A single outlay - equipment, a deposit, inventory, a campaign. A recurring cost like a salesperson belongs in the Sales Hire Reality Check.
Money you think you have
$
$
$
The first box is your real bank balance - yes, including the tax money sitting in there. We'll pull that out in a second. The other two are money you're counting on but haven't banked; only cash that's actually cleared can be bet.
What's already got to come out - next 30 days
Only what's due in the next 30 days - not your whole year of bills. What has to clear before the month is out?
Bills you owe
$
$
$
$
$
$
Not yours yetnot yet
$
A customer paid ahead. It becomes yours when you finish the job - until then you owe it in work, or back in cash if you can't deliver.
Never yours never yours
$
$
This belongs to the state and your team - it never becomes yours. Spending it isn't a risk. It's a fuse.
Keep the doors open
$
The basics for 30 days - payroll, rent, the lights. The cushion a bet shouldn't eat.
Every box above is required, including the question. If one is genuinely zero, type 0 — a blank box and a zero are not the same answer.
house money card
Free to bet
—
cleared, yours, doors still open
Your bet
—
Never your money
—
tax & withholding you only hold
Cover ratio
—
cleared cash per $1 due in 30 days
Why we won't count the uncollected money
You've earned it, but you haven't collected it - and until it clears, it can still not show up. Accountants call this collectibility: revenue isn't real until collection is reasonably assured. We just hold your spending to the same rule.
This is one bet in your cockpit. The same gap - money you think you have vs. money that's actually yours - is hiding in your pricing, your customer mix, and your runway too. Want me to look at the rest?
Watch the money you can actually bet:
What you think you have—
Set aside - not collected yet—
Real money - in the bank—
Bills you owe (30 days)—
Deposits - work you still owe—
Money that was never yours (tax)—
Keep the doors open (1 mo)—
Free to bet—
What happens when things get harder
Your numbers today
—
free to bet
If the bet runs over budget
—
free to bet
If a slow month cuts the bank balance
—
free to bet
Stress scenarios use fixed parameters. A bet that runs 15% over and a slow month that trims the balance 20% are not disasters - they are ordinary business friction.
How to read this
What you are reading is arithmetic on the numbers you gave us. It is honest arithmetic, but it only knows what you typed — not your season, not the customer who always pays late, not the invoice landing next Tuesday. You know those things and this page does not. Use it to decide where to look, then check what you find against what you know.
Where we draw the line between comfortable and thin is our judgment, not a rule of accounting. Your bank, your accountant, or your own gut may draw it somewhere else.