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Free one-page sheet

The 10 Numbers I Check Every Monday

Ten minutes, before anything else, before the phone starts. Not a dashboard and not accounting — one page that tells you whether this week is a problem.

Every number has a line next to it that tells you when to act. That's the part most of these lists leave out.

Preview of the one-page sheet showing ten numbers, each with a worry threshold and a box to fill in
What's on it

Ten numbers, and the line that should worry you

Cash, in weeks of payroll

Not dollars. Weeks. Under six is tight; under three and you start making decisions out of fear.

Real margin on closed jobs

Actual cost, not the bid. More than five points under what you quoted is a pricing problem, not bad luck.

Backlog in weeks of crew

Signed work divided by what a crew actually gets through. Under four weeks and you're about to sell from desperation.

Unapproved extras in the field

Work your crew already did that nobody signed for. Past fourteen days you're unlikely to collect it.

Labour: actual vs estimated

Job by job, against the estimate. Over ten percent on any one job and you want to know why before Wednesday.

Overhead recovered vs spent

What you charged into jobs against what you actually spent. This is the quiet one that eats the year.

Plus receivables over 30 days, what goes out this week, leads by source, and close rate against average job size — with a blank box beside each one so it works as a worksheet, not a handout.

Print it. Keep it on the desk.

Fill it in by pen every Monday for a month. The pattern shows up faster on paper than in any software. If you can't find one of these numbers in under two minutes, that's the number to fix first.

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