OPS.14:4.4 - Check timing, funding and horizon effects

Calculate each alternative’s net cash within the horizon, then the difference between alternatives. State the direction: completing now minus deferring, for example. Keep this difference distinct from the net cash of either option.

Lay out consequential advance payments and later receipts. Determine whether available authorized funds cover each payment when due, taking prior payments, receipt dates and other obligations on the same funds into account. A favorable final balance can coexist with an earlier funding gap.

Show material flows just outside the horizon and test whether extending it changes the conclusion. A timing advantage can be useful for the receiving cash decision; describe its duration and effect. For longer-lived assets, financing, taxes, discounting or statutory accounting, request the qualified result needed by that use. The simple undiscounted comparison below does not answer those questions.

A fixed annual allocation can be an inadequate description of current need. Refresh the operating forecast and request a resource or funding decision where conditions have changed. A revised forecast itself grants no spending authority.