How much cash is really mine to spend?
The bank balance is the number every owner looks at and the one that tells you least. Available cash is what is left after everything already committed.
Available cash is the bank balance less committed obligations, less money held for third parties, less deferred revenue, less your minimum floor — read against a rolling thirteen-week forecast.
The four places to look
Subtract what is already spoken for
Payroll due, taxes collected but not yet remitted, sales tax held on behalf of a state, bills approved but unpaid, and any debt service inside the window. Sales tax and payroll withholding in particular are not your money at any point — they are money you are holding for someone else.
Deferred revenue is a liability, not a balance
If customers pay in advance, part of that bank balance is work you still owe. Spending it is borrowing from delivery you have already been paid for, which is the most common way an apparently healthy business runs into trouble.
Look forward thirteen weeks, not backwards
A rolling thirteen-week forecast of receipts and disbursements is the standard tool because a quarter is far enough to see a problem while there is still time to act. Updated weekly against actuals, it is the difference between managing cash and reacting to it.
Set a floor and treat it as untouchable
Decide the minimum balance the business does not go below — usually a function of payroll cycle and receivable timing — and measure available cash above that line rather than above zero.
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