I wrote last week about guessing, explaining how the majority of cash stress doesn’t come from recklessness, and how to gain knowledge by understanding the cash rhythm in your business.  This week is about how to replace assumption with that rhythm.

It is cadence, not intelligence, which is the difference between guessing and knowing.

Monthly Is Too Late

A monthly cash review feels responsible.  Here’s the truth bomb: it simply isn’t.

By your month-end:

• Decisions have already been made
• Hiring may already be underway
• Commitments are already signed
• Optimism has already been converted into cost

Monthly reporting only tells you what has happened already.  True cash leadership requires seeing what’s happening in advance.

Weekly Doesn’t Mean Detailed

When I say weekly, people imagine complexity.

• Detailed spreadsheets
• Hours of reconciliation
• Finance-jargon-heavy

In fact, it is the opposite.

Here’s the second truth bomb: Weekly cash review should take ten minutes.

!!!

And it should answer just four questions:

1. What cash does the business have today?
2. What is realistically coming in over the next few weeks?
3. What is definitely going out?
4. Where does that leave us, and what decisions need to be made?

This is not perfect.  However, it is well more than enough to remove most surprises.

The Leadership Rule

There’s one behavioural shift that changes everything:

We NEVER decide anything significant without checking cash first.

No exceptions.  This covers:

• Hiring
• Bonuses
• Investment
• Large supplier commitments
• Changes in pricing

Your cash is fragile and it is foundational.  It cannot be in the background causing anxiety.  It has to be in the foreground leading all decision making.

Why Rhythm Reduces Emotion

Before proceeding, I recognise that many of you will be saying, “Ok Niall, I get it, but how? How do I make this feel stress free?”

Simple: Cadence.

Without a cadence, you will only review cash:

• when it feels tight
• when something breaks
• when someone asks a difficult question

That’s reactive.

Weekly rhythm changes the tone.

When you look every week:

• Pressure is spotted early
• Conversations become calmer
• Optimism gets tested gently
• Bad news arrives smaller

The bank balance doesn’t necessarily improve immediately.  Decision quality does though, and immediately.

Practical Guidance: What to Look At (And What to Ignore)

Always look at:

• Current bank position
• Expected inflows (realistic, not hopeful)
• Fixed outflows
• Upcoming pressure points

You can afford to ignore:

• Micro-variances
• A desire for perfect forecasting
• Emotional swings
• Endless scenario building

You’re looking for signals, not certainty.

Why This Matters Before It Feels Urgent

Most cash problems don’t explode. They drift.  This weekly check stops drift causing a surprise.

It transitions you from:  “I think we’re fine, just not 100% sure though” With:  “Yes, I am really confident that I know where we stand, so let’s do this.”

That shift alone changes how you lead.

Not convinced? Take a real example.  Sir Clive Woodward won the Rugby World Cup in 2003 with England.  At the time all elite sports relied heavily on passion, grit, one to one motivation and raw talent.  Woodward focussed instead on a mundane and relentless set of checks on:

• Reviewing videos of past matches
• Data tracking on individual players
• Fitness metrics

He broke down the unknown in his world into measurable components that gave him the information to make the right decisions, again and again.  At the time this approach was mocked; now every elite team in the world practices it.

”Success is about doing the basics better than anyone else.” Sir Clive Woodward

Next week, I’ll look at what becomes possible when cash is consistently visible, particularly around hiring, pricing, and growth. Because clarity doesn’t just reduce stress. It changes behaviour. And behaviour compounds.