Busy business. Empty bank account.
A full diary hides an empty account
A tiling crew is booked out and the owner works weekends, yet the business account is almost empty. The accounts show sales, but suppliers are asking for payment and the owner cannot explain the gap. More bookings feel like the obvious answer. First, the business needs to follow the money already earned and distinguish profit on paper from cash available to pay the next bills.
Follow a completed job from quote to cash
Choose several finished jobs and compare the quoted price, final invoice and amount actually collected. Add the real labour, materials, subcontractor and rework costs. Look for extras completed without approval or invoicing.
This exercise shows whether the business is waiting for money it earned or doing work that never produced a sufficient margin. Those are different problems. A collection push cannot fully repair an underpriced job, and a price increase cannot collect an overdue account already on the books.
Locate the money outside the bank account
List overdue invoices, unbilled completed work, retentions and stock waiting to be used. Identify the action needed to turn each into a receipt. Mark disputes and uncertain amounts separately.
Assign a person and next date to the largest items. A balance labelled debtors can contain accounts at very different stages. Knowing which customer is awaiting a corrected invoice is more useful than simply asking the bookkeeper to chase everyone harder.
Look for cash leaving outside ordinary job costs
Review loan repayments, asset purchases, owner withdrawals and irregular bills alongside operating expenses. Some payments reduce cash without appearing as an ordinary job cost in the way the owner expects. Ask the accountant to reconcile the difference.
Avoid treating an apparently profitable month as permission to spend the bank balance. Tax, wages and supplier commitments may already have a claim on that money in the cash plan. A simple reconciliation can explain why reported profit and available cash differ.
Choose the first practical correction
Select the largest controllable cause: unfinished billing, slow collection, poor pricing or spending unrelated to current work. Set one measurable action rather than a broad instruction to improve cash flow.
Business.gov.au recommends examining pricing, receipts and costs together. Review the result after the action: did cash arrive, did a margin improve, or was a cost genuinely removed? If the company still cannot meet debts, seek a wider assessment promptly.
Locate the cash pressure
Trace three finished jobs through actual costs, invoices and cleared receipts.
List the five largest amounts outside the bank and the action needed to collect or release them.
Reconcile unusual cash payments and choose a dated correction for the biggest controllable gap.
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