13-week cash flow and liquidity management

When it makes sense

• A payment jam, client delays, the first deferred supplier payments.
• A conversation with the bank about a working-capital facility, an extension or covenants – the bank wants to see weeks, not a year.
• A shareholder conflict or restructuring: one number nobody can challenge is needed.
• Fast growth that “eats” cash even though the result looks fine.
• Seasonality – the dip nobody plans for every year.

How I work

1. 1Bank statements, not plansActual inflows and outflows from the last 8–13 weeks of statements, the receivables and payables registers with due dates, the list of recurring payments (payroll, contributions, VAT, instalments, rent). The sales plan enters only as a scenario, with its own probability.
2. 2The thirteen-week ledgerWeek by week: opening balance, inflows by source, outflows by category, closing balance and distance from the safety threshold. The payables queue settled FIFO – with the amount at risk of deferral, not a balance forecast.
3. 3Scenarios priced in weeksWhat deferring supplier payments by two weeks gives, what factoring selected clients gives, what a cost cut gives, what an owner injection gives. Each scenario has two numbers: how many weeks it buys and what it costs. A list of decisions, not a wish list.
4. 4A dashboard refreshed weeklyThe ledger only makes sense if it lives. I build it so the accountants can refresh it in an hour every Monday and the board sees what the accountants see – one number: weeks to threshold.

What you get

• A 13-week cash ledger in Excel – with the payables queue, the threshold and scenarios – ready to be refreshed.
• A weekly dashboard (30/60/90-day card) for the board and a short note: which decisions buy how many weeks.
• A pack for the bank or an investor: ledger, assumptions, sources – in a form a credit analyst will find credible.
• Refresh instructions for the accountants – the tool must work without me.

Calculator: how many weeks of cash are left