Case study · Cash flow
Thirteen weeks of warning instead of none.
A company was running out of cash without seeing it coming. We installed a forecast and a weekly habit. Now shortfalls show up while there is still time to do something about them.
Client
Name withheld under NDA
Installed
13-week cash flow forecast
Time to install
Inside 30 days
Owned by
CEO, CFO, bookkeeper — weekly
Before
Cash was known only as it arrived
After
A rolling 13-week view, reviewed every week
Shortfall visible here ↓
Illustrative. The point is the distance between the week you spot a problem and the week it lands — that distance is what decides how many options are still open.
The shift
What changed
Before
- Cash crunches arrived with no warning
- No way to see them weeks ahead
- No way to explain where the cash went
- Every shortfall became an unplanned fire
After
- Cash position visible across 13 weeks
- Shortfalls surface with weeks of lead time
- Collections and disbursements reviewed weekly
- Credit line, investors or lender approached on a normal timeline
The work
How it was installed
Build the model
A semi-automated, Excel-based 13-week forecast sized to the business — not a system the company would have to grow into.
Put it inside a meeting that already exists
The company already ran a weekly accounting call. The forecast became its main event, reviewed line by line across collections on one side and disbursements on the other.
Name who owns it
CEO, CFO and bookkeeper review it together every week. A model nobody owns stops being updated inside a quarter.
“The model was the easy part. The process around it is what made it stick.”
Bluebird Partners
The measure that matters
Cash runway
The measure here is cash runway. Before, the company could not say what its runway was. After, it could — and could manage to it.
That is the change worth tracking. Not a figure that moves once, but a number the business can see, question and act on every week.
Why this shows up first after a close
A newly acquired company often has a strong product and a finance function that never caught up to it. Cash visibility is usually where that gap surfaces first.
A 13-week forecast is a small install with a disproportionate return in year one of sponsor ownership: a decision window for the operating team, and a number that does not move every time someone re-cuts the file.
Just closed on a company with immature finance?
Cash visibility is usually the first thing to fix, and the fastest to install.