A cash shortage is a fact, not always the cause
Two companies may run short of cash for entirely different reasons. One has profitable orders and a measurable timing gap between receipts and payments. Another is funding recurring losses with debt. Both need liquidity, but they do not need the same decision.
Seeking finance before understanding the cause can buy time or amplify the problem. When operations destroy margin, new money delays diagnosis while increasing debt, security exposure and future pressure.
Temporary gap
Operations are profitable, receipts are visible and the timing gap can be quantified and funded.
Structural problem
Margin, fixed costs, debt or the commercial model prevents recurring cash generation.
Control problem
The company may be viable but operates with late, incomplete or unreconciled information.
Legal-financial problem
Maturities, security, obligations or possible insolvency require immediate specialist advice.
Mental overload is not solved by adding more opinions
When payroll, tax, suppliers and repayments approach, everything feels urgent. Management moves between negotiation, sales, cuts, new credit and asset protection. That response is understandable, but it makes it harder to see which action preserves options and which consumes the remaining time.
Separate three horizons: immediate cash, operational correction and future viability. Each horizon requires different evidence, owners and decisions. Combining them creates activity, not necessarily progress.
- 01
Build a short-term cash forecast based on actual dates rather than averages.
- 02
Identify which products, customers, channels or units create or destroy margin and cash.
- 03
Map debt, security, maturities, obligations and critical dependencies.
- 04
Develop continuity, correction, sale, restructuring or exit scenarios with conditions and deadlines.
Questions that reveal the real constraint
A useful diagnostic does not begin only with how much money is missing. It asks why, since when and what must change to prevent recurrence. It also separates reversible actions from decisions that put assets, reputation or continuity at risk.
The answer may not be visible in annual accounts. It may emerge from actual collections, discounts, returns, cost-to-serve, stock, customer concentration, productivity or dependency on a person or contract.
Margin
Does the company make money after every necessary cost of delivery and collection?
Conversion
Does accounting profit become cash within a sustainable period?
Recurrence
Is pressure caused by a one-off event or does it return even as sales grow?
Corrective capacity
Are there enough time, resources and internal alignment to execute the required change?
When legal, tax and restructuring specialists must join
Strategic consulting can structure evidence, identify causes and prepare scenarios. It does not replace legal, tax, insolvency or employment advice. Where insolvency, material default or personal-asset exposure may exist, specialist coordination should not wait for the business diagnostic to finish.
Speed matters because some options depend on deadlines, documentation and prior conduct. Early advice cannot guarantee continuity, but it can prevent options being lost through missing information or uncoordinated action.
How this analysis was prepared
Directed and reviewed by Juan Carlos Martín Gil using the firm’s diagnostic method. It provides general decision criteria and does not replace review of the specific transaction or legal, tax, financial or insolvency advice.