Guides · Operating Routines
Run the business on a rhythm.
A business gets better when the same cycle runs every week, month and quarter, a named person answers for each decision, and what was learned is written down for the next one. Each routine below gives the cadence, the inputs, the decision, and what to record.
39 guides · 8 free calculators · 4 templates
Start with a free calculator
Run the numbers on your own figures first. No sign-up; calculations run in your browser.
DSO Calculator
Simple and count-back DSO, best possible DSO, average days delinquent, collection effectiveness index, and the cash one day of DSO is worth.
13-Week Cash Flow Builder
Build a weekly cash forecast from receipt and disbursement lines, find the low-cash week, flag shortfalls and export CSV.
Covenant Headroom Calculator
Headroom on leverage, fixed charge coverage and liquidity covenants, and how far EBITDA can fall before a breach.
Price Waterfall Builder
Build a list-to-pocket price waterfall from discount, rebate, freight and other leakage steps, with CSV export.
DPO Calculator
DPO on COGS, purchases and average AP, the cash value of a day, cash from extending terms, days beyond terms by supplier, and early-pay discount return.
Safety Stock Calculator
Safety stock, reorder point and carrying cost from demand and lead time variability and a service level, with a scenario comparison.
Forecast Accuracy Scorecard
WMAPE, MAPE, bias and tracking signal from your forecast and actual rows, by line and by period, so you can see whether the next forecast needs a better guess or a correction.
Customer Payment Terms Drift Check
Spot customers paying beyond terms or slower than their own pattern, and the cash each one holds. Paste customer rows; runs in your browser.
Weekly cash
One meeting, one forecast, named owners, and a number everyone trusts by Monday.
Cash Flow Operating System: A Weekly Playbook
Build a cash flow operating system: weekly cash call, direct-method 13-week forecast, accuracy tracking, cash governance and a 90-day setup plan.
The 13-Week Cash Flow Forecast Template, Done Right
Most 13-week cash flow forecasts go stale by week 3 -- here's the real methodology and the variance benchmark that shows when your model is lying.
Forecasting Cash Receipts from AR
Forecasting cash receipts from AR: build a weekly collections forecast from invoice due dates, customer payment patterns, and tested promises, in steps.
Covenant Compliance and Headroom Tracking
Covenant headroom tracking: leverage, fixed charge coverage and minimum liquidity formulas, forward testing, add-backs, cure rights and lender timing.
Collections and payables
The cycle that turns invoices into cash and pays suppliers without damaging them.
How to Reduce DSO: A 90-Day Collections Plan
Learn how to reduce DSO: the formulas (simple, count-back, best possible), a diagnostic, and a 90-day collections plan with owners and a worked example.
AR Aging Analysis and Collections Prioritization
AR aging analysis guide: read the aging report, rank collections by expected cash per hour, track roll rates and promises to pay, and set a reserve.
DPO: How to Extend Payables Without Damaging Suppliers
DPO explained: calculate days payable outstanding, audit supplier terms against actual payment days, cost early-pay discounts, and extend payables safely.
AP Process Design: Approval, Matching, and Payment Runs
AP process design guide: 2-way vs 3-way matching, approval matrices, payment run cadence, duplicate payment controls, and GRNI hygiene, with worked math.
Monthly close and reporting
Close on a calendar, explain the variances, and report what changed and why.
Monthly Close Acceleration: A 10-Day Close Plan
Monthly close acceleration made practical: a business-day calendar, diagnostic, accrual and reconciliation fixes, and a worked 18-to-10-day example.
Management Reporting Playbook
A management reporting playbook for mid-market operators: the monthly cycle, owners, templates and variance narrative method, with a worked EBITDA bridge.
Variance Analysis Narrative: Writing the Why
How to write a variance analysis narrative: a materiality rule, five causes, a persistence test and a paragraph structure, with a worked example.
Executive Dashboard Design
Executive dashboard design for operators: choose the metrics, write a metric spec, set thresholds, lay out the page, and keep the numbers trusted.
Board Reporting Pack: Structure and Template
A board reporting pack template for CEOs and CFOs: page-by-page structure, decisions page, scorecard and pre-read calendar, with a worked example.
Lender Reporting Package
Build a lender reporting package that meets your credit agreement: contents, compliance certificate math, a delivery calendar, and a leverage example.
Forecast and plan review
Keep the plan honest: reforecast on a rhythm, test scenarios, and check the forecast against what happened.
Annual Operating Plan Process: A 20-Week Calendar That Ends in Routines
A 20-week annual operating plan process for mid-market teams: the calendar, who approves, and the routines the plan must hand off to so it holds all year.
Forecast Bias vs. Forecast Accuracy: Why a Good Score Can Hide a Lean
Forecast bias shows which way you miss. Accuracy shows by how much. How to calculate both, find a lean in cash, revenue or cost forecasts, and correct it.
Rolling Forecast vs. Annual Budget: Why Forecasts Stall
A rolling forecast is supposed to replace your budget's blind spots. Here's the real reason most of them stop working within months.
Scenario Planning with Driver-Based Models
Scenario planning with driver-based models: pick the drivers that move EBITDA, build base, downside, and upside cases, and set triggers that force action.
Pipeline Coverage and Forecast Accuracy
Pipeline coverage and forecast accuracy: compute required coverage from your own conversion history, then measure forecast bias and error by period.
Strategic Planning Playbook
A strategic planning playbook for mid-market CEOs: set choices, size the gap, cascade into the operating cadence, and track delivery with named owners.
Zero-Based Budgeting for Mid-Market Companies
Zero-based budgeting for mid-market companies: when it pays off, how to build decision packages, rank them, and set a funding line, with a worked example.
Pricing and discount review
Review price, discount and realization on a schedule, before the leak shows up in margin.
Discount Approval Matrix and Governance
Build a discount approval matrix: set authority tiers by margin floor, route approvals by dollars, record exceptions, and review discount outcomes monthly.
Why Price Realization Keeps Drifting After Discount Fixes
Discount governance made price realization look fixed -- then it drifted back. Here's why the leak relocates instead of closing, and what actually holds.
Price Waterfall Analysis: Right on Revenue, Blind on Cost
A price waterfall analysis shows exactly where revenue leaked, list price to pocket margin. It won't tell you if what's left is still profitable to make.
Key Account Management Cadence
Build a key account management cadence: how to select key accounts, write account plans, run quarterly reviews and track account profit, not just revenue.
Customer Profitability Analysis
Run a customer profitability analysis: build net revenue, gross margin, and cost-to-serve by account, draw the whale curve, and decide who to reprice.
Operations rhythm
The planning, capacity and quality cycles that keep promises to customers.
S&OP Process Setup
S&OP process setup for mid-market manufacturers: the monthly cycle, owners, forecast accuracy and bias formulas, templates, and a worked supply gap.
Capacity Utilization and Throughput Analysis
Capacity utilization and throughput analysis: find the bottleneck, calculate OEE, value an hour at the constraint, and decide where added capacity pays.
Quality Cost and Scrap Reduction
Quality cost and scrap reduction: measure the cost of poor quality, build a scrap Pareto, calculate first pass and rolled yield, and rank fixes by dollars.
Lean Visual Management for Plants
Lean visual management for plants: takt time, hourly production boards, kanban sizing, 5S audits, and escalation rules that surface problems fast.
Inventory Optimization: Turns, Safety Stock, and Excess
Inventory optimization guide: calculate turns and DIO, segment SKUs with ABC/XYZ, set safety stock and reorder points by service level, and handle excess.
Operating review and KPIs
The cadence that ties every other routine together, and the metrics it runs on.
Operating Cadence: Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly Rhythms
Build an operating cadence for your company: weekly, monthly and quarterly meetings with agendas, owners, inputs and outputs, plus a worked time budget.
Operating Review System
Build an operating review system that changes results: agenda, decision log, owners, expected outcomes and a follow-up loop, with templates and an example.
KPI Design: Choosing 12 Metrics That Run the Company
KPI design for CEOs: choose 12 metrics that run the company, with selection criteria, a metric definition card, a scoring template and a worked example.
Your EBITDA Bridge Was Right at Entry. Now It's Wrong.
An AI tool can auto-generate an EBITDA bridge template in seconds. The template was never the hard part -- knowing which bar moved is.
Decisions and learning
Who decides, what was decided, and what the business learned, so the next cycle starts from it.
Decision Rights Matrix Template
A decision rights matrix template with bracketed thresholds you fill in: who decides, recommends, is consulted and informed, plus steps to adopt it.
Operational Decision Systems: Recording Decisions and Outcomes
Operational decision systems: how to log decisions, expected outcomes and owners, then compare results later. Decision log template and a worked example.
Operating Model Design Principles
Operating model design principles for mid-market companies: structure, decision rights, handoffs, spans, and governance, with a method for testing options.
Data Foundations for Operating Reporting
Data foundations for operating reporting: metric definitions, system of record, master data, reconciliation, and a 90-day plan for trusted numbers.
Free templates
Working files that go with these guides, with the worked examples already filled in. Enter your name and work email and we send the file personally.
Free template · Excel workbook
13-Week Cash Flow Forecast Workbook
A direct-method 13-week cash forecast with receipts and disbursement lines, minimum liquidity, and weekly variance tracking.
Free template · Excel workbook
Covenant Headroom and Forward Test Tracker
Test leverage, fixed charge coverage and minimum liquidity today and forward, with EBITDA cushion in dollars and percent.
Free template · Word template
Board and Management Reporting Pack Template
A page-by-page board pack structure with variance narrative prompts, scorecard and pre-read calendar.
Free template · Word template
Decision Rights Matrix and 100-Day Communication Plan
A decision rights matrix with bracketed thresholds and a 100-day stakeholder communication schedule.
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