Cash Flow
You can set Start and End of a cash flow plan, and you know which payments the period columns show and which go into Before and After.
**Start** and **End** in the left-hand panel set the plan window. KOSMA counts payments dated before the first column in the **Before** column, and payments dated after the last column in the **After** column.
When you open a plan for the first time, KOSMA fills in both dates. **Start** is the day of the first payment, **End** the day after the last payment. KOSMA takes these payments from the budget, the financing plan and the VAT. For a plan that reads a cost control set, KOSMA takes the cost items instead of the budget accounts. Until a cash flow rule gives an amount a date, **Start** and **End** stay empty. This message then appears instead of the grid and again under **Start** and **End**:
Set Start and End to see the cash flow.
**Linked Sources** also shows a red bubble on the source, because some accounts or sources have no cash flow rule. As long as there are no payments, the limits set by the first and last payment (see below) do not apply. KOSMA saves a date you type or pick like any other change, and you can undo it. The plan only shows amounts once you set cash flow rules, see [set a cash flow rule on an account](/kb/article/set-a-cashflow-rule-on-an-account) and [set a cash flow rule on a source](/kb/article/set-a-cashflow-rule-on-a-source).
- **Start**: from the day of the first payment up to **End**. - **End**: from **Start** up to the day after the last payment.
Type the date into the box, or click  **Open calendar** and pick the day. If you type a date outside them, KOSMA does not save it. You cannot remove a date: if you empty the box, the plan keeps the previous date.
With a licence that does not cover Cash Flow, or on a plan shared with you for reading only, KOSMA does not save a change to **Start** or **End**. To find out who can change a plan, see [what a cash flow plan reads](/kb/article/what-a-cash-flow-plan-reads).
The first period column begins on **Start**. For the length of each period, see [read the cash flow grid](/kb/article/read-the-cash-flow-grid). The last column always covers a full period, so it can end after **End**.
For example, in the demo project the plan that reads the budget runs weekly from 17 April 2026 to 3 March 2027. Its last column covers 26 February to 4 March 2027. A payment on 4 March 2027 still appears in that column, a payment from 5 March on in **After**. **Before** adds up the payments dated before **Start**, **After** those dated after the last column ends. With the dates KOSMA sets, no payment lies outside. **Before** and **After** fill only when you narrow the window.
**Total** includes **Before** and **After**. **Before** and **After** appear only when they contain money, and **Before** also appears when the plan has an opening balance other than zero. See [read the Before and After columns](/kb/article/read-the-balance-rows).
When you change **Start** or **End**, KOSMA sorts the same payments into other period columns or into **Before** and **After**. A narrower window deletes no payment, and a wider one adds none. A row's **Total** stays the same whatever dates you set.
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