CashSight · The Big Four
The Second Number
One number tells you where you stand. Another tells you where you are heading.
CompanyPreview Co
Your roleActing CEO
This weekNovember
Bank balance$186,000
Team12 people
RevenueMonthly, annual, and project work
Preview Co runs on a mix of monthly subscriptions, annual contracts, and project work. The team is twelve people. Four decisions are waiting for you this week, each one shaping what the cash looks like in the months ahead.
About 5 minutes. Nothing to install, nothing to log in to.
Bank balance today$186,000
November · Monday morning
Decision one of four
The hire
Rachel, your sales director, has found a senior customer success candidate. $95,000 a year. She can start in January. She needs an answer this week.
Decision two of four
The software renewal
Your platform contract renews this week. $14,400 for the year, paid now, or $1,440 a month.
Bank balance today$186,000
November · Monday afternoon
Decision three of four
The terms request
Your second-biggest client wants to move from 30-day to 60-day terms on their $48,000 quarterly invoice. Their renewal is in May, and they have hinted the slower terms are a condition of staying. Say no and you risk losing them.
Decision four of four
The sponsorship
The industry conference wants an answer on the $9,500 February sponsorship. It is where you pick up a good share of your new business each year. Skip it and the pipeline feels it later.
November · Friday afternoon
Four commitments. One number.

The bank said $186,000 on Friday morning, before the decisions. It says $186,000 now, in the afternoon. It knows nothing about the four commitments you just made, or what they will do to cash in the months ahead.

You most likely decided the way most founders and CEOs decide: today's balance, a feel for what sales should bring in, and judgement. Gut feel, built on the first number, today's bank balance.

That is not a criticism. It is how whole years get run. There is a better way.

There is a second number. It takes about four questions to find, and none of them need a spreadsheet.

Question one of three
What comes in, every month?
Tap what you know.
✓
Monthly subscriptions from smaller accounts. $64,000 a month.
The steady layer underneath the annual contracts.
The path so far
Question two of three
What comes in, sometimes?
Tick only what you can stand behind. A forecast built on hopeful money is just an optimistic guess.
The quarterly client invoice. $48,000, landing in November, February, and May.
Contracted, from an existing client. This one is solid.
The May renewals. Around $240,000 across the annual contracts.
Your largest inflow. Most renew, but not all, and not always on time.
The project payment. $22,000, expected in March.
A verbal yes. Nothing signed yet.
The path so far
Question three of three
What goes out?
Fixed. This does not move.
✓
Payroll. $71,000 a month.
The obligation that cannot move.
✓
Rent. $5,000 a month.
✓
Tax payment. Around $42,000, due in January and April.
Below are choices. Cutting them protects cash now. It can also cost you later. You are building for the future, not cutting your way to it.
Marketing
Equipment and fit-out
The path so far
Now watch your decisions land.

You just built a forecast from four things you already knew. The four decisions you made in the fog are not separate from it, they are what it is for. Watch where each one bends the path you could not see when you chose.

November to May · The second number

November · Same week, different tools
Two of them, again. This time you can see.
Both start where you left them, decided in the fog. Change either one and watch the path redraw. This is the difference the second number makes.
The hire
The client terms
Before and after

What it took

Four questions. Things you already knew. No spreadsheet, no accountant, no model. The path drew itself from what was in your head.

What it gave you

A forecast is not a smoke alarm. It is headlights. Sometimes it warns you. Just as often it says yes, and tells you when.

You built this one in four questions with Preview Co's numbers. Yours are sitting in your accounting software right now.

CashSight
CashSight keeps the second number in front of founders and CEOs. It connects to your accounting software, builds the path ahead, and updates it as things change. What you just did in four questions, it does continuously with your numbers.
CashSight is in early access with a small group of businesses.
Register for early access Read about The View and the Big Four
The Second Number is the first of the Big Four. Preview Co is a fictional company built on real numbers.