Negative cashflow but healthy growing balance

[concern]

I have a balance of $241K and a cashflow of -5060, but that balance keeps on going up. Happy, but confused. Anyone have an explanation. Thanks

Update - a few months later my balance is $254k and cashflow is -4000.

[shockk]

bonus income isn't included in cashflow. Its not uncommon for bonus income to actually be your main source of income if you have a high upkeep. The main down side is it can't cover your now crippled research and colony growth

[concern]

bonus income isn't included in cashflow. Its not uncommon for bonus income to actually be your main source of income if you have a high upkeep. The main down side is it can't cover your now crippled research and colony growth

You may be right. It's just a bit disconcerting. If you're going to run your empire at the top level, you need accurate and detailed info. They should allow more drilling down of the figures.

[EnDSchultz]

This was an issue even with DW1 and I really am not sure what can be done about it. So many of the sources of income are irregular and unpredictable, I don't know how you can reliably correlate them into a meaningful trend.

[Carewolf]

Yeah, you will always make a lot of money building private spaceships, but it isn't counted in. And what is worse is that you will have ever increasing money pool if you have a 'by the book' surplus.

[Xirael]

Maybe they could add a second 'corrected by bonus income' cash flow figure that is basically what your effective cash flow would be if your included the avarage bonus income over the last x month/years. The figures are there in the economics screen, you just have to calculate it yourself. However, this is a very easy idea to have, so most likely they tried that but for some reason it was not really helpful and they removed it again?

[Xirael]

On a side note, I also experienced just the opposite. I had a vastly positive cashflow, however, I had basically no money to spend. Whenever I got some cash in, the AI (with some things on automatic of course) immediately spent it. Most likely on troops or starbase/ship retrofits. However, there was no easy way to make sure where the money actually was spent on. I wish 1. there was a way to reserve money for my use even with some automation still on and 2. to see what the AI actaully spent the money on; so basically some kind of log of AI expenses.

[Emperor0Akim]

In DW:U Bonus Income was shown beneath the tax income, like the other post said, not very detailed, but at least you knew that there was incoming money.

Thinking about it, the maintenance costs are hard numbers and don‘t have to add up to a 100%, so in theory you could reduce the numbers until you have money to spend for science and development

I am not at home, if somebody tried, I would like to know if its working

[baldamundo]

On a side note, I also experienced just the opposite. I had a vastly positive cashflow, however, I had basically no money to spend. Whenever I got some cash in, the AI (with some things on automatic of course) immediately spent it. Most likely on troops or starbase/ship retrofits. However, there was no easy way to make sure where the money actually was spent on. I wish 1. there was a way to reserve money for my use even with some automation still on and 2. to see what the AI actaully spent the money on; so basically some kind of log of AI expenses.

Yes this can be really annoying sometimes. A log would be great, but also an option e.g. "only spend above $X" - otherwise it just becomes impossible to save up for things if you're using automation

[Jorgen_CAB]

To be honest this is not actually that important as keeping your cash flow at above zero anyway, you should almost never allow cash flow below zero (and keep reserve at 0%) as doing otherwise will hurt you quite allot.

Bonus income is just what it sounds, bonus income. Just go to the economy tab and you will see it.

Having the last years bonus income shown at the top or the current accumulated this year might be a good idea though... either would be good perhaps. The problem is that bonus income is not a steady stream such as taxes are, so they are more difficult to predict.

Bonus income should be used to speed up research, construct new ships or gifts to better relations with other empires. Taxes is what limits the size of your fleets and armies basically, at least early in the game. Later on taxes can also be used to fund other stuff.

[dostillevi]

It's weird to me that parts of the economy can suffer when "raw" income is negative, but bonus income covers the difference.

This is a very common problem that businesses and governments encounter while budgeting and forecasting. DW2 and DW1 both take the odd stance that certain types of income and certain types of expense get grouped together, while other types of income and other types of expense are treated as completely separate pools.

The current approach tries to group "fixed" income and expenses and separately consider "variable" income and expense. While it's important to know the difference between the two (fixed income/expense is typically well known and won't change unless you take action, while variable can change without any direct action on your part), there's no reason that variable income can't be forecast, with planning based on the net of both fixed and variable income.

DW would benefit greatly from some basic trend analysis built into the economic AI.

Think of a personal budget. Let's say you're a modern employee who works a part time job with a fixed salary. To supplement that job, you also make and sell widgets on Etsy. You know reliably that your salary will come in at the same amount each month, but the income from widget sales is variable. Nevertheless, you budget each month to spend more than your fixed income, and most months you make enough from Etsy to cover the difference. In fact it would be absurd to try and budget on fixed income alone in this scenario, since you'd almost always be earning more than you budgeted for, without the ability to plan to spend that extra income.

[Emperor0Akim]

Good example. To take it a bit further, in DW you are not allowed to pay rent or buy food, even if the cost exceeds your income

[fenmoorz]

Speaking of Positive cash flow but never gaining real cash.

I understand that the AI must be spending it all, but I have run 3 game years now and put all troop building and ship upgrades on manual doing NOTHING... Not even spending on research.

With a cash flow of 50K+ I still cannot get above 30k cash on hand. What else could the AI be spending the money on? It is not planetary facilities, troops or ships.

I am trying to save up for Limited Terraforming buildings but will never get there at this rate.

[StormingKiwi]

Retrofits

[PvtNumnutz]

I'd go check out Scotts guide, he has a really handy graphic that shows the flow of money.