When we take over a client's books, the first month is archaeology and the second month is a shock: the owner sees, often for the first time, what the business has been quietly telling them. None of it needs a finance degree. It needs twelve numbers, computed the same way every month, read side by side with last month. This is that list.
The dashboard
| # | Number | What it answers | Watch when |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Revenue vs last year | Is the business actually growing? | Growth below your input inflation |
| 2 | Gross margin % | Do you make money on the thing itself? | Any drop over 1 point month-on-month |
| 3 | Net margin % | Does the whole machine make money? | Trending down while sales grow |
| 4 | Cash runway | Months of fixed costs you hold in cash | Below 3 months |
| 5 | Debtor days | How long customers sit on your money | Above your stated credit terms |
| 6 | Creditor days | How long you sit on suppliers' money | 45-day MSME rule exposure |
| 7 | Inventory days | How long stock waits to become sales | Rising while sales are flat |
| 8 | Cash conversion cycle | Days 5 + 7 − 6: money locked in operations | Lengthening quarter over quarter |
| 9 | Current ratio | Near-term assets vs near-term dues | Below ~1.33, the common bank norm |
| 10 | DSCR | Cash profit vs loan obligations | Below 1.5 if you ever want bank money |
| 11 | Customer concentration | Share of sales from your top customer | One name above 25–30% |
| 12 | Owner's true take | What the business really pays you, all-in | Less than you would earn employed |
The three that save businesses
Gross margin is the early-warning system. Sales can grow while the business dies — rising input costs, quiet discounting and product-mix drift all erode the margin months before the bank balance notices. Date the drift, find the cause, reprice. Our markets guide covers the input-cost side of this.
The cash conversion cycle is where growth kills. Double the sales of a business with a 90-day cycle and you must find three months of extra working capital — growth consumes cash before it returns cash. Shorten the cycle first (collect faster, hold less stock, negotiate terms) and the same growth funds itself. The 45-day MSME payment rule is a legal lever on the debtor side — and a constraint on the creditor side if your own suppliers are registered MSMEs.
Customer concentration is the risk owners rationalise. One customer at 40% of revenue is not a relationship; it is an employer who can fire you without notice, and every lender reading your file prices it that way.
Where the numbers come from
Every one of the twelve falls out of ordinary books kept current — sales and purchase registers, bank reconciliations, stock records, and a debtor/creditor ageing. That is the real argument for bookkeeping discipline: not compliance, but sight. Books that are three months behind are a rear-view mirror angled at the sky. If yours are behind, a backlog cleanup is the unglamorous first step; the dashboard comes free after that.
When a lender reads them
Bankers compress your business into four of these: DSCR above 1.5, current ratio near 1.33, debtor days consistent with your trade, and margins stable across three years. If a loan is part of your plan, run those four on projected numbers now — that is precisely the modelling a CMA report formalises, and fixing a weak ratio a year early beats explaining it in the branch.
How we can help
Our bookkeeping and MIS retainers produce this dashboard monthly — computed from reconciled books, compared to last month, with the two or three items worth a decision flagged in plain language. When the decisions get bigger — pricing, expansion, borrowing, a partner exit — our Virtual CFO engagement puts a finance brain on your side of the table for a fraction of a hire.
See what this looks like in practice: nine months of backlog to a clean MIS →
This article is general information, not financial advice. Benchmarks vary by industry and model; confirm specifics for your business before acting.