Jeff Cornwall writes a blog post about collecting receivables, which makes me itch to post about planning for cash flow. I am afraid that I might sound like a broken record… but CASH IS KING.

While you can certainly look into companies or tools that help you collect receivables to keep the cash flowing into your company, I think its even more important to plan your business and understand your financials so that you see the big cash picture. Play around with our BPLANS.COM cash flow calculator – it can give you some really good insight into what a VERY large order might do to your cash flow. But more importantly, set up your forecast, and build receivables into it. If it takes, on average, 60 days for your customer to pay — you CAN deal with it — as long as you know it. Once you establish a history a bank WILL give you a credit line based on your receivables.

So people – stop, listen, and PLAN. You will sleep better at night understanding where the money is, and when its getting into your hands.

-Sabrina Parsons, aka, Mommy CEO

AvatarSabrina Parsons

Sabrina has served as CEO of Palo Alto Software since 2007.