Most business owners check their bank balance, feel a wave of relief or panic, and move on. That single number tells you almost nothing about what’s coming next week—or whether you’ll make payroll in three weeks.
A CFO scoreboard tracks seven specific weekly metrics that predict cash position before problems arrive. This article breaks down each metric, explains what it reveals about your financial health, and shows you how to build a scoreboard that turns cash flow from a guessing game into a clear, actionable system.
What is a CFO scoreboard
A CFO scoreboard is a weekly dashboard of key financial metrics that serve as leading indicators of cash flow. Rather than checking your bank balance once a month and hoping for the best, a scoreboard tracks seven specific numbers that predict whether cash problems are coming—usually weeks before they actually hit.
The seven metrics typically include actual cash position, accounts receivable collected, accounts payable due, days sales outstanding trends, payroll and tax liabilities, pipeline forecasts, and forecast variance. Together, these numbers tell you where your cash is right now and where it’s heading.
Think of it like a navigator’s instrument panel on a ship. The captain says “we’re going to that destination,” and the navigator uses instruments to chart the course, watch for obstacles, and measure whether the ship is on track. A CFO scoreboard works the same way—it shows you the financial obstacles ahead while there’s still time to steer around them.
Traditional financial statements look backward at what already happened. Your profit and loss statement tells you last month’s story, but it doesn’t tell you whether you’ll make payroll three weeks from now. The scoreboard fills that gap by focusing on forward-looking indicators rather than historical reports.
Why weekly cash tracking beats monthly reports
Monthly financial reports typically arrive two to three weeks after the month closes. By then, the cash crunch you could have prevented has already happened—or at minimum, your options for dealing with it have narrowed considerably.
Weekly tracking catches financial drift before it compounds. When you review cash metrics every seven days, collection slowdowns show up in week two instead of month two. Expense creep becomes visible before it eats your margin. Revenue dips appear while there’s still time to respond.
Here’s what weekly visibility actually provides:
- Speed advantage: Trends emerge in days rather than months, giving you time to act before problems compound
- Early warning signals: Collection issues or margin erosion surface before they become emergencies
- Decision confidence: Hiring, spending, and investment choices happen with current data rather than six-week-old reports
Revenue looks great on a sales dashboard. Cash pays the bills. Too many founders watch revenue climb while their bank account tells a completely different story. The weekly scoreboard keeps both views in focus at the same time.
The 7 weekly numbers every fractional CFO tracks
These seven metrics form the core of any effective cash flow scoreboard. Each reveals something different about your financial position, and together they tell the complete story of where your cash is actually heading.
Cash on hand
Cash on hand is the total liquid cash available today across all your accounts. It sounds obvious, but many business owners work from approximations or numbers that are several days old.
Knowing your exact cash position—not what you think it is, but what it actually is right now—serves as the baseline for every other metric. Everything else on the scoreboard flows from this single number. When this number is wrong, every decision built on it is wrong too.
Weeks of cash runway
Runway answers one critical question: how long can your business operate at its current burn rate before cash hits zero?
A business with twelve weeks of runway has options and breathing room. A business with three weeks of runway has an emergency. Tracking runway weekly rather than monthly provides a much faster signal when financial health changes—you’ll see the decline over two or three weeks instead of discovering it all at once.
Weekly cash burn rate
Your burn rate is the net cash outflow per week—money going out minus money coming in. This number reveals the true cost of operating your business each week, which often differs from what your profit and loss statement shows.
Here’s why the difference matters: a business can show a profit on paper while still burning cash every week. Revenue recognition and actual cash collection happen on different timelines. The burn rate tracks real money movement, not accounting entries.
Accounts receivable aging
AR aging shows how long invoices have been outstanding, typically organized into time buckets: 0-30 days, 31-60 days, 61-90 days, and beyond. The trend over several weeks matters more than any single week’s snapshot.
When the average age of your receivables starts creeping upward—say, from 32 days to 38 days to 45 days—that signals collection problems before they become full-blown cash crises. You’re seeing the problem develop in real time rather than discovering it after the fact.
Accounts payable coming due
This metric tracks the bills and obligations due within the next one to two weeks. It prevents surprise cash outflows and helps you prioritize payments when cash is tight.
Knowing what’s coming due allows you to negotiate payment timing with vendors, take advantage of early payment discounts when cash is available, or simply avoid the stress of unexpected large payments hitting your account.
Booked revenue not yet collected
Booked revenue is contracted or committed revenue that hasn’t converted to cash yet. The gap between what you’ve sold and what you’ve actually collected is where cash flow problems often hide.
For service businesses especially, this number can be substantial. You might have $200,000 in signed contracts, but if only $50,000 has actually been collected, your cash position looks very different from what your sales pipeline suggests. The scoreboard keeps both numbers visible.
Payroll as a percentage of revenue
This ratio serves as a leading indicator of margin health. When the percentage of revenue consumed by payroll creeps upward—even by a few percentage points—cash pressure typically follows within weeks.
For service-based businesses, payroll usually represents the largest expense category. A ratio that’s climbing often signals overstaffing, pricing problems, or declining revenue before those issues show up in other metrics.
| Metric | What It Measures | What It Predicts |
|---|---|---|
| Cash on Hand | Current liquidity | Immediate capacity |
| Weeks of Runway | Operating time remaining | Urgency level |
| Weekly Cash Burn | Net cash outflow | Operational efficiency |
| AR Aging | Collection speed | Future cash inflows |
| AP Coming Due | Short-term obligations | Impending cash outflows |
| Booked Revenue | Uncollected sales | Gap between sales and cash |
| Payroll % of Revenue | Labor cost efficiency | Margin pressure |
How a fractional CFO reads your weekly scoreboard
Tracking numbers is one thing. Reading them together as a connected story is where the real value emerges.
A fractional CFO looks for patterns and relationships between metrics rather than viewing each number in isolation. Rising AR aging combined with declining runway signals an urgent collection problem. Increasing payroll percentage alongside flat revenue suggests a staffing decision that deserves another look. The individual numbers matter, but the relationships between them matter more.
Pattern recognition across multiple weeks reveals trends that single data points miss entirely. One week of negative cash flow might be a timing blip—a large payment went out, or a big receivable hasn’t landed yet. Three consecutive weeks of negative cash flow reveals something structural that requires investigation.
The goal isn’t just identifying obstacles. It’s presenting two or three paths around each obstacle so the business owner can make an informed decision. The scoreboard surfaces the problem; the interpretation suggests the options.
How to build your weekly cash flow scoreboard
You don’t need sophisticated software to start tracking these metrics. Consistency and discipline in the review process matter more than the specific tools you use.
Select your tracking system
Options range from a simple spreadsheet to accounting software dashboards to dedicated financial planning tools. QuickBooks, Xero, and most modern accounting platforms can generate the underlying data for all seven metrics.
The specific system matters less than actually using it every week. A basic spreadsheet updated consistently outperforms an elaborate dashboard that gets ignored after the first month.
Set a weekly review cadence
Same-day, same-time weekly reviews create the discipline that makes this system work. Many business owners pair the review with Monday planning sessions or existing team meetings—it becomes part of the weekly rhythm rather than an extra task.
Once the system is running smoothly, the actual review takes ten to fifteen minutes. The initial setup requires more effort, but ongoing maintenance is minimal.
Establish alert thresholds
Each metric benefits from a “yellow light” and “red light” threshold customized to your business. Yellow means “pay attention.” Red means “act now.”
For example, you might set a yellow light when runway drops below eight weeks and a red light at four weeks. The specific numbers depend on your industry, growth stage, and how quickly you can typically respond to cash flow changes.
Warning signs your weekly numbers reveal before cash problems hit
The scoreboard’s real power lies in surfacing problems weeks before they become obvious. Here are the early warning signals that typically appear first.
AR aging creeping past normal collection cycles
A gradual increase in the average age of receivables signals client payment problems or internal collection process breakdowns. If your typical collection cycle runs 30 days and you’re suddenly seeing 45-day averages, something has changed—either with your clients or with your follow-up process.
Cash runway falling below comfortable operating range
A shrinking runway demands attention—either by reducing the burn rate or accelerating collections. This metric often marks the emotional shift from “we’re fine” to “we have a problem,” and catching it early preserves more options.
Payroll consuming a growing share of revenue
When this ratio creeps upward over several consecutive weeks, it typically indicates overstaffing, pricing problems, or declining revenue. It’s often the first sign that growth isn’t profitable—revenue might be climbing, but margin is eroding faster.
Consecutive weeks of negative cash flow
A single negative week can be normal timing. Consecutive weeks of negative cash flow reveal a structural problem that requires root cause analysis rather than waiting it out.
How this scoreboard connects to your 13 week cash flow forecast
The weekly scoreboard provides the real, validated data that makes forward-looking projections reliable. Each week’s actual numbers update your rolling 13-week forecast, replacing assumptions with facts.
Variance analysis—comparing what you predicted versus what actually happened—reveals forecasting blind spots over time. Maybe you consistently overestimate collection speed or underestimate seasonal expense patterns. The scoreboard exposes these gaps so your forecasts improve with each cycle.
This connection also enables meaningful scenario planning. When you’re considering a new hire or a major purchase, you can model the impact using real inputs rather than guesses. The scoreboard gives you the actual numbers; the forecast shows you what happens next.
From cash visibility to confident growth decisions
Financial clarity allows a business to grow rather than just survive. With a working scoreboard, you can evaluate whether reaching $10 million from $5 million is realistic—and if not, exactly what needs to change first.
The scoreboard transforms vague financial anxiety into specific, actionable information. Instead of wondering whether you can afford that new team member, you know precisely how the hire affects your runway and burn rate. Instead of guessing at cash timing, you see it clearly.
When you can see where you stand and where you’re heading, bold decisions become possible. The numbers stop being a source of stress and start being a tool for growth.
Ready to build your own CFO scoreboard? Talk to Bennett Financials about implementing weekly cash flow tracking that gives you the clarity to grow with confidence.
