Scrooge Manning the Books --Dickeson

That's equity stuff—fiduciary misinformation. Hey, we're running a business here, man. We're talking dynamics—cash. We need to know what's happening, right now. Tell your accountant to go have a cuppa with Cratchitt while the computer program spits out the decision support reports.

Let's keep those reports clean. On the first one let's see the receipts, expenses and cash balances for the 13 weeks. Give us a simple line chart to dramatize the trend. Do the same on the second one for the accounts receivable and on the third one for raw paper inventory. By 8:05 a.m. Monday we know our liquidity position—where it's been, and where it's heading. Liquidity is our key to being in business tomorrow...to being able to take advantage of opportunities...to our ability to grab that 36 percent interest on 2/10/n30 purchase discounts...to make the down payment on a new fork lift. As managers, our task is to focus first on working capital—make the payrolls, pay the bills, buy the materials.