Planning cash for the low season

How a hotel or guesthouse can plan cash for its quiet months from its books, budgets, unpaid bills and debtors, without a cash flow statement.

By Achekam · 11 October 2026 · 5 min read · For Hospitality businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya

Every hospitality business has its quiet stretch. For a coastal guesthouse it may be the winter months; for a city hotel that lives on conferences, the weeks around the year-end holidays; for a safari lodge, the rains. Revenue falls away, but salaries, the electricity bill and the bank's instalment arrive on the same dates as always.

Owners who come through the low season comfortably tend to have done one thing in the busy months: written down, month by month, how much cash will come in and go out until the guests return. This article shows how to build that plan from your Achekam books, for venues in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya, and is honest about the one report the books do not give you.

The report you will build yourself

Achekam's books do not produce a cash flow statement. They do produce the pieces a cash plan is made of: an income statement for any period beside the period before, a balance sheet at period end, a general ledger that lists every posted line, budgets per account and period, unpaid supplier bills and aged debtors.

So the plan lives in a spreadsheet, fed by figures from the books. That is no hardship. A cash plan is a forward-looking document anyway, and the ACCA's guide to cash budgets explains why a business prepares one and how to build it from expected inflows and outflows, with a worked example.

What last year's quiet months show

Start with history. Run the management accounts for each month of last year's low season, one month at a time, and note for each:

• room revenue, and food and beverage revenue;
• cost of food and drink;
• wages, and whether casual staff were cut back;
• electricity, water, gas and generator fuel;
• repairs and maintenance, which owners often schedule for quiet months.

The income statement shows each period beside the one before, so the drop from the last busy month to the first quiet one is visible on one page. Where a figure looks odd, open the general ledger for that account and read the lines behind it; a large repair or a supplier bill posted in the wrong month can distort the pattern you are relying on.

Payroll deserves its own look. Payroll reports show cost, headcount and staff movements by month and by department, so you can see what the kitchen and housekeeping actually cost in each quiet month last year, and how many people were on the books.

Monthly budgets for the low season

With last year as a base, set this year's expectations. A business can set a budget per account and period and compare it with actual figures from its ledger. Enter a budget for each quiet month on the accounts that move most: room revenue, food and beverage sales, cost of sales, wages and utilities.

Budgets matter twice. Before the season, they are the numbers your cash plan is built on. During it, the comparison with actual figures tells you early, often by the middle of the second quiet month, whether the season is softer than you planned.

Payments that do not stop

Revenue can fall sharply in a quiet month; many costs do not move at all. List the payments that will leave the bank regardless:

Supplier bills are recorded line by line and can be paid in full or in parts from a chosen bank account. The bills still unpaid when the season turns are cash you owe in the quiet months. Agreeing part payments with the butcher or the linen company before the season, rather than in the middle of it, is a conversation suppliers usually take better.

Deposits and debtors still to come in

Two sources of cash keep arriving after the guests leave.

Debtors: corporate accounts, tour operators and travel agents who stay on credit. Receivables are aged into 0-30, 31-60, 61-90, 91-120 and over 120 days, with overdue totals. Before the quiet months, read that ageing carefully. Money from an agent sitting in the 61-90 column is money you were counting on for wages.

Deposits for future bookings: conferences, weddings and group stays booked for the next high season often pay a deposit during the low one. Bring each confirmed deposit into the plan in the month you expect it, and be cautious: a deposit is cash in the bank but not yet earned, and it may have to be refunded if the booking is cancelled.

Keep the bank reconciliation current throughout. Bank lines are matched by suggestion, a person accepts each match, and a reconciliation completes only when nothing is left unexplained, so the opening balance of your cash plan is a figure you can trust.

Decisions to make before the season turns

With the plan in front of you, the lowest point of cash becomes visible, usually a month or two into the quiet period. Decide now what you will do if it is too low:

1. Close part of the property or a restaurant service on quiet weekdays.
2. Bring forward maintenance only if cash allows, or push it back if not.
3. Arrange an overdraft or facility while the books still show a strong busy season.
4. Agree supplier payment arrangements in advance.
5. Chase overdue debtors before the season ends, not after.

If you run several properties, build the plan per company first and then combine them; running several hotels with separate books explains how to keep each company's figures apart. Schools face a similar planning problem before each term, covered in knowing your cash position before term.

Set aside an afternoon in the last busy month, pull last year's quiet months from the books, and write the plan while there is still time to act on it.

General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.