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?
The short answer
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.
A quick summary to orient you. The real value is below: the resources worth your time, from people who've actually done it, not us.
Here are the resources
Hand-picked from around the web, each with a note on why it earns your time. India-specific ones carry a badge.
Why we picked it
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.
Why we picked it
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.
Why we picked it
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.
