The job is 70% complete. The first invoice goes out at 100%.

Between the day work starts and the day an invoice is raised sits a pile of money that appears on no report and belongs to no one.

By Steve 5 min read
Abstract bridge artwork for The job is 70% complete. The first invoice goes out at 100%.

A project business with good margins and no cash is one of the most common situations we see. The gross margin holds up. The order book is full. Debtor days are respectable. And yet every month the bank balance is tighter than the profit and loss statement says it should be. The usual suspects, slow payers, overtrading, a bad job, get investigated and cleared. The money is somewhere else: in the gap between the day cost starts being incurred on a job and the day the first invoice for that…

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