Most cash problems are visible weeks before they hurt. The trouble is that nobody looks at the right numbers often enough. A weekly cash review fixes that. It takes thirty minutes, needs one owner and works the same way whether your team has five people or fifty, and whatever tools you use today.

Pick one owner and one time slot

The review only works if it happens every week. Give it to one person, usually whoever runs finance or the founder who signs off on payments, and put a recurring thirty-minute slot in the calendar. Monday morning works well, because it sets up the payment runs and decisions for the rest of the week.

Look at four numbers

You do not need a full report. Four numbers tell you almost everything about where cash is heading, and each one can be pulled from your bank feeds and accounting tool in a few minutes.

• Cash on hand across every account, compared with the same day last week

• Money owed to you, split into current and overdue invoices

• Bills and payroll due in the next fourteen days

• Card and subscription spend so far this month, against budget

Chase what is overdue

Go through overdue invoices from the largest down. For each one, decide on a single next step: a friendly reminder, a phone call or a conversation about a payment plan. Write down who will do it and by when. Small, regular follow-ups recover far more than one long chase at the end of the quarter.

Decide which bills to pay this week

Compare what is due with what is coming in. Most weeks the answer is to pay everything on time, but when cash is tight, the review is where you choose what moves. Pay payroll, taxes and critical suppliers first, and talk to anyone you need to delay before the due date, not after it has passed.

Check spend against budget

Card spend drifts quietly. Look at the categories that moved most since last week and ask whether each change was planned. A new tool, a team trip or a jump in advertising can all be fine, as long as someone chose it. If a card keeps hitting its limit, decide whether the limit or the habit needs to change.

Write three lines and share them

End the review with a short note to the founders or the leadership team: where cash stands, what changed since last week and any decision you need from them. Three lines are enough. Over a few months, these notes become a simple record of how the business has moved and why.

In Ledgerly, the cash overview, open invoices and upcoming bills sit on one screen, so the four numbers are ready before the review starts.