More in than out? Know in one question.

Cash flow, in plain English

Cash flow answers the most basic money question there is: did more come in than went out? Positive net cash flow means your accounts gained over the period. Negative means you spent more than you received and the gap came from savings, a credit card balance, or a buffer you would rather keep.

Sprout calculates it from your real transactions across every account you connect. Ask for a day, a week, a month, a quarter, or a custom range, and you get three numbers (inflows, outflows, and net) with the accounts and dates listed on the answer. It might be the fastest cash flow analysis you will ever run.

Transfers between your accounts don't count

Moving $1,000 from checking to savings changes where your money sits, and that is all. Homemade cash flow spreadsheets often count it twice, once as money out and once as money in. Sprout excludes transfers between your own accounts, so the totals reflect money that actually entered or left your life.

That matters most for people who shuffle money around: paycheck to checking, checking to savings, savings back to checking before a big bill. Connecting every account you move money between gives Sprout the full picture, and the answer always lists which accounts it read.

Compare periods with exact deltas

One month of cash flow is a snapshot. Two periods side by side show a trend. Ask Sprout to compare any two periods and it returns the exact change in dollars and percent for money in, money out, and net, calculated from your data rather than eyeballed from a chart.

That makes questions like "why was August negative?" quick to answer. Compare August with July, then ask for August's largest outflows. A gap like that often comes down to one or two big items, such as an insurance renewal, a trip, or a quarterly tax payment.

Net cash flow is not profit

For freelancers and small businesses, this difference matters. Net cash flow is the cash that actually moved. Profit is an accounting figure that can include invoices not yet paid, bills owed but not yet paid, depreciation, and other adjustments. A month can show strong cash flow and weak profit, or the other way around.

Sprout reports cash flow and says so plainly. Use it to see how cash is really moving, and rely on your accountant or bookkeeping software for profit and tax figures. Our guide to cash flow vs profit explains the difference with worked examples.

Personal and business, kept apart

If you run a business or a side hustle, you probably care about two cash flows: the business's and your household's. Sprout lets you choose which accounts each review covers. Ask for cash flow on your business checking and business card only, then ask the same question for your personal accounts.

As a small business cash flow app, Sprout gives you cash visibility without new software to learn. Accounts in US and Canadian dollars stay in their original currencies and are never combined or converted, so each currency gets its own totals and an exchange rate never blurs the picture.

• Business only: inflows, outflows, and net for the accounts you name.
• Personal only: the household picture, with business accounts left out.
• By currency: USD and CAD totals reported separately.
• By period: day, week, month, quarter, or any custom range.

Spot a rough week before it becomes a rough month

Monthly totals can hide a bad week. Ask for cash flow by week or by day to see exactly when money left, like the week rent, a car payment, and a yearly renewal all landed together. Pair it with recurring charges to see which bills come next and their estimated dates.

On iPhone, the daily Money Minute shows how your month is pacing, and Monthly Money Wrapped recaps the month on the 1st. Your money stays on your radar without a spreadsheet to update. On the Mac or the web, ask for net cash flow month by month as a chart when you want the long view.