Cash Is Not Profit

Anyone running or helping run a business that has customers and still runs out of money, and anyone about to start one. No accounting background is assumed.

What you will be able to do

Explain, with a worked example, how a profitable business runs out of cash.
Build a rolling thirteen-week cash forecast for a real business.
Identify the week it would break, and what would prevent it.
Manage receivables and supplier terms as decisions rather than habits.
Read a bank balance as a symptom rather than as a score.

How this is assessed

A thirteen-week cash forecast with the break week identified

Submit a working spreadsheet plus a short written note, for one real business — your own, a family business, or a small business that agrees to share its figures. The forecast must be built from actual inflows and outflows rather than from a template: receivables aged, supplier terms stated, seasonality reflected. Include one stress case with the break week identified and two specific costed remedies, and half a page on which remedy the owner should take first and why. A practitioner reads it against the rubric below and returns a written mark. If it does not pass, you get the reasons and one resubmission. Anonymise the business and its customers if it is not your own.

Grade	What earns it
Pass	A complete thirteen-week forecast built from real figures, with inflows dated by expected receipt rather than by invoice date.
Merit	A stress case that identifies a genuine break point, with specific costed remedies rather than general advice.
Distinction	Remedies prioritised against the business's actual constraints, with the reasoning visible and the arithmetic underneath it.

Before you submit

Thirteen weeks, opening and closing balance carried week to week.
Money in is dated by when it will truly arrive, not by when you invoice.
Money out includes wages, rent, suppliers, and the irregular payments people forget.
Receivables are aged and supplier terms are stated as they actually are.
One stress case is run and the week the balance goes below zero is named.
Two remedies are costed, not just described.
For merit: the break point is genuine and the remedies are specific to this business.
For distinction: the remedies are ranked against the constraints this owner actually has.

Handing it in

Marked by an accountant, financial controller, or business owner who has managed cash through a genuine shortfall. You will need an account to submit, so that the mark has somewhere to land. Sign in or create one. The modules are open either way.

Modules

7 modules, self-paced. Nothing is timed and nothing is scored.