Financial planning and cash flow management are difficult yet important management tasks to ensure cost-effective construction. The unavailability of adequate funding or poor financing strategies can restrict construction options, substantially increase costs, and delay project completion. Adopting innovative financing strategies for cash flow management can avoid or reduce such problems, especially when coordination of multiple funding sources is required. This paper describes a spreadsheet template useful for cash flow management including the evaluation of supplemental financing strategies such as overdrafts and revenue bonds to cover construction expenses. With the capability for simple user interaction, extensive numerical calculations, easy simulation of different options, and numerous report formats (including graphics), spreadsheets provide an excellent environment for financial planning. A spreadsheet template described in this paper provides a structure to easily and quickly employ these general capabilities; in many cases, only specific numerical information on cash flows and financing options needs to be entered for a particular application.

Cost controls and financing strategies during the construction phase may have a profound effect on the ultimate cost and effectiveness of capital projects. Short-term finance of construction can be a major cost category to contractors and suppliers, and these costs will be reflected in bid prices. Sudden work stoppage during construction due to inadequate funds can greatly increase costs. In essence, the timing of payments to the various parties in construction can mean the difference between profitability and loss for contractors and can greatly affect the financial planning of public agencies initiating the construction. Thus, improved management of financing during construction will be beneficial to all parties. In this paper, a spreadsheet template useful to cash flow management in a transit agency is described. The electronic spreadsheets designed for microcomputers provide the capability for rapid user interaction in handling the extensive numerical calculations related to financial planning. The template described in this paper allows consideration of multiple revenue sources and financing strategies, including overdraft financing and revenue bonds. Simulated experiments requiring what-if conditions can also be accommodated. Because various participants in the facility construction process have widely varying financial circumstances and incentives, the spreadsheet template must be flexible. Private participants such as suppliers, engineers, and contractors are