The payment that buys the next installation

A cash calendar for paid-search growth: move installation and collection dates, then follow the receipts through six weeks of new work.

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A little folded green receipt props up a heavy blue equipment case. Beside it, a second case extends past the workbench with empty space beneath it.

A worked cash calendar

The payment that buys
the next installation

The smaller service campaign earns less. It also pays before the next equipment order. Give that receipt a job.

Open the cash calendar ↓
A little folded green receipt props up a heavy blue equipment case. Beside it, a second case extends past the workbench with empty space beneath it.
One receipt can carry the first commitment. The next needs a place to stand.

You have a good installation campaign and room to buy more work. Each completed installation leaves $4,000 after advertising and fulfilment. A batch of smaller service jobs leaves $1,000.

There is $7,000 available for this next run of acquisition. An installation costs $6,000 to get through. On its own, it fits.

Now put another one on the calendar.

This is a constructed business, with deliberately fixed outcomes. A “service batch” means the jobs acquired together by one $500 advertising run. Every cohort here converts, completes and pays as specified; the dates are assumptions to dispute.

The two kinds of work · dollars per acquisition cohort
Cash and timingService batchInstallation
Advertising cost$500$500
Fulfilment paid at start$1,500$5,500
Customer payment$3,000
3 days after start
$10,000
14 days after start
Contribution after both costs$1,000$4,000

Run each campaign twice. Swap their order. Both plans spend $2,000 on ads in September, pay $14,000 in fulfilment, collect $26,000, and close September with $17,000.

The month agrees.
The middle does not.

Installation first

Install → service → install → service

  1. First installation paid for$1,000 left
  2. Service batch paid for−$1,000
  3. Second installation needs $6,000; the $3,000 service receipt clears afterward−$7,000 low

The first installation’s $10,000 arrives Sep 16. By then, the second equipment order has already needed the money.

Service first

Service → install → service → install

  1. First $3,000 service receipt clears$8,000 ready
  2. First installation paid for$2,000 left
  3. Second installation needs $6,000; the first’s $10,000 arrives Sep 20−$3,000 low

The smaller work buys time for the first installation. The second still needs $3,000 from somewhere else.

Installation first · complete September calendar
Service first · complete September calendar

The service campaign has done more than add its $1,000 contribution. Before the installation starts, its whole $3,000 receipt is back in the bank: $2,000 of previously committed money, plus $1,000 earned. That is the money available to reuse.

The remaining $3,000 funding gap looks modest. It belongs to a plan that stops buying after two rounds.

Keep the installation.
What else wants its money?

Continue with a service batch and an installation every week. Six installations leave $24,000 after advertising and fulfilment. The third needs $6,000 on Sep 20, the very day the first installation’s $10,000 is due. There is good work here to finance.

Finance can release one further $8,000 reserve. But an existing customer also has a maintenance slot to book: pay $8,000 for its labour and materials on Sep 13, collect $12,000 on Sep 27, and keep $4,000 of contribution. Pass on the slot and that job goes elsewhere.

Assume there is capacity for both. The maintenance job needs no new advertising and sits outside the two-plan comparison above. Its fixed dates and certain payment are part of this constructed situation. Now the same money has two worthwhile jobs.

Keep the third installation in view. Check “Receipts clear before same-day outlays” to put the first installation’s payment ahead of this order. Then look back at the cash needed to get this far.

The funding case for Finance

Which work can this money fund?

Link to this view

Change the dates or the pace

Ads accrue the day before each start. Services start Sep 2 and continue through the final installation week. All installation terms apply to every round.

Cash shown before the extra reserve is added.

One $8,000 reserve.
Two worthwhile uses.

Maintenance booking · $4,000 contributionPay $8,000 on Sep 13 → collect $12,000 on Sep 27.

Consult the dated low, weekly lows and complete cash calendar

The low in each week of acquisition

    All balances exclude the extra reserve. Each day below retains the exact payment order, including advertising accrual separately from bank debit.

    Do not let the larger contribution lose its chance just because its receipt is slow. Show Finance what the reserve will fund, which booking competes for it, and which receipt lets it return while starts continue.

    What is inside this calendar

    The opening $7,000 is an assigned pot for these jobs. The additional $8,000 is the only reserve offered in this situation. Payroll, taxes, other commitments, financing costs and unreliable customer payments belong in the business’s full forecast. A negative balance here measures the extra funding the assumed schedule would need; the model keeps going so you can see the dependency.

    Advertising accrues the day before each start. This example uses Google postpay with a fixed $500 threshold and a bank debit assumed to settle the next day, alongside fulfilment. Each $500 ad run triggers a charge; every charge settles in full, leaving no balance for the first of the next month. There are no credits, fees or other account costs here. Actual thresholds and settlement dates must come from the account and bank.

    Google charges on reaching the payment threshold and on the first of the month; advertising accrual and the eventual bank debit are separate events. Google Ads: how postpay charges work.

    All economics and schedules are constructed for this exploration. Feature illustration generated with ChatGPT.