A cash summary every Monday morning

Most small businesses run on a felt sense of cash. It is usually roughly right and occasionally very wrong, and the wrong weeks are expensive because the decision that needed the real number was made on the feeling.

A one-page summary, every Monday, before anyone asks for it.

Decide the four numbers you actually steer by

Not a management accounts pack. Four numbers you would want if someone woke you up: what is in the bank, what is owed to you and how overdue, what you owe and when, and what that leaves in a fortnight.

Anything else is analysis, and analysis is a different document with a different rhythm.

Write the job

Every Monday at 6am, write a one-page cash summary.

  IN THE BANK   current balance across accounts
  OWED TO US    total outstanding, and how much is more than 30 days late
  WE OWE        what is due in the next 14 days
  LEAVES        projected balance in 14 days if the above happens on time

Then one short paragraph: what changed since last Monday and why.

One page. No charts. If a number moved more than 20 percent since last
week, say what caused it.

If you cannot get a figure, say which one and why rather than leaving it
blank or carrying last week's forward.

"Never carry last week's number forward" is the rule that keeps this trustworthy. A summary that silently repeats a stale balance looks exactly like a summary reporting a quiet week, and it is the one failure that would let this document be confidently wrong for a fortnight. A visible gap is always better than a plausible stale number.

Read the last paragraph first

The four numbers are the record. The paragraph about what changed is the part that occasionally makes you do something, and it is worth insisting it says "why" rather than restating the movement.

"Receivables up £40k" is the number again. "Receivables up £40k because Northwind's two invoices both went past 30 days" is a Monday morning phone call.

Keep it to one page forever

Cash summaries grow. Someone asks for a breakdown, then a chart, then a comparison, and within two quarters it is a pack nobody reads on a Monday.

Resist. The value is entirely in it being short enough to read before coffee.

What good looks like

You start every week knowing the four numbers and one sentence about what moved, without asking anyone.

The measure is whether you stop asking your bookkeeper for ad hoc balance checks. If you still do, the summary is missing the number you actually steer by.