Three numbers an owner should see every Monday

Most owners see their numbers once a month, two weeks after the month ends. By then, the decisions those numbers should have informed have already been made.

Three numbers, every Monday, before the first meeting of the week, change that. They take minutes to produce once the habit is set up.

The three numbers

• Cash in the bank today, and the forecast for four weeks out.

• Sales booked last week, against the same week last year.

• Money owed to you, split by how long it has been owed.

Why these three

Cash tells you whether you can act. Sales booked tell you what the next month will look like before it arrives. Money owed tells you whether your customers are paying on the terms you agreed, and who to call first.

“Profit is an opinion until it arrives in the bank account.”

Keep it on one page

The Monday report fits on one page or one screen. If it needs explaining, it is too long. The point is that the owner reads it in two minutes and knows which call to make first.

What to do with them

Look for change, not size. A sudden drop in sales booked, or an invoice that has moved into the oldest column, is worth a conversation the same day. Over a quarter, the numbers also show which months are tight, so the overdraft becomes a plan instead of a surprise.

Who prepares it

In a small company, the bookkeeper can prepare the Monday numbers in under an hour once the bank feeds and the sales system are connected. In a larger one, it is the first job of the finance lead each week. Either way, the owner should never have to build it themselves.

Set a time and keep it: the report lands by nine on Monday, every week, even when nothing much has changed. Owners who get the same three numbers at the same time every week start to notice patterns long before they show up in the monthly accounts.

Demo article: written to show the layout, not as advice for your company.