Tag: #ClientCase

A client ran a fast-growing service company.

Revenue looked strong.

Clients were happy.

Team was working nonstop.

But the founder still couldn’t consistently:

• pay themselves on time
• plan hiring without anxiety
• stop checking the bank account daily

The issue wasn’t effort. It was structure.

They priced projects “to win”.

Then delivery took longer than planned.

Then extra work got added “to keep the relationship”.

Margin leaked quietly on every job.

So we rebuilt the business around one number: contribution margin per project.

What we did:

1. Created a simple job margin model
2. Revenue – direct labor – contractors – delivery tools = true contribution margin.
3. Standardized scope + change orders
4. Anything outside the baseline scope became a priced add-on. No free extras.
5. Introduced weekly utilization + capacity planning
6. Not as HR control. As a cash control system. If utilization drops, cash drops.

Outcome: projects became predictable, pricing stopped being emotional, and the founder started paying themselves monthly without surprises.

Founder takeaway: if you can’t pay yourself reliably, you don’t have a revenue problem. You have a delivery economics problem.

A client told us: “We finally landed a big customer. This should be a great quarter.”

It was.

On the P&L.

In cash, it was chaos.

Why? One exception.

A custom contract with:

• a deep discount “just this time”
• long payment terms
• a manual invoicing schedule
• delivery commitments that forced upfront supplier payments

The team kept saying yes because it felt like momentum.

But exceptions don’t stay isolated. They spread.

Operations started bending rules. Finance stopped trusting forecasts. Cash surprises became normal.

What we did:

1. Rebuilt the deal economics
2. Not revenue. Contribution margin and cash timing. We modeled the cash curve week by week.
3. Locked a rule: no exception without a cost
4. If a customer wants longer terms, pricing changes. If scope changes, billing changes. No free flexibility.
5. Standardized billing milestones
6. Deposit, mid-point, delivery, final. Automatic invoices on dates. No “we’ll handle it manually.”

Outcome: the deal became profitable in cash, not just on paper. Forecasting stabilized. The founder stopped reacting.

Founder takeaway: if everything is negotiable, nothing is scalable.

A client came to us with a familiar complaint:

“We’re growing. The P&L looks fine. But the bank balance is always tense.”

They were a project-based business with uneven invoices, partial prepayments, and suppliers who wanted money before the client paid.

The real issue wasn’t margin. It was timing.

So we did three things – simple, not sexy, but brutal in impact:

1. Defined the cash milestones
2. Deposit, mid-project, delivery, final payment – with dates. No more “we’ll invoice later.”
3. Built a weekly collections cadence
4. Top 10 invoices by amount, a single owner, and one rule: every invoice has a next action and a date.
5. Aligned supplier payments to client cash
6. Not by begging for better terms – by changing internal scheduling and making commitments only when cash was visible.

Results: cash stopped swinging, the founder regained control, and growth stopped feeling like stress.

Founder takeaway: cash problems are usually process problems.

If your business feels “busy but fragile,” it’s time to build a cash operating system – not another report.

Trentini is a premium interior and kitchen projects business with large ticket sizes, long lead times, multiple suppliers, and phased deliveries.

On paper, sales looked strong.

In reality, cash felt unpredictable.

Not because the business was unprofitable – but because cash lacked visibility.

The core issue looked like this:

• Client payments in did not correlate with supplier payments out
• Supplier payment terms were inconsistent
• Large orders distorted cash forecasts
• VAT impact was not being tracked
• Reporting was solid, but cash remained a black hole

So we built a 13-week rolling cash flow control system.

Not just another finance report.

A weekly cash cockpit.

It included:

• A forecast linked to deliveries and VAT
• A supplier payment matrix with timing rules
• A project cash tracker for outstanding balances
• A liquidity curve for large orders
• A weekly cash review routine so the founder stopped guessing

The result:

• Predictable weekly cash
• No cash surprises
• Clear VAT visibility
• Stronger negotiation power with suppliers

What the founder learned:

“If you think you are profitable but cash is stressful – you may not have a revenue problem. You have a visibility problem”

Want us to build your 13-week cash cockpit?

DM us – and we’ll map the cash gaps for you.