Bookings are up, yet cash keeps feeling tight
Question
I’m booking more projects than ever and my rates are up. But cash keeps feeling tight: invoices go out late when I’m busy, a few big clients pay unpredictably, and tax time hurts. Some months I’m flush and then I’m scrambling. How can things feel fragile when work is growing?
Answer ✅
Growth can hide cashflow instability. If invoices slip, a few clients dominate receivables, or expenses batch up around travel and gear, you can “win work” while runway shortens. SSM-Audit adds a stability band beside the numbers you already track, so you see whether your practice runs calm and repeatable or is spiky and luck-dependent—before missed payments or tax shocks.
What the bands would have shown 📊
• Booking cadence stability sliding A+ -> A0 (projects cluster, gaps between starts widen)
• Invoice issuance timeliness degrading to A- (invoices sent days late when workload spikes)
• Receivables aging stability weakening A0 -> A- (30/45/60-day drift grows on key clients)
• Client concentration stability dipping A0 -> A- (top-2 clients > 60% of AR)
• Expense cadence stability softening A+ -> A0 (gear/travel spend bunches; cash dips)
• Tax/VAT reserve discipline tilting A0 -> A- (set-asides irregular; quarter-end bite)
What to do now 🛠️
- Band the practice: track booking cadence, invoice timeliness, aging stability, client concentration, expense cadence, tax/VAT reserve weekly.
- Invoice on autopilot: when invoice band < A0, switch to milestone-based auto-issuance and require deposits on new work.
- De-risk AR: if aging band < A0, tighten terms, add late-fee policy, and break large invoices into smaller milestones.
- Diversify demand: when client concentration band < A0, cap exposure per client and run a 2-week pipeline push.
- Smooth expenses: if expense band < A0, split big purchases; adopt monthly envelopes for travel/gear.
- Protect taxes: enforce automatic set-aside per receipt; when reserve band < A0, lock a dedicated account until A0+.
How SSM-Audit helps (practicalities) 🌟
• No additional infrastructure: runs beside your spreadsheet, invoicing app, and bank downloads.
• Numbers unchanged: bookings, invoices, and balances stay the same; stability is a read-only overlay.
• Easy to use: spreadsheet/BI friendly; a tiny weekly ritual you can do in 15 minutes.
• Universal language: A++ / A+ / A0 / A- / A– aligns you, your bookkeeper, and (if any) your accountant fast.
CLI 💻 — try our mini Calculator to identify the drift
(Mini CLI Download Page)
Feed your CSVs and see bands and drift at a glance (numbers unchanged).
# Booking cadence (new project starts per week)
ssm_audit_mini_calc freelance.csv --kpi "Booking Cadence" \
--out bands_booking.csv --plot_kpi "Booking Cadence" --build_id free
# Invoice issuance timeliness (days from milestone to invoice)
ssm_audit_mini_calc freelance.csv --kpi "Invoice Timeliness" \
--out bands_invoices.csv --plot_kpi "Invoice Timeliness" --build_id free
# Receivables aging stability (share >30/>45/>60)
ssm_audit_mini_calc freelance.csv --kpi "Receivables Aging Stability" \
--out bands_aging.csv --plot_kpi "Receivables Aging Stability" --build_id free
# Client concentration stability (top-N share of AR)
ssm_audit_mini_calc freelance.csv --kpi "Client Concentration Stability" \
--out bands_clients.csv --plot_kpi "Client Concentration Stability" --build_id free
# Expense cadence stability (variance-normalized monthly spend)
ssm_audit_mini_calc freelance.csv --kpi "Expense Cadence Stability" \
--out bands_expense.csv --plot_kpi "Expense Cadence Stability" --build_id free
# Tax/VAT reserve discipline (pct of inflows auto-reserved)
ssm_audit_mini_calc freelance.csv --kpi "Tax Reserve Discipline" \
--out bands_tax.csv --plot_kpi "Tax Reserve Discipline" --build_id free
Outputs you will get:
• CSVs with stability bands for each timestamp (e.g., bands_aging.csv).
• Drift charts per KPI (--plot_kpi) showing exactly where cashflow becomes lumpy.
• Optional alerts if you enable thresholds in your setup.
Technical notes
Representation: x = (m, a) with a in (-1, +1)
Collapse parity: phi((m,a)) = m
Order-invariant pooling:
U = sum(w_i * atanh(a_i))
W = sum(w_i)
a_out = tanh( U / max(W, eps_w) )
Typical bands (example):
A++: a >= 0.75
A+: 0.50 - 0.75
A0: 0.25 - 0.50
A-: 0.10 - 0.25
A--: a < 0.10
Navigation
Back: SSM-Audit Q&A Series – Suppliers (Tier-2/Tier-3) (Question 40)
Next: SSM-Audit Q&A Series – Restaurant Service Cadence (Question 42)
Page disclaimer
Illustrative scenario for research and education. Observation-only; do not use for critical decisions without independent validation.
SHUNYAYA 