What's the difference between a P&L, a cash flow statement and a balance sheet - and which one actually tells me if I'll run out of money?
Your P&L can show a profit while your bank account hits zero, because inventory purchases, GST timing and marketplace settlement cycles don't show up as expenses when you spend the cash - they show up when goods sell. The cash flow statement is the one that actually predicts a crunch; the balance sheet tells you what you own and owe at a point in time. Indian D2C founders who watch only the P&L are routinely blindsided by a cash crisis their income statement never warned them about.
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3 resources, 3 link-checked.
📖 Book
✓ Link checkedPaidBeginner
Flips the standard margin conversation on its head, allocate profit first, then run the business on what's left, which forces real cost discipline instead of hoping margin appears at year-end.
Purpose-built for the cash flow statement specifically - the document most founders skip in favour of the P&L, and the one that actually warns you before you run dry.
A forecasting-specific companion to the general modeling articles - useful for the founder who has a model built but needs to get better at the forward-looking assumptions that drive it.
