Our sales and project delivery metrics are consistently green every week, yet our operating cash balance is dropping and we are drawing on our line of credit. What specific cash and working capital metrics are we missing on our leadership Scorecard?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Sales volume and on-time project completion do not guarantee liquidity. When sales and delivery are green but cash drops, your working capital is trapped in operational friction between project execution and invoicing. A profitable business can run out of money if operational milestones do not translate into immediate, collected funds.

To fix this blind spot, add two specific operational cash flow indicators to your leadership Scorecard owned by the Finance or Operations seat:
- Accounts receivable over 30 days outstanding. Set a tight numerical ceiling, such as under 10 percent of total receivables or a hard dollar cap.
- Unbilled work in progress aging. Track the dollar value of completed work that has not yet been invoiced past five business days.
- Weekly cash collections against billing target.

When delivery teams finish milestones, invoicing must occur within 24 to 48 hours. If invoicing lags, delivery appears green on your Scorecard while the company quietly finances client operations for free. Tracking unbilled work in progress and aged receivables forces your team to treat billing and collections as critical operational steps, not administrative afterthoughts.

By monitoring weekly cash collections and unbilled work in progress alongside top-line delivery metrics, you eliminate the disconnect between operational activity and actual bank balance health.