What we fix

Four leaks between the work you do and the cash you keep.

Not every shop has every one, and the loudest leak is rarely the biggest. Here’s what each one looks like from inside the building — see which lists sound like yours.

Illustration: a quoting and pricing interface on a tablet beside a precision-machined part.

Margin you keep

Price and terms

The most expensive leak, because this money was never owed to you — it was simply never asked for.

Exhibit 01The quotation — the price held from last year's costs, and a terms column of “None.” Both set before the job starts.Illustrative — fictional names and figures, not client data.

What it looks like

Quotes built on last year's material costs, no escalation clause
No deposit or milestone billing on multi-month jobs — you finance the build
Change orders done on a handshake that never reach an invoice
Extras and rework absorbed “to keep the customer happy”

Fixed, it looks like

Priced-in escalation, deposits and progress billing as the default, and a change-order path so short the shop floor actually uses it. Margin stops quietly subsidizing your customers.

Cycle speed

Speed to cash

Every day between doing the work and invoicing the work is a day you lend money at zero percent.

Exhibit 02One job, ship to cash — the terms clock starts at the invoice, 19 days after the truck left.Illustrative — fictional names and figures, not client data.

What it looks like

Quotes that take days to leave the building while the customer shops around
Orders re-keyed from email to spreadsheet to ERP, with errors at each hop
Shipments that go out Friday and get invoiced “when the paperwork catches up”
Month-end invoicing batches for work finished weeks earlier

Fixed, it looks like

Quote-to-order without re-keying, and an invoice that leaves the same day the truck does. The cycle shortens without a single customer conversation.

Working capital

Idle cash

In most manufacturers this is the largest pool of trapped cash — and the least discussed, because it doesn't nag anyone the way an aging report does.

Exhibit 03The inventory summary — every line is cash on a shelf, and one has been there 190 days.Illustrative — fictional names and figures, not client data.

What it looks like

Material bought early “to be safe,” sitting weeks ahead of need
WIP parked between operations with no owner and no clock on it
Finished goods waiting on consolidation, paperwork, or a truck
Retention balances from jobs closed months ago that nobody is chasing

Fixed, it looks like

Buying tied to need dates, WIP that moves because someone can see it standing still, and retainage tracked like the receivable it is. Cash comes off the shelf and back into the account.

Days sales outstanding

Collections

Deliberately last. It's the leak everyone leads with — and usually the fourth one worth fixing, after the money that never got billed at all.

Exhibit 04The aging, drawn — the money to the right is the money nobody is chasing.Illustrative — fictional names and figures, not client data.

What it looks like

Follow-up that depends on one person remembering, between other jobs
No agreed escalation path when an account goes quiet
Disputes discovered at day 60 that started at day 5, on the paperwork
The occasional write-off nobody planned for and nobody owns

Fixed, it looks like

Follow-up that runs on schedule without anyone remembering, disputes surfaced the week they're born, and an aging report that gets shorter instead of longer.

Recognize your shop in one of those lists?

The Snapshot puts rough dollars on each leak in two minutes. The diagnostic ranks them on your actual financials.

Run your Snapshot Book a diagnostic