You don't need a dashboard with forty charts. You need three numbers, once a week.
The owners we talk to who feel calm about money aren't the ones with the most reports. They're the ones who check a few things on a schedule and act early. Here's the short list, and the ten-minute routine that goes with it.
1.Cash on hand
How much money is in your business accounts today, across every business? Not what you're owed. Not what's coming next month. What's there right now.
Then compare it to what's going out in the next 30 days: payroll, rent, loan payments, card bills, taxes. If cash covers those with room to spare, you're fine. If it doesn't, you've just bought yourself a few weeks to fix it, which is a lot better than finding out on payday.
2.Pace toward your goal
Where should you be by now, and where are you? If your Year-End Goal is $600,000 and you're three-quarters through the year, you'd expect to be near $450,000. If you're at $420,000, you're behind by $30,000, and you now need more each month to finish strong.
- Goal
- $600,000
- Expected by now (75% of year)
- $450,000
- Actually earned
- $420,000
- Behind pace by
- $30,000
One number, checked weekly, tells you whether this year is going to plan long before December does.
3.Money owed to you
Unpaid invoices, late rent, deposits you're waiting on. Add them up and look at how old they are. A dollar that's 10 days late is a reminder. A dollar that's 60 days late is a problem, and the longer it sits, the less likely you'll collect it in full.
| How late | What to do |
|---|---|
| Under 15 days | Friendly reminder |
| 15–45 days | Call, don't just email |
| Over 45 days | Payment plan, or pause the work |
The ten-minute Monday routine
Pick a time, Monday morning before email works for most people, and do the same thing every week:
- Minutes 1–3: Check cash against the next 30 days of bills.
- Minutes 4–6: Check pace against your goal. Note what you need per month from here.
- Minutes 7–10: Look at money owed. Send the reminders now, not later.
Write down one action from what you saw. Just one. Over a year, that's 52 small decisions made with real numbers instead of a gut feeling.
Ten minutes a week is about eight and a half hours a year. It's the cheapest financial advice you'll ever get.
If you run more than one business, do it for all of them together, then glance at each one. That's exactly what we built Yegly to make easy, but a notebook and a calendar reminder will get you most of the way there.
Yegly is open now, and the special deal runs through December 31, 2026.
Know your number every day, not just today.
Yegly adds up every business you own and keeps your Year-End Goal pace current, automatically. Start a free trial: pay yearly by December 31, 2026 for two extra people free and a locked price.
- 14 days free
- Cancel anytime
- Nothing is charged until the trial ends
— The Yegly team
