Three Numbers Worth Checking Before Month-End

1. Cash Runway, Not Just Cash Balance

The bank balance today tells you almost nothing on its own — what matters is how many months it covers at your current burn rate, and whether anything unusual (a large payment due, a slow quarter) is coming. Divide cash on hand by your average monthly outgoing to get a runway figure, and watch how it trends month over month rather than reacting to any single month's number.

2. Receivables Ageing

An invoice that's 90 days overdue is a very different problem from one that's 15 days overdue, but a single "total receivables" figure hides that difference. Break outstanding invoices into buckets — current, 30, 60, 90+ days — and follow up on the oldest bucket first. The longer an invoice sits unpaid, the less likely it is to be collected at all.

3. GST Input Credit Reconciliation

Checking that the input credit you've claimed in GSTR-3B actually matches GSTR-2B is a five-minute task done monthly, and a much bigger one done once a year. Small mismatches compound if left unresolved — see our note on checking your ITC mismatch for the specific steps.

Why These Three

None of these require accounting software you don't already have, and none take more than a few minutes once they're a habit. What they have in common is that small business owners tend to notice each one only after it's become a real problem — a cash crunch, an invoice that's gone genuinely bad, or a credit-mismatch notice. Checking monthly is what keeps each one small.