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Small Business Financial Dashboard

Four numbers instead of three statements, and every one of them reconciled to the bank balance rather than to a profit and loss.

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Pack of 10 files: 5 documents, 5 spreadsheets

Small Business Financial Dashboard

The Owner ViewDocument
How the Four Numbers Were ComputedDocument
Owner Pay NoteDocument
Metric DefinitionsDocument
Review RoutineDocument
Cash PositionSpreadsheet
Profit to Cash BridgeSpreadsheet
RunwaySpreadsheet
Fixed Cost BaseSpreadsheet
Revenue and Margin TrendSpreadsheet

Small Business Financial Dashboard

The Owner View

[Company] — four numbers, week ending [date]

Four, and nothing else. A page with fourteen numbers on it has no headline, so anything added here replaces something rather than joining it.

1 Free cash

Free cash	—
Bank balances, all accounts	—
less sales tax collected, not yet remitted	—
less payroll taxes withheld, not yet paid	—
less customer deposits on undelivered work	—
Share of the balance that is not the business’s	—

2 Fixed cost base

A month, from recurrence across twelve months	—
Items in the base / entered this month / left it	—
Stoppable inside thirty days	—

3 Runway, which is three questions rather than one

Question	Answer
How long at the current rate	—
How long if revenue stopped, no action taken	—
Can we make the next payroll, on collectibles	—

4 Profit to cash gap

Gap, and the three largest lines in it	—
Profit, last full month	—
Change in the bank balance	—
Of the gap: timing, and permanent	—

Every one of the four is reconciled to a bank statement rather than to a report. That is the whole design constraint, and it is why there is no profit and loss on this page: the accounting package already produces one, and the owner already has the question it does not answer.

Every free small business financial dashboard template renders the same three statements: a profit and loss, a balance sheet, a cash flow summary, then ten to fifteen ratios and a variance-to-budget table. They answer an accountant's question, which is how the period performed. Under an accrual method income is reported when it is earned rather than when it is paid, so none of them answers the owner's question, which is whether the balance in the account is money the business can spend.

Thornbury Signworks is an invented nine-person sign shop. Twelve months: $1,428,000 of revenue, $148,300 of profit, and a bank balance $56,340 lower at the end of the year than at the start. Both figures are correct, and only one of them was on a report. Nine legitimate lines sit between them, and five of the nine are on no line of a profit and loss at all. Owner draws, loan principal, equipment, tax held and tax paid moved $176,740 out of the account and appeared on nothing.

Then the numerator. The bank said $84,200 on 31 March, of which $23,180 was sales tax collected, $8,940 was payroll tax withheld and $19,500 was prepayment on undelivered work. Free cash was $32,580, so 61.3 percent of the balance belonged to somebody else. The best-known benchmark here, JPMorgan Chase Institute's read of 597,000 small businesses, puts the median cash buffer at 27 days and computes it on the balance. Same arithmetic, wrong numerator.

The four numbers, worked through on one company

The bridge, the free cash calculation, the fixed base read from recurrence, and the three runways it produces.

Small Business Financial Dashboard

The bridgeFree cashFixed baseThree runways

The bridge

March, and the bridge to the bank

Thornbury Signworks, invented. A nine-person sign shop: vehicle wraps, storefront signage, one retail counter. Invoices on thirty day terms, holds material inventory, a truck and a plotter on finance, and the owner takes draws.

Profit and loss, March	Amount
Revenue invoiced	$132,400
Cost of sales	$84,300
Gross profit, 36.3 percent	$48,100
Operating expenses	$30,300
Interest	$1,150
Net profit, 12.6 percent	$16,650

A good month. The bank balance fell $20,880 across the same month, and nothing below is a mistake.

Bridge line	Effect on the bank	On the profit and loss?	Timing or permanent
Net profit	+$16,650	Yes, it is the profit	—
Increase in receivables	−$18,300	Yes	Timing
Increase in payables	+$4,100	Yes	Timing
Inventory build	−$6,800	Yes	Timing
Owner draws	−$9,000	No line at all	Permanent
Loan principal repaid	−$1,870	No line at all	Permanent
Equipment bought	−$7,400	No line at all	Permanent
Change in tax held	+$8,240	No line at all	Timing
Estimated tax paid	−$6,500	No line at all	Permanent
Change in the bank balance	−$20,880	—	—
Gap between profit and cash	$37,530	—	—

Bridge line

Effect on the bank

On the profit and loss?

Timing or permanent

Net profit

+$16,650

Yes, it is the profit

—

Increase in receivables

−$18,300

Yes

Timing

Increase in payables

+$4,100

Yes

Timing

Inventory build

−$6,800

Yes

Timing

Owner draws

−$9,000

No line at all

Permanent

Loan principal repaid

−$1,870

No line at all

Permanent

Equipment bought

−$7,400

No line at all

Permanent

Change in tax held

+$8,240

No line at all

Timing

Estimated tax paid

−$6,500

No line at all

Permanent

Change in the bank balance

−$20,880

—

Gap between profit and cash

$37,530

—

Five of the nine lines are on no line of a profit and loss. Over twelve months those five netted $176,740 out of the account and appeared on nothing the owner was ever shown. Four of the nine reverse without anybody doing anything, so $12,760 of the March gap is timing and $24,770 is permanent. That last column is the difference between a cash problem and a schedule.

Free cash

The balance, and how much of it was the business’s

31 March. Four accounts, one of them a card, which is why the arithmetic starts by netting rather than by adding.

Account	Balance	Note
Operating account	$61,400	The main account
Deposit account	$18,900	Where customer deposits are held
Card account	−$2,600	Outstanding balance
Tax savings	$6,500	Set aside against the next estimate
All accounts	$84,200	The number a dashboard divides by the burn

Account

Balance

Note

Operating account

$61,400

The main account

Deposit account

$18,900

Where customer deposits are held

Card account

−$2,600

Outstanding balance

Tax savings

$6,500

Set aside against the next estimate

All accounts

$84,200

The number a dashboard divides by the burn

Not the business’s money	Amount	Due
Sales tax collected, not yet remitted	$23,180	20 April
Payroll taxes withheld, not yet paid	$8,940	15 April
Customer deposits on undelivered work	$19,500	On delivery
Held for somebody else	$51,620	61.3% of the balance
Free cash	$32,580	—

And what is already committed against it

Committed inside thirty days	Amount	Date
Salaried payroll	$21,500	10 April
Shop and yard rent	$6,400	1 April
Truck and plotter finance	$3,020	5 April
Aluminium supplier, agreed	$4,100	12 April
Committed outflow	$35,020	—
Headroom, free cash less committed	−$2,440	Negative

Committed inside thirty days

Amount

Date

Salaried payroll

$21,500

10 April

Shop and yard rent

$6,400

1 April

Truck and plotter finance

$3,020

5 April

Aluminium supplier, agreed

$4,100

12 April

Committed outflow

$35,020

—

Headroom, free cash less committed

−$2,440

Negative

None of the three held obligations is a bank transaction, which is why no dashboard computes this. A feed shows the money arrive, shows it leave on the filing date, and shows nothing in between. Read off the balance the month has $49,180 of headroom. Read off free cash it is $2,440 short, and the April collections are what close it.

Fixed base

The fixed base, read from recurrence rather than from categories

A charge is fixed if it lands in at least 10 of the trailing 12 months and its month-to-month spread is under 15 percent of its own mean. The test runs on the bank feed. The bookkeeper’s category has no vote.

Item	A month	Months	Spread	Bookkeeping category	Fixed by category?
Shop and yard rent	$6,400	12	2%	Rent	Yes
Salaried payroll, three people	$21,500	12	3%	Payroll	Yes
Payroll taxes on salaried pay	$1,880	12	3%	Payroll taxes	Yes
Liability, vehicle and workers comp	$2,340	12	0%	Job costs	No
Truck and plotter finance	$3,020	12	0%	Job costs	No
Software and subscriptions	$940	12	8%	Materials	No
Utilities	$780	11	14%	Overhead	Yes
Phone and internet	$310	12	2%	Overhead	Yes
Accounting and payroll service	$650	12	0%	Overhead	Yes
Licences, permits and dues	$190	10	11%	Contract labour	No
Fixed cost base	$38,010	—	—	—	—

The same twelve months, two ways	Amount
Fixed base, from recurrence	$38,010
Read by category instead	$35,640
Error in the total	$2,370, or 6%
Fixed spend the categories missed	$6,490
Variable spend they counted as fixed	$4,120
Error in the composition	$10,610, or 27.9%

The same twelve months, two ways

Amount

Fixed base, from recurrence

$38,010

Read by category instead

$35,640

Error in the total

$2,370, or 6%

Fixed spend the categories missed

$6,490

Variable spend they counted as fixed

$4,120

Error in the composition

$10,610, or 27.9%

The total is nearly right and the composition is not. Insurance, finance, software and licences sat in job-cost, materials and contract-labour buckets, so a category reading dropped $6,490 a month that continues whether or not any work comes in, and counted $4,120 that stops on its own. Composition is the only thing this number is for, because the question is what still leaves the account when the work stops.

Three runways

Three runways, and what one hire does to them

Burn is the trailing three-month average movement in the bank: January +$6,420, February −$2,510, March −$20,880, so $5,657 a month. Three months because one is noise and twelve describes a company that has already changed.

Question	Arithmetic	Answer
What a page-one dashboard prints	$84,200 / $5,657	14.9 months
How long at the current rate	$32,580 / $5,657	5.8 months
How long if revenue stopped, no action taken	$32,580 / $38,010	26 days
Can we make the next payroll, on collectibles	$55,280 / $38,010	1.5 months

Question

Arithmetic

Answer

What a page-one dashboard prints

$84,200 / $5,657

14.9 months

How long at the current rate

$32,580 / $5,657

5.8 months

How long if revenue stopped, no action taken

$32,580 / $38,010

26 days

Can we make the next payroll, on collectibles

$55,280 / $38,010

1.5 months

The first two differ only in the numerator. The collectible figure is free cash plus $61,400 of receivables due inside thirty days less $38,700 of payables due in the same window, and it deliberately excludes the $22,900 already past due, because money that is late is not a plan.

Coverage and break-even, March	Amount
Revenue	$132,400
Variable cost, once the fixed base is taken out of both buckets	$79,610
Contribution, 39.9 percent	$52,790
Coverage, contribution over the fixed base	1.39
Break-even revenue a month	$95,331
Three month reserve target	$114,030
Gap to the reserve target	$81,450

The hire question, priced	Amount
Salary	$68,000
Employer payroll taxes, unemployment, workers comp	$7,800
Benefits	$2,400
Fully loaded, a year	$78,200
A month, added to the fixed base	$6,517, up 17.1%
Revenue-stopped runway with the hire	22 days
Extra revenue a month to stand still	$16,344

The hire question, priced

Amount

Salary

$68,000

Employer payroll taxes, unemployment, workers comp

$7,800

Benefits

$2,400

Fully loaded, a year

$78,200

A month, added to the fixed base

$6,517, up 17.1%

Revenue-stopped runway with the hire

22 days

Extra revenue a month to stand still

$16,344

Coverage of 1.39 says revenue could fall a bit under thirty percent before the month stopped paying for itself, which is a more useful sentence than any margin percentage. And the year is the finding: $1,428,000 of revenue, $148,300 of profit, $103,000 of it drawn, so $45,300 after the owner is paid. A 10.4 percent margin and a 3.2 percent one are different businesses.

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What's in the pack

The Owner View

The four numbers on one page and nothing else, with a flags block and a line for the week's decision. A review that never produces one becomes a ritual, and rituals get skipped.

Cash Position sheet

Balances across every account, then the three held obligations with their dates, then free cash and the headroom after thirty days of committed outflow. Whether a deposit is refundable is in the agreement.

Profit to Cash Bridge sheet

Nine lines from profit to the change in the bank balance, closing to the dollar, each marked timing or permanent. The inventory line is capital held rather than spent, which is a different kind of gap than a missing invoice.

Runway sheet

Three figures with the question each answers, the inputs behind each, and the no-action assumption written down on the one that assumes revenue stopped. Plus the reserve target and the gap to it. A runway is months; which week actually runs short is a thirteen week forecast.

Fixed Cost Base sheet

Every recurring charge with its months of twelve, its spread, its bookkeeping category, where it lands on the profit and loss, and whether it could actually be stopped inside thirty days.

Revenue and Margin Trend sheet

Twelve months of contribution against the fixed base, so coverage and break-even move with the base. One month here came in at 0.95, which means it did not pay for itself. The same coverage arithmetic, run against debt instead of the fixed base, is most of what a lender's own debt service coverage calculation needs next.

Metric Definitions

Each of the four in plain language: what it is, what it is not, the arithmetic, and the specific way it gets read wrong. Written for somebody who does not read financial statements.

Owner Pay Note

Profit before and after the owner is paid, because a draw is not an expense. Whether a job or a service line is carrying that pay is a different exercise. Setting the pay itself, salary against distribution, is the owner pay and distribution pack.

Review Routine and eight prompts

Ten minutes a week on a fixed agenda, twenty a month for the bridge, and a prompt per decision. Where the other thirty-nine hours go is its own audit.

How it works

1
Take the files or install the pack
Five blank sheets and five documents as CSV and Word files with no account, or install the whole thing into a private Space with the agent already primed on the bridge.
2
Send twelve months of transactions
Every account and every card, as raw rows rather than a categorised report. The draws, the principal, the equipment and the tax payments are all in there and on no statement you have seen. If those months are not written up yet, the bookkeeping catch-up comes first.
3
Answer three questions nothing exports
Sales tax collected and not remitted, payroll tax withheld and not paid, deposits on work not delivered. None of the three is a transaction, which is why free cash is never computed.
4
Get the gap, then set the thresholds
Both runway figures and the distance between them, the bridge closing to the dollar, and a reserve target. Then fill in the flags once and stop discussing them.

Frequently asked questions

Is this template free?

Yes. Five sheets, five documents and eight prompts with no signup and no card, and they are the same files the agent works in. Editing with AI is the optional path, where your own bank transactions become the bridge and the fixed base.

What format are the downloaded files?

CSV for Cash Position, the Profit to Cash Bridge, Runway, Fixed Cost Base and the trend, and Word for the Owner View, Metric Definitions, the Owner Pay Note and the Review Routine, zipped together. Excel, Numbers, Sheets, Word and Pages open them directly.

Why is the bank balance not my cash?

Because some of it was collected for somebody else. Sales tax is the state's, and the IRS calls withheld income and employment taxes trust fund taxes because the employer holds the employee's money in trust until the deposit is made. Customer deposits are refundable if a job is cancelled.

Why not read the fixed costs off the categories?

Because the categories get the total nearly right and the composition badly wrong. On the worked example the total was $2,370 out and the composition $10,610 out, which is 27.9 percent of the base. Composition is the only thing the number is for.

Why three runway figures instead of one?

Because one figure is the average of scenarios that never happen. How long at the current rate, how long if revenue stopped, and whether the next payroll clears are three questions with three answers: 5.8 months, 26 days and 1.5 months on the same week's data.

Does this replace my bookkeeper or my accountant?

No. It reads what the bookkeeping produced and adds the four numbers it does not. Nothing here is tax advice, and taxes still have to be paid as income is earned, with a penalty possible for a late estimate even when a refund is due.

What if my books are a mess?

The transactions are the input that decides everything, and they do not have to be categorised, because the recurrence test ignores the categories anyway. If months are genuinely missing, the deadlines worth protecting while you catch up are in the compliance calendar.

Sources

Written by

Chandler Supple

Co-founder & CEO, River

Chandler has spent the last six years working in AI, building tools for millions of users and Fortune 100 companies. In 2025, he co-founded River to build a new kind of operating system for AI agents.

LinkedIn GitHub X

Reviewed by

Brian Joseff, Co-founder, River

LinkedIn X

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Find out how much of your bank balance is actually yours

Download the blank pack as Word and CSV files, or open it in River, send twelve months of transactions, and get free cash and the bridge back first.

Edit with AI

Small Business Financial Dashboard

[Company] — four numbers, week ending [date]

1 Free cash

2 Fixed cost base

3 Runway, which is three questions rather than one

4 Profit to cash gap

The four numbers, worked through on one company

March, and the bridge to the bank

The balance, and how much of it was the business’s

And what is already committed against it

The fixed base, read from recurrence rather than from categories

Three runways, and what one hire does to them

What's in the pack

The Owner View

Cash Position sheet

Profit to Cash Bridge sheet

Runway sheet

Fixed Cost Base sheet

Revenue and Margin Trend sheet

Metric Definitions

Owner Pay Note

Review Routine and eight prompts

How it works

Take the files or install the pack

Send twelve months of transactions

Answer three questions nothing exports

Get the gap, then set the thresholds

Frequently asked questions

Is this template free?

What format are the downloaded files?

Why is the bank balance not my cash?

Why not read the fixed costs off the categories?

Why three runway figures instead of one?

Does this replace my bookkeeper or my accountant?

What if my books are a mess?

Sources

Chandler Supple

Related workspaces

More free templates

Find out how much of your bank balance is actually yours