Practical Cash Management
Practical cash management for small business owners
Straightforward thoughts, lessons and practical guidance about the money coming into your business, the money going out and the money you're working hard to keep.
Understand it. Forecast it. Manage it. Protect it.
Cash management is not reserved for multinationals with treasury departments. Every business manages cash. The difference is whether it does so deliberately, or simply reacts to whatever appears in the bank account. Most of what follows is habits, routines, questions and controls — not systems.
- Understand it
- Know what money genuinely belongs to the business, and what the bank balance actually means.
- Forecast it
- Look beyond today's balance and see what is already coming towards you.
- Manage it
- Build simple routines and deliberate decisions around timing.
- Protect it
- Put sensible controls around the cash the business worked hard to generate.
- Understand it
Cash Management Isn't Just for Big Businesses
Good cash management isn't about having a treasury department. It's about knowing what's coming in, what's going out and what needs your attention.7 min read - Understand it
Your Business Bank Account Is Not Your Personal Wallet
If you can't clearly see where your money ends and the business's money begins, you can't really see the business's cash position at all.6 min read - Forecast it
Your Bank Balance Isn't the Same as the Cash You Can Spend
Money sitting in your account may already have somewhere else to go. Available cash is what's left once you've counted the things you've already committed to.7 min read - Manage it
Cash Management Needs Discipline, Not a Finance Department
Good cash management is repetitive and mostly uneventful. That is the point — the routine is what stops surprises from becoming emergencies.7 min read - Protect it
You've Earned the Cash. Now Protect It.
You work hard to generate cash. Protecting it deserves the same attention as earning it — and the controls that matter are mostly simple.7 min read
From reading to a routine
These pieces explain the thinking. The course puts it in order — a step-by-step routine for understanding, forecasting, managing and protecting the cash in your business, drawn from more than twenty years of international banking, treasury and cash management practice.