Cash · 4 min read
Cash flow visibility 30-90 days out
Knowing today’s balance is not visibility. Visibility is a rolling view of what is committed, what is likely, and what will not clear, far enough ahead to change a decision.
Cash visibility is talked about as if it were a dashboard. It is a calendar. The question is not “what is in the account.” The question is “what does the next six to thirteen weeks look like if the world is only as kind as it has been.”
Thirty days catches payroll, rent, and the invoice you are sure will land. Ninety days catches the tax estimate, the insurance, the slow-pay customer, the job that starts before it bills, and the hire whose first three paychecks arrive before their work does. That is the window where growing companies get hurt.
A usable 13-week view is almost always a spreadsheet at first. Beginning cash. Inflows by week, named (not “collections”). Outflows by week, named (payroll, vendors, tax, draws, debt). A row for the gap. Update it every Friday. Highlight the weeks that go negative even if the month is “fine.”
The expensive surprises in a growing company almost never happen today. They happen in week six.
Do not wait for perfect integrations. The first forecast built from the bank, the open invoices, and the known bills will already be more honest than the P&L. Integrations come after the habit, not before.
When this is working, the tone of the company changes. Hires get a date. Draws get a rule. The owner stops treating tightness as weather. Finance becomes something you can point at, which is the beginning of trusting it.
If you cannot currently see 30-90 days with enough confidence to bet a hire on it, that is the first finding a clarity diagnostic will surface, and the first thing worth fixing.
See where you stand
The free diagnostic turns this from a general problem into your score, your gaps, and an order of operations.
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