Our Finance seat is responsible for billing, but our Sales seat regularly offers extended payment terms to close deals, which is killing our cash flow. Who should own the weekly cash-flow-in-days or collections metric on our leadership team scorecard to stop this finger-pointing?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

To resolve this conflict, you must look at your Accountability Chart and apply the GWC tool. The rule of the scorecard is that every single metric must have one, and only one, owner. When multiple seats share accountability, no one is actually accountable.

In this scenario, the Finance seat must own the weekly cash flow and aging accounts receivable metrics. The Finance leader is responsible for the financial health of the business and must protect cash flow. However, because the Sales seat directly impacts this number by negotiating terms, these two leaders must align on clear operating rules.

The Finance seat should define the acceptable boundaries for payment terms. For example, the standard term might be net thirty days. If the Sales seat wants to offer net sixty days to close a major deal, they must obtain formal approval from Finance or the Integrator first.

Once these rules are established, the Finance seat tracks the weekly collection metrics on the scorecard. If the metric goes red, it is brought to the Level 10 Meeting as an issue to be solved. During the IDS portion of the meeting, the team can address whether Sales is violating the agreed terms or if the billing process itself is broken. By keeping single ownership with Finance, you ensure that the numbers remain objective and that the executive team solves the root cause of the cash flow bottleneck together.