Guide
You don’t really know your numbers. Here are the five that matter.
Most owners get a monthly report weeks after the month ends, and it’s mostly about tax. You need a few numbers every week, while you can still do something about them.
The five
Cash in four weeks
Today’s balance, plus what’s due in over the next four weeks, minus what’s due out. The single best early warning there is.
Money owed to you, by age
How much, and how long it’s been owed. Anything past 30 days is a loan you didn’t agree to.
Margin on the work you did
What you charged, minus what it cost to deliver, as a share of the price. Example: a $10,000 job that cost $7,000 to deliver is a 30% margin.
Enquiries in, and how many became work
Tells you whether a slow month is a demand problem or a follow-up problem. They need opposite fixes.
Weeks of work booked ahead
How full the calendar is. Falling for three weeks in a row is a signal to act on before it shows up in the bank.
Check it yourself this week
- Write down all five for this week, from memory, before you look anything up.
- Now check each one against your actual records.
- Anything you couldn’t write down, or got wrong by more than 10%, is where to start.
When it’s worth getting help
If pulling the five takes your bookkeeper a day, they’ll never be weekly. The fix is a live view that pulls them from the systems you already use, so they’re there every Monday without anyone typing them.
That’s often the first thing we build. Fixed price, and you keep it.
Want the five in front of you every week? Before we talk, Joe reads your business from what’s public and sends a one-page read of where it’s most likely leaking. You commit to nothing.