Business Analytics

The five numbers every small business should watch weekly

15 February 2024 · 5 min read

Many owners only look closely at their numbers once a year, when the accounts arrive from the accountant. By then the story is history, and the moment to change it has long passed. A small set of numbers watched weekly turns your data from a post-mortem into an early warning system that still leaves time to act.

Start with cash

Cash in the bank, plus the cash you expect to come in and go out over the next few weeks, is the number that keeps businesses alive. Profitable businesses still fail when cash runs dry at the wrong moment, caught out by a big bill or a slow payer. Watching a simple rolling view weekly means you see a squeeze forming while you still have options, rather than discovering it on payday.

Then the leading indicators

Add new enquiries, because they predict future revenue before it appears. Add sales made or proposals accepted, because they confirm the pipeline is converting. Add overdue invoices, because unpaid work is cash you have already earned but not received. And add one measure specific to your business, whatever most closely tracks its health, such as utilisation, bookings, or units shipped.

Make it a ritual, not a project

The habit matters more than the tooling. A five-minute look at the same five numbers every Monday, ideally at the same time, builds an instinct for what normal looks like, so the abnormal jumps out at you. A fancy dashboard reviewed twice a year will never do that, however pretty it is.

Five numbers, a few minutes a week. Seen regularly, they give you the one thing annual accounts never can, which is time to act while acting still makes a difference.