Roofing
Roofing Cash Flow Calculator
Track money in against money out, with the material-heavy shape of roofing work accounted for.
Result
Profit and cash are different things and a growing contractor can run out of cash while profitable, because the work is paid for before the invoice is. This models collection speed, not seasonality.
Get a Free Business AuditWhat moves the number
- Material bought before the customer pays, which on roofing is a large sum per job.
- Deposit terms and progress payments.
- Seasonal concentration of both revenue and cost.
Where this one goes wrong
Funding customers' materials out of working capital. Roofing material is a substantial up-front cost per job, and a company running several jobs without deposits can be profitable and out of cash simultaneously.
Questions
About this calculator
Should roofing take deposits?
For material-heavy work, generally yes. It stops the business financing the customer's material, which on several concurrent jobs is a large sum.
How does insurance work affect cash?
Often badly. Insurance claim payments can be staged and slow, and the work still has to be done and paid for in the meantime. That timing needs planning for.
What is the seasonal risk?
Spending through the quiet months on overhead accumulated during the busy ones. The cash plan matters more in roofing than in most trades because the income is so concentrated.
The formula
cash tied up = daily invoicing x days to get paid
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How to use this calculator
- Invoiced per month ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $88,000.
- Payment terms (days). Enter your own figure; the page starts at 30.
- Days customers actually take. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 46.
- Costs paid out per month ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $38,000.
- Cash in the bank now ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $22,000.
The result updates as you type, so you can try a figure, see what it does to days of funding gap, and change it back. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or saved.
A worked example
These are the figures the calculator opens with. Every number in the results column below is produced by the same calculation the page runs, so you can follow it through before putting your own figures in.
What goes in
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Invoiced per month | $88,000 |
| Payment terms (days) | 30 |
| Days customers actually take | 46 |
| Costs paid out per month | $38,000 |
| Cash in the bank now | $22,000 |
What comes out
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Days of funding gap main result | 16 |
| Cash tied up in invoices | $134,933 |
| Monthly surplus | $50,000 |
| Months of cover | 999.0 |
There is $134,933 sitting in unpaid invoices, and customers take 16 days longer than your terms allow. That gap is the money you are lending them for free.
How sensitive the answer is
Holding everything else steady and changing only invoiced per month, this is what happens to days of funding gap. It is worth knowing which of your inputs the answer actually hinges on, and which barely move it.
| Invoiced per month ($) | Days of funding gap |
|---|---|
| $44,000 | 16 |
| $66,000 | 16 |
| $88,000 example above | 16 |
| $132,000 | 16 |
| $176,000 | 16 |
Every other input is held at the example value while this one changes, which is not how a real job behaves. Treat it as a guide to which number matters most, not as five separate quotes.
What each figure means
- Invoiced per month ($)
- A money amount, starting at $88,000.
- Payment terms (days)
- A number, between 0 and 180, starting at 30.
- Days customers actually take
- A number, between 0 and 365, starting at 46.
- Costs paid out per month ($)
- A money amount, starting at $38,000.
- Cash in the bank now ($)
- A money amount, starting at $22,000.
What the results tell you
| Result | What it is |
|---|---|
| Days of funding gap | The headline result. A number. |
| Cash tied up in invoices | A money figure. |
| Monthly surplus | A money figure. |
| Months of cover | A decimal figure. |
What this cannot see
Material quantities assume a clean rectangular plane and the waste factor you enter. Valleys, hips, dormers, penetrations and a steep pitch all raise real waste, and a tear-off frequently uncovers decking that was not in the quote.
Estimating is the easy part
The jobs you never hear about cost more than the ones you mis-measure. BDEVY builds the marketing, systems and automation that bring them in.