The Numbers to Watch Every Week

The finances usually get a proper look once a month, when the books close, and that is the right place for depth. But a handful of numbers move fast enough that a monthly check lets a problem run for weeks before it shows up. Cash, burn and pipeline can turn in days. Watching the fast-moving few every week, for a few minutes, is one of the most useful habits a founder can build, because it catches a problem while it is still small enough to fix.

You do not need many numbers. Four are usually enough, and each is more useful watched as a trend than read as a single figure.

Cash in the bank

Start with the simplest and most important number: how much cash you actually have. Not the figure from last month’s report, the balance today, across your accounts and net of anything already committed. You should know this number at any time, without having to look it up. Knowing it to the week, rather than the month, is the first line of defence against the cash-flow panic that catches companies who only check when the books close.

Net burn and the runway it implies

Next, how fast the cash is moving and how long it lasts. Your net burn is what leaves each month after what comes in; your runway is the cash divided by that burn. Watched weekly, what matters is the direction. If your runway is falling faster than you expected, two or three weeks running, that is an early warning worth acting on before the monthly close confirms it. This is the same discipline behind spending a raise without running out, brought down to a weekly view.

New revenue and the pipeline behind it

Revenue already booked tells you how last month went. The pipeline behind it tells you how the next few will go, which is why both belong on the page. Track what you closed this week and what is realistically close to closing, so a slowdown shows up in the pipeline before it shows up in revenue. If the pipeline is thinning while revenue still looks healthy, you have spotted a problem a month before it would otherwise show up in the numbers.

The one operating metric that predicts your quarter

Every business has one number that, more than any other, tells you whether the quarter is on track. For one company it is new customers, for another it is cash collected, for another it is units shipped or a single large deal moving through stages. Find yours, and put it on the weekly page beside the money. This is the same number behind the test in do I need a CFO yet. If you cannot name the metric that decides your quarter, working out what it is matters as much as any number on the page.

Make it a habit, on one page

The numbers only help if you actually look at them, so keep the whole thing to a single page and a standing fifteen minutes each week. A simple spreadsheet is enough to begin; the tool matters far less than the routine. The same time each week, on the same page. Over a few months the habit does something a monthly report never can: it puts the direction of the business in your hands in real time, so you are steering rather than reacting.

What this means for founders

A weekly financial review is a small habit with a large payoff. Fifteen minutes on four numbers, watched as trends, is the difference between finding out about a problem while you can still fix it and finding out when it is already a crisis. Keep it simple, keep it regular, and let the monthly close handle the depth. The point of the weekly view is speed, catching the turn early enough to do something about it.

At The SME CFO we help founders across Africa and the diaspora build the weekly page and the monthly rhythm behind it, so you always know where the business stands. If you want help setting yours up, book a consultation.