Cash flow is not a spreadsheet hobby. It is whether you can pay next week. Profit on paper can still mean an empty account if invoices are late and expenses are not.
You do not need to become an accountant. You need three lists you look at often.
#What customers owe you
Every issued invoice that is not paid. Age it: this week, this month, older. If you cannot produce that list without asking someone, you are running blind. Issuing faster — see Getting paid as a new company — is the first lever.
#What you owe
Rent, software, the accountant, supplier invoices. Purchase invoices from the tax authority should not live only in their inbox. Sync expenses so costs show up next to sales.
#What the bank says
A transfer is not “probably that invoice.” Match it. Unmatched credits are customers you think paid and did not, or money you cannot explain. See Match Payments.
#A rule that saves founders
Do not spend a “profit” you have not collected. VAT you will have to pay is not extra cash. If the account looks fat the week after a big invoice, check whether that invoice is paid and whether output VAT is still yours to keep.
#When financing is the next step
If the books are readable — invoices, expenses, bank — you have something a lender can look at. That is later. First, see the three lists. Invoi Capital is for when the activity is already there.
#Next
- Hire an accountant — someone on the filings, you on the lists
- Getting paid as a new company — stop the delay before the money moves