The cash questions owners actually ask.

These are the questions owners actually ask me, answered the way I'd answer them across a table: the answer first, then the working, and I'll tell you where it doesn't hold. I'd rather tell you something you don't want to hear than something that isn't true. That's rather the point of the whole thing.

The research Choosing a Xero app? What 26,128 reviews can and can't tell you. Star ratings barely separate apps (86.5% are five stars), review counts can mislead, and there are 13 regional stores, not one. Every listing and public review, collected on 9 September 2026, with what it means for accountants, founders on Xero and app builders. Free PDF. Stephen Greszczyszyn · 12 min read The formula The cash cushion formula: how many months of cover have you actually got? Net cash divided by monthly cost base. A worked example from Xero's own Demo Company, and five years of a real client's cushion on one chart, including what £200k less would have looked like. Ciaran O'Donnell · 6 min read · with a 5-minute film The plain-English answer What is a cash cushion? How many months the business could keep trading if money stopped coming in: net cash divided by monthly cost base. Why that is not your bank balance, and how it differs from runway. Ciaran O'Donnell · 5 min read The working How to calculate net cash from a Xero trial balance. Cash, plus what you are owed, minus what you owe, line by line from Xero's Demo Company trial balance: £10,048 in the bank and still minus £1,983 of net cash. Then the same figures in two clicks. From Ciaran O'Donnell's video · 4 min read · with a 5-minute film The Xero question How do I get a cash flow forecast out of Xero without building a spreadsheet? Start with Xero Analytics, if your plan includes it: a cash projection up to 180 days ahead, worth switching on. What it tells you, what it does not, and the shorter route to a weekly cash answer. Ciaran O'Donnell · 6 min read The trust question Can I trust AI with my books? Not a matter of vibes: four checkable questions decide it. Write access, storage, training, jurisdiction. The checklist works on any tool, ours included, and there is a section for practices handling client data. Ciaran O'Donnell · 5 min read The diagnosis Profit is not cash: why a profitable business can still run out of money. The calls never come from loss-making businesses. Debtors, VAT in arrears, corporation tax, stock and growth itself, and the four numbers that warn you while the fix is still cheap. Ciaran O'Donnell · 5 min read The trap Overtrading: why a profitable business can have no money in the bank. Profitable every month, best year yet, and £400,000 of work sitting on the balance sheet not even invoiced. The monthly habit that catches it. From Ciaran O'Donnell's video · 3 min read · with a 4-minute film The balance sheet How to read a balance sheet, and the number it helps you find. Every line in plain English, what a complete balance sheet exposes, and a worked example from net cash of £81,600 to a cash cushion of 2.2 months. From Ciaran O'Donnell's video · 6 min read · with a 12-minute film The definition What is deferred income? A customer pays £120,000 up front: why the bank says 23 months of cushion and the truth is one. Deferred income as a liability, its release to the profit and loss, and how it differs from accrued income. From Ciaran O'Donnell's videos · 4 min read · with a 6-minute walkthrough The five positions The five cash positions a business can be in. Which one are you? Cliff edge, hand to mouth, one shock from trouble, room to breathe, resilient builder. Same £42,000 cost base in every example; only the cushion changes, and it changes everything. Ciaran O'Donnell · 4 min read · with a 4-minute film The data About 4 in 10 companies in our Companies House sample had negative net cash. We checked a random sample of 10,000 Companies House filings from June and July 2026. Of 2,980 checked trading companies filing non-micro accounts with usable cash and debtors, about 4 in 10 were below the line; of 3,275 with usable cash, nearly 2 in 3 held less cash than the creditors due within a year and 1 in 5 had £1,000 or less in the bank. What it means if that is you. Ciaran O'Donnell · 4 min read · from 10,000 Companies House filings The survival question What percentage of UK businesses fail? The ONS matched cohort says 38.4% of businesses born in 2019 survived into 2024. What that measure means, why closure is not always failure, and what it cannot tell you about one company. Ciaran O'Donnell · 6 min read · with a 5-minute film The story The warning signs business owners ignore, and what they cost. Ten days of ignored fuel pings, zero on the clock at the bottom of the hill, and the business translation of every beat: the polite alarm, the optimistic sums, the countdown, the hill. Ciaran O'Donnell · 5 min read · with a 6-minute film The borrowing question Should my business take on debt? First ask what it is for. Covering losses, growing costs that add nothing, or changing something that improves profit: an FD's three-way test before you sign. From Ciaran O'Donnell's video · 3 min read · with a 4-minute film The exit question Is a business worth 3 times profit? Two businesses with around £1m of profit, bought by the same firm at three and six times. Ciaran's explanation of the difference, and why preparing starts years before a sale. From Ciaran O'Donnell's video · 3 min read · with a 5-minute film For practices Offer every client weekly cash monitoring, without building anything. For accountants, bookkeepers and fractional FDs: a weekly cash briefing per client, read-only, shareable without write access, and the monthly pack stays yours. Ciaran O'Donnell · 4 min read · with a 3-minute film The finance role What does a fractional CFO actually do? A senior finance director for part of the week: planning, reporting and managing the cash. How that differs from your accountant, when an owner needs one and when they honestly do not yet. Ciaran O'Donnell · 6 min read