suits the founder or managing director who watches the bank balance, and the finance manager or part-time finance director who has to explain it.

See the Who it’s for page for more detail on each type of business.

Accounting software is primarily where you record and report what has already happened: invoices raised, bills entered, VAT and year-end accounts. Cadence looks forward. It uses that same information to show what your cash position will be over the coming weeks and months, and helps you act on it.

That is why Cadence connects to your accounting software rather than replacing it. Your accountant and bookkeeper keep working exactly as they do today.

A well-kept spreadsheet can work, but it only stays correct while someone remembers to update it. Cadence keeps the forecast current automatically from your data, warns you when cash will dip below the buffer you set, lets you test decisions without breaking a formula, and does not depend on one person understanding how the workbook was built.

No. Cadence is designed to be understood at a glance by the person running the business. Charts and plain-English alerts show what is happening, and the AI assistant can explain any figure in everyday language. If you do have finance expertise, the detail is there to dig into.

Yes. The Starter plan is designed for a single owner-manager who wants a clear view of upcoming cash without building a spreadsheet. You can begin by entering invoices and bills by hand or importing a CSV, and connect accounting software later if you want to.

Cadence is built with UK businesses in mind: dates and formats follow UK conventions and the default currency is pounds sterling. You can also choose US dollars or euros as your reporting currency, and set your financial year start month and time zone.

Yes. Every new account starts with a 14-day free trial, and you do not need to enter a card to begin. Use the trial to bring in your real invoices and bills so you can judge the forecast on your own numbers. To keep using Cadence afterwards, choose a plan in Settings.

There are three ways, and you can mix them. You can connect Xero, which brings in your invoices and bills automatically. You can import CSV files for income, outgoings and budgets. Or you can enter items directly in the app.

Many businesses connect Xero or import a CSV and have a first forecast the same day.

No. Xero is optional. Cadence works fully with data you enter or import yourself. Connecting Xero simply saves you from re-keying invoices and bills.

Three things make the forecast meaningful: your current cash balance (your opening balance), the invoices you are owed and the bills you owe with their due dates, and a cash buffer, which is the minimum balance you want to stay above. Budgets, recurring items and scenarios can be added whenever you are ready.

Yes. You can invite them as a team member. Admins can change data and settings; view-only users can see everything but cannot change it, which suits an adviser who just needs to look. Invited people count towards the number of users included in your plan.

Cadence starts from your opening cash balance. For each week ahead it adds the unpaid invoices due that week and subtracts the unpaid bills due that week, then carries the result forward to the next week. Recurring income and costs are projected forward so they appear in future weeks without you re-entering them.

You can view the forecast over 3, 6 or 12 months, alongside your recent history.

The cash buffer is the minimum balance you want to keep in the bank: enough to cover a bad week without stress. Cadence draws it as a line on your forecast and warns you when your forecast cash is expected to fall below it, so you have time to act.

When an invoice is paid, mark it as paid (or let Xero sync do it) and the forecast updates. Items that are already overdue are flagged in your alerts, ranked by amount and age, so you can chase them. That makes late payers easy to see before they become a cash problem.

Yes. Each person can turn on alert emails in Settings. Choose a daily email, sent only on days when cash is forecast to fall below your buffer or an invoice or bill is overdue, or a weekly summary on Mondays. They are off until you switch them on, every email has a one-click unsubscribe link, and you can send yourself a test email to see what they look like.

A forecast is only as good as the information behind it. Cadence is exact about what it knows, which is the invoices, bills and budgets in your account, and it does not guess at sales you have not yet recorded. The more complete and current your data, the more useful the picture. Treat it as a well-informed guide to the weeks ahead, not a guarantee.

Yes. Mark an invoice or bill as recurring and choose weekly, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly or annually. Cadence projects it forward across the forecast, and when you mark one occurrence as paid, the next one is created for you.

Cash flow shows when money moves; budgets and profit and loss show whether the business is making money. Cadence gives you both: monthly budget lines for revenue and costs, and a profit and loss view by month and year, so you can see whether you are on plan as well as whether you can pay the bills.

Yes, with scenario planning. Model hiring someone, winning a new project, losing a client or any custom change, as a one-off, weekly or monthly amount with start and end dates. Cadence shows your forecast with and without the change, so you can see the effect on cash before you commit.

They are the AI features built into Cadence. Scout is an assistant you can ask questions about your finances in plain English, such as which clients are paying late. Sentinel is the more proactive tier: it monitors your business, gives you a business health score and daily insights, writes briefings, ranks your priorities, watches for the things you tell it to, and drafts payment-chase emails.

Scout is included from the Professional plan. Sentinel is included in Enterprise.

From the data in your own account: your invoices, bills, budgets and settings. The AI does not browse the internet or make assumptions beyond what you have provided. Like any AI, it can still get things wrong, so check the underlying numbers before relying on an answer for an important decision.

No. The AI answers questions and makes suggestions; it does not change your records. When Sentinel drafts a chase email, it is a draft for you to review and send yourself.

No. Your data is used to generate your own answers, not to train AI models. Our terms of service and privacy policy set this out in full.

Each plan includes a monthly allowance for AI features, designed for normal day-to-day use. If you reach it, the AI features pause until your allowance renews. Everything else in Cadence carries on working.

Xero is supported today. QuickBooks and UK Open Banking bank feeds are in development and shown as coming soon. You can also bring in data from any accounting system by exporting to CSV.

No. Cadence only reads from Xero. It reads your invoices, bills and account names to build your forecast, and it never creates, edits or deletes anything in your Xero account.

Cadence syncs with Xero automatically once a day, and you can also sync on demand from Settings whenever you want the latest figures.

Today each Cadence company connects to one Xero organisation. If you need something different, get in touch and tell us what you are trying to do.

You can disconnect at any time from Settings. Disconnecting removes the stored connection. The invoices and bills already imported remain in Cadence unless you delete them.

Yes. Cadence can import income, outgoings and budgets from CSV files, which you can export from almost any spreadsheet or accounting system. Imports are checked as they come in, and you can tidy up anything afterwards.

We take protecting your financial data seriously. We follow established industry practice, keep each company’s information separate, limit access to the people you invite, and record changes in an activity log your admins can review.

We do not publish the technical details of our security measures, because doing so helps the wrong people. If your organisation needs more information for a security review, contact us and we will help.

Your data is stored in the UK.

Only the people you invite to your company. You decide who can edit and who can only view. One company can never see another company’s data.

No. Your financial data is yours. We use it to run Cadence for you and do not sell it or share it with third parties for marketing. Our privacy policy explains what we collect and why.

We handle personal data in line with UK data protection law and explain how in our privacy policy. You have the right to access, correct, export and delete your data, and you can do most of this yourself from Settings.

Yes, both. You can export everything you have stored as a file from Settings whenever you like. When the last admin deletes their account, the company and all of its data are permanently deleted.

Starter is for one person and includes forecasting, income and outgoings, budgets and reports, and scenario planning. Professional adds the Xero integration and the Scout AI assistant for up to five users. Enterprise adds Sentinel, our proactive AI monitoring, for up to 100 users. The Pricing page lists everything in each plan.

Plans are billed monthly, quarterly, every six months or annually, through our payment provider. You choose your plan and billing period in Settings.

Yes. You can cancel online from Settings, with no phone call or extra steps. You keep access until the end of the period you have already paid for. We do not refund part-used billing periods, except where the law requires it.

Yes. You can move to a different plan from Settings as your needs change.

Each plan includes a number of users: one on Starter, up to five on Professional and up to 100 on Enterprise. Team members can be admins or view-only.

Cadence is made by Cadence Fi Ltd, trading as CadenceFi, a company registered in Scotland. You can find our company details on the Contact page and in the footer of every page.

Email hello@cadencefi.co.uk and your message reaches the team that builds Cadence. Please include the email address you sign in with and, if it helps, a screenshot.

No. Cadence helps you understand your numbers and make better-informed decisions. It does not replace a qualified accountant, tax adviser or solicitor.

Please do. Tell us what you are trying to achieve at hello@cadencefi.co.uk. We are building Cadence with our customers and read what you send.