merchandise you sell in January will be reordered and paid for by March. Heres a word of caution, though: Many suppliers have tightened their terms considerably. It is not unusual for suppliers to expect payment within ten days of the date you receive the merchandise.     WarningKnow suppliers credit policies. If youre not sure of your suppliers policies, its a good idea to check them out before you complete this forecast. A mistake here can result in a dramatically incorrect cash forecast.     Example:Heres how it works for the M & M Copy Shop, which expects a two-month delay between ordering and paying for merchandise:     M & M Copy Shop Cash Flow ForecastCredit Sales and Collections, Six Months ($000s)             Jan Feb Mar Apr May June             Line 4 Credit purchases $2.2 $2.2 $2.5 $2.6 $3.1 $3.3     Line 5 Paying for credit purchases -0- -0- $2.2 $2.2 $2.5 $2.6           Now, enter the dollar amount of credit purchases you entered on line 4, but in a later month, in a similar fashion to the M & M Copy Shop.     6.Withholding Taxes. Most businesses must pay their employees taxes every month. That means that every month you send the IRS the amount of wages youve withheld from your employees paychecks plus the amount youre required to contribute to their Social Security. If you make these tax payments every month, they dont affect your cash flow, so they wont show up on your Cash Flow Forecast.     Some businesses qualify to pay withholding taxes every three months rather than every month. To qualify for the quarterly payment program, you must owe the IRS less than $500 every month. If you do not qualify for the quarterly option or wish to pay every month, skip ahead to line 8. If you wish to explore the quarterly option, read the following discussion of withholding taxes.     When you completed the Profit and Loss Forecast, you added at least 14% to the total wages and salaries you pay each month as an additional expense (Profit and Loss Forecast, line 4b, Withholding Taxes). Thats your mandatory contribution to your employees Social Security fund and federal unemployment insurance. Youll write a check to the government to pay that amount.     In addition, the government also expects you to collect money from your employees for their