Cash flow is not a problem to solve once. It is a windshield to keep clean.

Most owners we work with run their business off two numbers: the bank balance, and the gut feeling that comes with looking at it. That worked when the business was small. It stops working somewhere between two and ten million dollars in revenue, and it stops working in a hurry.

By the time the bank balance gives you bad news, the decisions that produced the bad news are already three weeks old. You are reacting to a problem that started before you knew it existed.

A 13-week cash flow forecast does not eliminate the bad news. It tells you about it early enough to do something about it.

The 13-week windshield

What it is, and why thirteen weeks.

A 13-week forecast shows you the next quarter, week by week. Cash in. Cash out. Ending balance. Best case. Worst case. The week your covenants get tight. The week your collections need to land. The week the tax payment hits. All of it, before any of it happens.

Thirteen weeks is the right horizon because it is long enough to see real seasonality and short enough that the numbers are still credible. Beyond a quarter, forecasts become wishes. Inside a quarter, they are operating tools.

We build it once. We update it weekly. We review it with you every month. Within the first ninety days, you stop making decisions in the dark.

Where cash hides

Six places we look first when something is not adding up.

• Accounts receivable aging. Old invoices kill more businesses than bad pricing.
• Vendor payment terms. The terms you negotiated five years ago are not the terms you should be on now.
• Inventory drift. The slow build of stuff sitting on shelves because nobody is responsible for moving it.
• Customer concentration. One client is 40% of your revenue. You know who.
• Undisciplined CapEx. Capital expenditures approved one at a time without a framework for what they have to return.
• "Profitable" work that is not. Job costing without overhead allocation produces revenue that does not become cash.

Most of these are fixable. None of them are visible without the right reporting.

If cash is tight right now

Triage first. Then build.

If you are reading this because the situation is acute, you do not need a six-month engagement plan. You need someone in the seat this week. We have done it before. We know how to stop the bleeding without making the underlying problems worse.

Week one is triage. Cash conservation, vendor conversations, banking conversations, the smallest set of decisions that buy you the time to do the work properly. Once the immediate pressure is off, we do the diagnostic and build the systems that prevent the next crisis.

If now is one of those moments, do not wait for a polite hour to call. Pick a time on the scheduler.