“Stories and lessons from an unexpected journey in finance.”

Revenue is vanity. Profit is sanity. But cash flow? That’s reality.

Over the years, I’ve sat in boardrooms where revenue graphs looked like hockey sticks, and profit margins were trending in the right direction. Everyone was smiling—until I had to deliver the uncomfortable truth: “We don’t have enough cash to make payroll next month.”

Cash flow isn’t glamorous. It doesn’t make for a great press release. But it is the oxygen of business. Without it, growth stories quickly turn into cautionary tales. Here are three common mistakes I’ve seen companies make with cash flow—and how to avoid them.

Mistake #1: Confusing Revenue with Cash

At one company I worked with, sales were up 40% year-over-year. The CEO was thrilled. The board was thrilled. The sales team was popping champagne. Then I opened the aging report. Almost all of our customers were paying us 120+ days late.

On paper, we were growing. In reality, we were robbing Peter to pay Paul. That champagne? It was on credit. The fix is simple: don’t just measure sales, measure collections. Track days sales outstanding closely and incentivize your team to close deals that actually pay on time.

Mistake #2: Ignoring Seasonality and Cyclicality

At another company, where I led finance for a billion-dollar unit, our business was highly cyclical. Q4 always brought a revenue surge. Q1? A desert. Without careful planning, the post-holiday hangover left us scrambling to cover expenses.

Smaller companies make the same mistake—hiring aggressively in good months and then wondering why cash evaporates when business slows. The fix: forecast weekly and monthly cash flow, not just quarterly, and model for seasonality, even if you think your business is steady.

Mistake #3: Treating Cash Flow as a Back-Office Issue

Too many CEOs and boards treat cash flow like it’s an accounting issue. “The CFO will handle it.” Wrong. I once joined a company where cash flow discussions never made it to the executive table. When I introduced a rolling 13-week cash flow model, the room went silent. For the first time, leaders saw how their decisions directly affected liquidity. Hiring, marketing spend, vendor negotiations—it all flowed back to cash. The fix: make cash flow a leadership conversation. Review it in every exec meeting and teach your team how their decisions affect it.

Final Thought

Cash doesn’t lie. It doesn’t care how compelling your growth story is or how many acronyms you put in your pitch deck. Ignore it, and you’ll eventually find yourself gasping.

As a CFO, I’ve learned that cash flow is the clearest measure of reality. Revenue may make you feel good. Profit may make you look good. But cash? Cash is what keeps the lights on.

💡 What’s the biggest cash flow lesson your company has learned the hard way?

#AccidentalCFO #inesec #CashFlow #Finance