90-Day Finance Reset for SME Growth (Cash Flow, Pricing, Cost Cuts)

Most UK SMEs don’t fail because the product’s weak, they fail because cash gets tight at the wrong time. You can be flat out with sales, staff, and suppliers, yet still feel short on money because invoices land late, margins are thin, costs keep rising, and debt repayments don’t wait.

A 90-day finance reset gives you a clear window to fix what’s controllable, fast. This post sets out a practical plan in four phases, built for founders who don’t have a finance team and can’t spend months on reports. We’ll start with cash flow first (so you can breathe), then tighten pricing, then cut costs that don’t earn their keep, and finally turn the gains into steady Growth.

It’s not about perfection, it’s about a few smart moves that show up in the bank. Consult EFC helps SMEs turn numbers into clear decisions and better outcomes, so you can scale with confidence, not crossed fingers.

Days 1 to 30, stabilise cash flow fast (so you can breathe again)

The first 30 days are about control, not perfection. You need a clear view of what cash is coming in, what must go out, and what can wait. When you can see the next 13 weeks in plain numbers, decisions get simpler, pressure drops, and you stop relying on hope. This is also the fastest way to create headroom for Growth without hiring more people or chasing risky sales.

Build a 13-week cash flow forecast you will actually use

A 13-week forecast is short enough to stay accurate, and long enough to spot trouble early. It’s a weekly plan for your bank balance. Nothing more.

Start simple: one tab, 13 columns (Week 1 to Week 13), and rows for cash in and cash out.

What goes in (cash in, not revenue):

• Customer receipts you expect to land in the bank that week (be realistic, base it on invoice dates and usual payment behaviour)
• Card takings that settle to the bank (watch the settlement delay)
• VAT refunds (if you’re due one)
• Any grants, investment tranches, or insurance proceeds you are confident will clear

What goes out (cash out):

• Payroll (net pay) and employer costs (PAYE/NIC) on the dates they leave your bank
• VAT payments (use your VAT quarters, and put the cash payment in the right week)
• Rent, rates, utilities, phone, internet
• Supplier runs (either by payment due date or your planned payment date)
• Loan repayments (capital and interest), HP, leases
• Corporation tax instalments (if relevant), or a monthly set-aside if you want to stay disciplined
• Ad spend, software, professional fees, and other regular direct debits

The method is straightforward:

1. Start with your real bank balance today (not what Xero says, what the bank says).
2. For Week 1, add cash in, subtract cash out.
3. The result is your closing balance for Week 1.
4. Week 2 opens with Week 1’s closing balance, then repeat.

If you want one rule that changes everything: update it every Friday in 20 minutes. Put it in your diary. Close the week, compare forecast vs actual, adjust the next 2 to 4 weeks, and move on. This habit beats any fancy model.

To keep it usable, treat your weekly sales cash-in like a weather forecast, not a wish list. If a customer usually pays in 45 days, don’t book them in at 14 days because you “need it”.

A quick checklist of common misses (these are the silent killers):

• VAT (both payments and refunds, plus any catching up if you’ve fallen behind)
• Annual software renewals (often chunky and easy to forget)
• Director taxes (self-assessment payments on account, dividend tax, or personal tax funded from the business)
• Refunds and chargebacks (especially with card sales, subscriptions, or returns)
• Insurance renewals, professional memberships, and licence fees
• One-off supplier catch-ups (old bills you plan to clear “soon”)

At Consult EFC, this is often the first thing we fix with founders. Not because spreadsheets are exciting, but because clarity changes behaviour quickly.

Fix late payments with a tighter invoicing and chasing routine

Late payments usually aren’t solved by one big confrontation. They’re solved by a routine that makes paying you the default outcome.

Aim for a process that is firm, polite, and consistent:

1. Invoice the same day the work is delivered (or the milestone is hit). If you wait until Friday, you’re giving away days of cash.
2. Put clear payment terms on every invoice (for example, “Payment due within 14 days by bank transfer”).
3. Make paying easy: include bank details, reference, and who to contact for queries.
4. Use automated reminders (most accounting tools can do this). Set them before due date and after due date.
5. Call on day 7 overdue (or sooner for larger invoices). Email alone is easy to ignore.
6. Apply stop-work rules. If someone is overdue beyond an agreed limit, you pause further delivery until part payment lands.
7. Escalate in steps, not emotion: senior contact, final notice, then collections or legal action if needed.

Small changes here can move cash more than a new marketing campaign, because you’re collecting money you already earned.

If you do project work, protect yourself with structure:

• Deposits up front (often 30 to 50 percent, depending on the work)
• Milestone billing tied to deliverables, not “end of project”
• A final payment that is meaningful, but not so large that you’re funding the whole job

Short scripts you can copy and paste (keep them calm and direct):

• Same-day invoice email
  • “Hi [Name], as agreed, please find attached invoice [number] for [project/service]. Payment terms are [X] days. If you need anything to approve it today, tell me and I’ll sort it.”
• Reminder before due date
  • “Hi [Name], quick note that invoice [number] for £[amount] is due on [date]. Please confirm it’s scheduled for payment.”
• Day 7 overdue call follow-up
  • “Thanks for your time today. As agreed, invoice [number] (£[amount]) will be paid on [date]. Please reply to confirm.”
• Stop-work message
  • “Hi [Name], invoice [number] is now [X] days overdue. We’ll pause further work from [date] and restart as soon as payment is received (or we agree a payment plan).”

One practical tip: keep a short “credit notes and disputes” list. Some customers delay payment by raising a query late. If you track disputes the same day they appear, you stop them turning into month-long excuses.

Release trapped cash from stock, WIP, and supplier terms

When cash is tight, money is often sitting in three places: stock on shelves, work you’ve started but not billed, and supplier payments that don’t match your customer receipts.

Stock clean-up (turn dead stock into oxygen):

• Identify slow movers by value and age (what hasn’t moved in 60 to 90 days?)
• Set reorder points so you stop buying “just in case”
• Reduce range if it’s bloated, complexity costs cash
• Consider targeted discounts on dead stock, not blanket sales

Discounting has a trade-off. You may take a margin hit, but you get cash back now and free up space. If that cash prevents missed payroll or a VAT scramble, it can be the right call.

WIP (work-in-progress) billing (don’t fund your clients):

• If work is 50 percent done, billing 0 percent is you acting as the bank
• Agree billing points before work starts, then invoice immediately when hit
• For retainers, bill at the start of the period, not the end
• For change requests, price and bill them as they happen, don’t bundle them into “final invoice”

Supplier terms (handle with care):

• Ask for temporary payment plans if you’re under pressure (most suppliers prefer a plan to silence)
• Match your pay dates to your cash collection cycle where possible
• Avoid stretching critical suppliers too far. If they stop supply, you can’t deliver, then cash gets worse.

A simple metric set helps you spot where cash is stuck. You don’t need to be a finance expert, just track trends:

Metric	What it means (plain English)	Why it matters
DSO (Days Sales Outstanding)	How many days it takes customers to pay you	Higher DSO means your cash is trapped in receivables
DPO (Days Payables Outstanding)	How many days you take to pay suppliers	Higher DPO can help cash, but can strain supplier trust
DIO (Days Inventory Outstanding)	How many days stock sits before it sells	Higher DIO means cash is sitting on the shelf

You don’t need perfect calculations on day one. Even rough tracking improves decisions. If DSO creeps up, your chasing routine needs tightening. If DIO is high, you’re buying too early or holding the wrong items. If DPO is low, you may be paying faster than you need to.

Choose the right short-term funding tool (and avoid expensive mistakes)

Funding can buy time, but it can also hide a leak. The aim in days 1 to 30 is to use finance as a bridge, not a crutch. In the UK, there are more options than there were a decade ago, but many SMEs still feel squeezed, so terms and total cost matter.

Here’s how the main short-term tools fit in practice:

Overdraft

• Best for: short, predictable swings (VAT quarter, payroll timing, lumpy supplier runs)
• Watch-outs: fees, review dates, sudden reductions, and personal guarantees in some cases
• Good sign: you dip in and out, not permanently maxed out

Invoice finance (factoring or invoice discounting)

• Best for: B2B firms with steady invoicing and long payment terms, where cash is stuck in receivables
• Watch-outs: service fees, discount rates, minimum commitments, and who controls credit chasing
• Common mistake: using it while invoicing and query handling are messy (it magnifies admin pain)

Revenue-based finance

• Best for: firms with steady revenue where repayments flex with turnover (often used by subscription or consistent trading models)
• Watch-outs: effective cost can be high, and the repayment take can starve cash if margins are thin

Card or merchant cash advance

• Best for: card-heavy businesses needing quick capital and expecting stable card sales
• Watch-outs: high total payback, daily or weekly deductions that squeeze working cash, less flexible in a downturn

Term loans

• Best for: investments with a clear payback (equipment, expansion with proven demand), or refinancing expensive short-term debt into something manageable
• Watch-outs: covenants, early repayment charges, security, and the trap of using multi-year debt to plug a short-term working capital gap

A simple rule keeps you out of trouble: don’t use long-term debt to cover a short-term cash leak unless you’ve also fixed the cause (late payments, poor margins, overstocking, or uncontrolled spend). Otherwise you just add repayments to an already tight month.

If you’re unsure which tool fits, start with your 13-week forecast. The forecast tells you whether you have a timing issue (bridge finance helps) or a profit issue (funding only delays the fix). Consult EFC often sees founders feel relief after funding lands, then panic returns when the same habits pull cash back out. The best outcome is funding plus a tighter operating rhythm, so the business can grow without constant fire-fighting.

Days 31 to 50, pricing tweaks that lift profit without killing sales

By day 31, you’ve started to get control of cash. Now it’s time to improve the bit that creates cash in the first place, your margins. Most SMEs don’t need a dramatic rebrand or a risky price hike across the board. They need a clear view of where profit is made, a careful test, and tighter rules that stop profit leaking out of the back door.

The goal in this window is simple: make pricing and delivery decisions that support Growth without spooking good customers.

Find your real margin by product, service, and customer

Start with contribution margin, because it’s the cleanest way to see what’s actually working.

Contribution margin is:

Sale price minus direct costs = what’s left to cover overheads and profit

Direct costs are the costs that rise when you sell more of that item or deliver more of that service. Think materials, delivery, subcontractors, payment fees, and the time your team spends delivering the work.

Once you see contribution margin by product, service, and customer, problem areas jump out fast. Common loss-makers include:

• Custom jobs that take longer than expected and can’t be repeated.
• Small order sizes that chew up admin time and shipping costs.
• High-support customers who call often, request changes, pay late, or expect free extras.
• Complex delivery (multiple sites, short notice, or awkward access) that burns labour hours.

If time tracking is weak (it often is), don’t wait for a perfect system. Use a practical estimate that gets you to a decision.

A quick method that works in most SMEs:

1. Standard hours: set a “normal” number of hours for each service or job type (based on the last 10 to 20 jobs).
2. Rate card: agree an internal hourly cost for each role (not the charge-out rate). Include salary, employer NIC, pension, and a sensible allowance for paid leave.
3. Overhead loading: add a simple percentage to reflect overheads that support delivery (rent, tools, software, admin team). Keep it simple, for example 10 to 30 percent depending on how overhead-heavy you are.

You’re not trying to win an accounting award here. You’re trying to stop guessing. Once you’ve got a rough true cost, you can spot where “busy” is hiding weak margin.

Run a safe price test, raise prices where value is highest

Price changes feel risky when you do them blind. A price test removes the drama and gives you evidence.

Use this step-by-step plan:

1. Pick 1 to 2 offers that are popular and sell regularly (not your rare edge case).
2. Choose a small segment to test on, for example new enquiries only, one region, or one customer type.
3. Set a clear change, such as +5 percent or a new minimum fee.
4. Define what you’ll track for 2 to 4 weeks:
   • Win rate (quotes accepted vs sent)
   • Churn or cancellations (if you’re subscription or retainer based)
   • Complaints and pushback (count them, don’t rely on memory)
   • Average order value and gross profit per job
5. Review results weekly, then decide to roll out, adjust, or pause.

How you frame the change matters. Keep it short, calm, and confident. You don’t need a long justification. A few clean angles:

• Quality and reliability: “We’ve improved our process and service levels, our pricing now reflects that.”
• Speed and certainty: “To keep lead times where they are, we’ve updated our rates.”
• Cost pressures: “Supplier and wage costs have risen, our pricing has been updated from [date].”

When not to raise prices:

• Your offer is commoditised (buyers can switch in one click).
• Your customers are highly price sensitive, and you can’t target the increase.
• Your differentiation is weak (no clear reason to choose you beyond price).

In those cases, focus first on packaging, minimums, and stopping leakage.

Use packaging to increase average order value (bundles, tiers, minimums)

Packaging is a pricing tool that doesn’t feel like a blunt increase. It also gives customers clarity, because people prefer choosing from clear options rather than negotiating every line item.

Simple moves that work:

• Good-better-best tiers: three options, with the middle option as the anchor.
• Bundles: combine services or products that are often bought together.
• Minimum order value or minimum fee: protects you from small jobs that waste time.
• Paid add-ons: make extras visible and priced, not “thrown in”.
• Retainers: trade ad-hoc work for a steady monthly fee.

Examples by SME type:

• Agency: Tiered monthly packages (starter includes reporting and one campaign, plus adds creative and testing, premium adds strategy sessions and priority turnaround).
• Trades: Minimum call-out fee, plus a fixed-price “service package” (inspection, minor parts, first hour labour), with clear rates after that.
• SaaS: Feature tiers and usage-based add-ons (seats, storage, support response times), with annual prepay discount that improves cash flow.
• Ecommerce: Bundles (buy 3 save 10 percent), free delivery threshold, and paid gift wrapping or express dispatch.

The best packaging reduces awkward conversations. It also raises average order value in a way customers understand.

Reduce discounting and leakage (refunds, scope creep, extra labour)

Discounts and freebies don’t show up as a single line item called “profit lost”. They hide inside margins until you look properly. Over a year, this is often the difference between “we’re growing” and “we’re growing but skint”.

Tighten it with a few controls:

• Discount rules: set standard discounts (for example 5 percent for annual prepay), and stop ad-hoc deals.
• Approval limits: team can discount up to X percent, anything above needs sign-off.
• Time-boxed offers: discounts expire quickly, and only apply to a defined scope.

For project work, scope creep is the usual culprit. Protect both sides with clearer boundaries:

• Define what’s included and what isn’t, in plain English.
• Use written change requests when scope changes, with price and timeline impact agreed before work starts.
• Add simple clauses for out-of-scope work, such as extra revisions, extra site visits, rush fees, weekend work, data clean-up, and rework caused by late inputs.

Make it easy to stay consistent by using:

• A quoting template with standard terms.
• A standard list of chargeable extras, visible to the team.
• A habit of logging “free” hours weekly, then deciding whether to bill, bundle, or stop doing them.

If you want Growth that doesn’t break your cash flow, this is the unglamorous part that pays you back every month.

Days 51 to 70, cost cuts that work (without breaking the business)

By days 51 to 70, you’re not chasing “cheap”, you’re buying back breathing space. The aim is to reduce waste and protect delivery, so you can keep serving customers and fund Growth. If a cut makes your service worse, slows invoicing, or increases rework, it’s not a saving, it’s a delayed cost.

Focus on changes that show up in the bank within weeks, not months, and keep your team in the loop. Cost work fails when it feels random or secret.

Do a quick spend audit, kill the silent monthly drains

You don’t need a perfect chart of accounts to find savings. You need three months of real transactions and a simple tagging routine.

Here’s a method you can run in one afternoon:

1. Export the last 3 months of bank and card transactions (CSV is fine).
2. Put them into one sheet and add three columns: Category, Owner, Keep/Cancel/Renegotiate.
3. Tag every line with a plain category (Software, Telecoms, Travel, Subscriptions, Bank fees, Marketing, Contractors, Supplies).
4. Sort by:
   • Supplier name (to spot duplicates)
   • Value (to find large wins quickly)
   • Repeat payments (to catch the quiet monthly leaks)
5. Highlight anything that meets at least one of these rules:
   • Paid more than once per month
   • Used by fewer people than you pay for
   • “Trial” that never ended
   • Annual renewals split across cards and accounts
6. Set a target and a deadline: aim to cut 5 percent to 15 percent within 30 days, without heroics.

Typical drains that show up in UK SMEs again and again:

• Unused software seats (licenses bought in a growth spurt, then never removed)
• Duplicate tools (two project tools, two file stores, multiple chat systems)
• Unused phone plans and add-ons (handsets, data packages, roaming)
• Small subscriptions that “don’t matter” until there are 30 of them
• Bank fees (extra account charges, international payment fees, card charges you could avoid)
• Professional services on auto-pilot (retainers that no longer match what you need)
• Delivery and courier spend caused by last-minute ordering or poor stock planning

A practical rule: if nobody can explain what it’s for in 60 seconds, pause it. Put it in a 14-day “prove it” window, then cancel if there’s no real pain.

Negotiate suppliers with a clear ask (price, terms, or service levels)

Supplier negotiation works best when you’re calm, prepared, and specific. You’re not begging for a favour, you’re setting up a better commercial deal that both sides can live with.

A short playbook that keeps it professional:

1. List your top 10 suppliers by spend and importance (not just by invoice size).
2. For each, define your clear ask, pick one primary, one back-up:
   • Price reduction (even 3 to 8 percent can matter)
   • 30 to 60-day payment terms
   • Volume discounts or tiered pricing
   • Fixed pricing for 6 to 12 months
   • Service-level changes (delivery days, minimum order size, support response)
3. Prepare your alternatives:
   • A second supplier quote (even if you don’t want to switch)
   • A reduced scope option (buy less, buy quarterly, standardise specs)
4. Bring evidence:
   • On-time payment history
   • Order volumes over 6 to 12 months
   • Forecast orders if you expect Growth
5. Decide what you will not risk:
   • Don’t squeeze the supplier that keeps you operating. If they fail, you fail.

A simple email or call script you can adapt:

• “Hi [Name], we value working with you and we want to keep it that way. We’re reviewing costs and cash timing across the business. Over the last [X] months we’ve spent around £[amount] and we’ve paid on time. Can we agree either (a) a [X]% reduction, (b) 30 to 60-day terms, or (c) fixed pricing for the next [6 to 12] months? If we can get this agreed, we’re happy to commit to [monthly volume / a longer contract / consolidating more spend with you].”

Two reminders that protect relationships:

• Put the ask in writing, confirm what changes and from when, and get it onto the next invoice.
• If it helps terms and reduces admin, consider consolidating suppliers (fewer suppliers can mean better pricing, fewer invoices, and less internal noise). Only do it if it doesn’t increase risk.

Fix people costs the smart way (capacity, utilisation, and scheduling)

People costs are often your biggest spend, and your biggest source of value. Treat this area with care. The first wins usually come from matching work to capacity better, not cutting heads.

Start with the non-drama moves:

• Scheduling: stop building rotas and project plans on best-case assumptions. Plan for holidays, sickness, admin time, and training.
• Utilisation: make sure paid time turns into billable time (for service firms) or productive output (for ops teams).
• Overtime: reduce it by fixing bottlenecks, not by telling people to “work smarter”.
• Contractors: use them for spikes and specialist work, but avoid rolling “temporary” roles that become permanent cost at premium rates.
• Stop low-margin work: if the work keeps people busy but doesn’t pay, it blocks profitable work and delays Growth.

If you run a service firm, track utilisation in a simple, honest way:

Measure	Simple definition	What it tells you
Paid hours	Hours you pay for (including meetings and admin)	Your real capacity cost
Billable hours	Hours you can invoice	What customers fund
Utilisation %	Billable hours ÷ paid hours	Whether capacity becomes revenue

You don’t need time sheets down to the minute. You need a weekly view that shows if the team is overloaded, under-used, or stuck in admin.

Only after you’ve fixed scheduling, overtime, and low-margin work should you consider bigger steps:

• Hiring pause: delay non-essential hires until utilisation is healthy.
• Role changes: move people towards revenue work or delivery bottlenecks.
• Restructure: last resort, used when the workload has changed for good.

If you reach that point, keep it human and clear. Ambiguity creates fear, and fear reduces performance.

Make small process changes that save cash every week

Weekly cash savings are often hiding in processes that feel “normal”. A small rule change can stop dozens of tiny leaks, and those add up faster than one-off cuts.

Pick one process, fix it fully, then move on. Many SMEs adopt automation tools and still waste money because the underlying process is messy.

Practical changes that usually pay back quickly:

• Tighter purchasing rules: require a purchase order or approval for non-routine spend above a set limit. This stops “quick buys” that become permanent habits.
• Approvals that match risk: low-value recurring items can be auto-approved, anything new or high-value needs sign-off.
• Standardised quoting: use a consistent quote template with clear scope, assumptions, and paid add-ons. This reduces under-quoting and scope creep.
• Reduce rework: track the top three causes (wrong spec, missing info, rushed handover) and fix them. Rework is paid time you can’t bill twice.
• Automate invoicing: invoice on completion or on milestone, not “when someone remembers”. Even a two-day delay hits cash flow.
• Simple reporting: one weekly page that shows sales invoiced, cash collected, overdue invoices, and top spend categories.

A good test is to ask: “If I went away for two weeks, would cash collections slow down?” If the answer is yes, the process isn’t strong enough yet. Fix that and you stop relying on memory, urgency, or one person’s heroics.

Days 71 to 90, turn the reset into Growth (targets, reporting, and funding readiness)

By now you’ve stopped the worst cash surprises, tightened pricing, and removed waste. Days 71 to 90 are about making those gains stick, so you can grow without slipping back into weekly panic.

Think of this phase as installing a finance operating rhythm. You set a few targets that guide day-to-day choices, tighten reporting so you spot issues early, and build a plan that stands up to scrutiny from banks, investors, and buyers.

Set a few finance targets that guide decisions (cash, margin, and runway)

A good target isn’t there to impress anyone. It’s there to stop debates and speed up decisions. Keep it to 5 to 7 KPIs max, otherwise people ignore the lot.

Here’s a tight KPI set that works for most SMEs, with what each one changes in real life:

1. Weekly cash balance (actual)
   • What it tells you: How much cash you have right now.
   • Decision it drives: Whether you can commit to spend this week (stock buys, hiring, marketing pushes), or whether you need to pause and collect cash first.
2. 13-week cash runway (forecast)
   • What it tells you: How many weeks until you hit a low cash point based on your current plan.
   • Decision it drives: When to act. If runway drops, you tighten collections, delay non-essential spend, or speak to the bank early (before it becomes urgent).
3. Gross margin (by main line of business)
   • What it tells you: Whether your core work is priced and delivered profitably.
   • Decision it drives: What you sell more of, what you stop selling, and where you put your best people. If gross margin dips, it’s usually pricing, delivery efficiency, or discount leakage.
4. Net margin (rolling 3 months)
   • What it tells you: Whether the business is actually making money after overheads.
   • Decision it drives: Whether overhead is in check, and whether Growth is paying its way. If sales rise but net margin falls, you’re adding cost faster than profit.
5. DSO (Days Sales Outstanding)
   • What it tells you: How long customers take to pay.
   • Decision it drives: Credit control intensity, payment terms, deposit rules, and when to stop work for non-payers. If DSO climbs, cash will tighten even if sales look strong.
6. DIO (Days Inventory Outstanding) or WIP days (pick one that fits your business)
   • What it tells you: How long cash sits in stock or unbilled work.
   • Decision it drives: Buying discipline, reorder points, and billing cadence. If DIO or WIP days rise, you act by reducing range, buying less often, or billing earlier.
7. Sales pipeline cover (next 90 days)
   • What it tells you: Whether your pipeline is strong enough to hit your plan.
   • Decision it drives: How hard you push sales activity now, not next month. If cover is thin, you prioritise high-probability deals and protect cash by controlling hiring and discretionary spend.

To make this stick, use a simple habit: 30 minutes each week with the leadership team.

• Same time, same day, same one-page dashboard.
• Start with cash and runway, then margin, then working capital (DSO, DIO/WIP), then pipeline.
• End with three actions that someone owns by name.

If you’re arguing about numbers for 20 minutes, the dashboard is too complex. Keep it clean and move fast.

Improve reporting so you can spot issues early (before the bank does)

Good monthly management accounts don’t need to be perfect, they need to be timely, clear, and decision-focused. If you wait six weeks for “final” numbers, you’re driving using the rear-view mirror.

A solid monthly pack for an SME usually includes:

• Profit and loss (P&L) for the month and year-to-date
• Balance sheet (with a short explanation of any big movements)
• Cash movement summary (what changed in the bank and why)
• Variance vs budget (or vs last year if you don’t have a budget yet)
• A short commentary (half a page is enough) that answers:
  • What went well?
  • What went wrong?
  • What are we doing about it next month?

A few basics make the numbers meaningful:

• Accruals: Record costs in the month they relate to, not when the bill is paid. Otherwise margins bounce around and you can’t trust trends.
• Stock accuracy: If you hold inventory, get stock counts and valuation discipline in place. Bad stock data makes gross margin numbers useless.
• Separate one-offs: Keep restructuring costs, legal disputes, insurance claims, grant income, and unusual expenses out of “normal trading” results. You want to see the run-rate clearly.

A simple month-end timetable helps you close faster without chaos. This is a practical target schedule for many SMEs:

Day of month	What gets done	Output
Day 1 to 2	Raise missing sales invoices, cut-off checks	Revenue completeness
Day 2 to 3	Post supplier bills, agree key balances	Cleaner costs and payables
Day 3 to 4	Payroll journals, VAT review, accruals and prepayments	True month costs
Day 4 to 5	Stock and WIP updates (if relevant)	Reliable gross margin
Day 5 to 6	Management accounts draft, variance notes	Decision-ready pack
Day 7	Leadership review, actions agreed	Next month priorities

The goal isn’t perfection. It’s getting to the point where you can say, with confidence, “Here’s what happened, here’s why, here’s what we’re changing.”

Build a 12-month plan and stress-test it (best case, base case, worst case)

Your reset becomes Growth when it turns into a plan you can run week after week. A 12-month plan is not a fantasy spreadsheet, it’s a set of linked assumptions that you can update as reality changes.

Build it from drivers, not from guesswork:

• Revenue drivers: volume, price, conversion rate, retention, average order value, sales cycle length.
• Capacity: who delivers the work, how many hours or units they can produce, when you need extra heads.
• Costs: fixed overheads, variable costs tied to sales, and one-off items you can control (software, contractors, marketing bursts).
• Working capital: what happens to cash as you grow (DSO, DIO/WIP, supplier terms).
• Capex: equipment, vehicles, systems, or fit-out, plus timing of payments.

Stress-testing is plain language. You’re asking: “If things go a bit wrong, do we still stay in control?” You create three versions:

• Base case: what you expect if you execute well.
• Best case: what happens if sales land faster, margins hold, and cash collection improves.
• Worst case: what happens if one or two key assumptions break.

This stops panic cuts because you’ve already thought through your options. When a shock hits, you don’t scramble, you switch to the pre-agreed response.

Common shocks to test (most SMEs face at least one):

• Loss of a key client or a delayed renewal
• Supplier price rises or weaker availability
• A larger-than-expected VAT bill
• Hiring too early, followed by a slow month
• A spike in refunds, rework, or warranty claims
• A short-term drop in conversion rate from a channel that used to perform

When you build the plan, don’t just change revenue. Change the cash effects too. Lower sales often means slower collections, plus pressure to discount, plus wasted capacity.

Get ready for funding or an exit, even if you are not raising yet

Funding and exits rarely happen on your ideal timeline. Being “ready enough” gives you options, and options reduce stress.

Funders and buyers tend to want the same foundations:

• Clean numbers they can trust
• Predictable cash flow, or at least a clear path to it
• Defensible margins (not fragile pricing held together by discounts)
• A clear story about how Growth happens, and what it costs

Practical steps you can take in this 90-day window:

• Tidy contracts: make sure customer terms, renewal dates, pricing, and scope are clear. Messy contracts create risk, and risk lowers value.
• Prove unit economics: show what it costs to win and serve a customer, and what you earn back over time. Even a simple version is powerful.
• Reduce customer concentration: if one client is a big chunk of revenue, build a plan to rebalance. Concentration scares funders because one loss can break cash flow.
• Document key processes: sales handover, delivery steps, invoicing, credit control, and supplier ordering. If the business relies on one person’s memory, it’s harder to fund and harder to sell.
• Keep a due diligence folder: latest accounts, tax filings, key contracts, debt schedules, cap table (if relevant), and KPI dashboard. Don’t build it the week you need it.

Consult EFC often supports founders here in a hands-on way, bringing fractional CFO support, clear modelling, and investor-ready reporting that matches how funders and buyers actually assess risk. The point isn’t to “look big”, it’s to run the business with enough clarity that external money becomes a choice, not a rescue.

Conclusion

A 90-day finance reset works because it follows the order cash demands. First, you get cash control with a simple 13-week forecast, tighter invoicing, and faster collections. Next, you lift profit with pricing tweaks that protect volume, cut discount leakage, and make your best work pay properly. Then you clean up costs with a short spend audit, supplier resets, and practical controls that stop waste returning. Finally, you lock in Growth with a weekly finance rhythm, a small KPI set, and a plan you can stress-test.

None of this needs perfection. The compounding comes from consistency, 20 minutes each week on cash, chasing, and spend discipline will beat a big overhaul you never keep up.

If you want a starting point, assess where you’re weakest right now, cash visibility, collections, or costs, then take the first 7-day step. Build the forecast, tighten your invoicing and follow-up routine, or run the spend audit and cancel what isn’t earning its keep. Consult EFC can support you with clear, hands-on Advisory and Accounting so the changes show up in the bank, not just in a spreadsheet.