Cash and margin: two numbers still reconciled in someone’s head
Claudius Mutevhe, Cipher Labs ·
Cash and margin are two numbers many companies already care about. The problem is they often live in different files, updated on different clocks. Only the person who already knows the gaps can make them agree.
When that is the task, the work is lining those clocks up: what landed in the bank, what the books say, what stock did, and where the story diverges. Systems are not always the bottleneck. The weekly read is. Other tasks, including product, risk, and growth, need a different cut.
Our analytics work is to make the read decision-grade: fewer surprises, a clearer exception list, and software only where the decision has to repeat.
Cash against books
R’000
| Net profit per management accounts | 1 240 |
|---|---|
| Add: depreciation | 310 |
| Less: increase in trade debtors | (620) |
| Less: stock build | (455) |
| Less: capital spend | (380) |
| Cash movement per books | 95 |
| Cash movement per bank statements | agreed95 |