Our leadership team Scorecard shows all green lights for weekly sales closed and projects completed, yet our bank account is constantly empty and we are struggling to make payroll. Why is our Scorecard painting a healthy picture when our business is facing a cash crisis, and how do we fix this mismatch?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When your Scorecard is green but your bank account is empty, you are suffering from a dangerous disconnect between operational activity and cash flow. Your current Scorecard is likely tracking vanity metrics or lagging indicators that hide cash bottlenecks.

To fix this, you must introduce weekly cash health metrics onto your leadership team Scorecard. First, track cash on hand. Knowing your exact bank balance every single week keeps the leadership team grounded in reality.

Second, track accounts receivable over sixty days. If your sales team is closing deals and operations is delivering projects, but your finance seat is not collecting the money, you are essentially funding your clients operations for free.

Third, track billing lag, which is the number of days between completing a project and actually sending the invoice. A long billing lag is a silent cash killer.

Finally, track your weekly cash runway. This is a simple calculation of how many weeks of operating expenses you have left in the bank if all revenue were to stop today.

Assign these numbers to your Finance seat owner. When these weekly cash metrics are displayed alongside your sales and delivery metrics, your leadership team will see the direct relationship between operations and cash flow. Reviewing these leading indicators in your Level 10 Meeting allows you to spot cash pinches weeks before they threaten your payroll.