Service
13-week cash flow and liquidity management
When the question is “will we make it to the end of the quarter”, annual ratios are useless. I count in weeks: a thirteen-week cash ledger, a payables queue, a safety threshold instead of zero and scenarios, each with the number of weeks it buys computed.
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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Frequently asked questions
Why thirteen weeks and not months?
Because in a tight situation payments are not spread evenly across the month: contributions and payroll on the 10th, VAT on the 25th, instalments at month-end. A monthly forecast shows a positive month-end balance while the company cannot pay on the 10th. A week is the longest period in which you can still react.
How fast can it be built?
A first version within days of receiving statements and registers — in a liquidity crisis time matters more than elegance. Scenarios and the dashboard are refined the following week, in parallel with the first decisions.
Do you help with the bank?
Yes — I prepare a pack that answers the analyst’s questions before they are asked, and I can attend the meeting as the numbers person. Raising and restructuring financing worth many millions of złoty is part of my track record.
What if the ledger shows we will not make it?
Then it is the most important piece of information the company has received this year — and it received it in advance. The ledger shows which creditors need to be asked and for how much, what an asset sale yields, and whether restructuring proceedings make sense. Better to know in week two than in week twelve.
Let’s talk about your situation
Write a few sentences about the company and the problem. I reply within two working days and the first conversation is free.
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