Five weekly numbers for an owner's scorecard
Updated 16 October 2026
A weekly scorecard is a one-page list of figures an owner reads on the same day each week. The Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), a management method used by many owner-run companies, calls this page the Scorecard. A company can keep one without running EOS. The five figures below each come from the books, and each one moves before the profit and loss statement shows a change. The examples on this page use round figures as an illustration.
Cash counted in weeks
The bank balance on its own says little. Divide it by the cash the company spends in an average week, and the result is runway: the number of weeks the company could pay its bills if no money came in. Runway is the first line on the scorecard because cash is the line that closes a company, whatever the income statement says.
Track the runway figure each week and look at its direction. A runway that drops three weeks in a row is an early signal, often a month or more before the monthly statements show a loss.
Company A spends $45,000 a week, so $180,000 covers 4 weeks. Company B spends $15,000 a week, so the same $180,000 covers 12 weeks. The balance is identical. Company A has one third of Company B's runway, 8 weeks less. The figures are an illustration.
Receivables sorted by age
Accounts receivable is the money customers owe for work already invoiced. A company can book a profit and still run short of cash when customers pay late. The scorecard shows the total owed and the share that is more than 60 days past the invoice date. An aging report in the accounting software sorts each open invoice into 0 to 30, 31 to 60, 61 to 90 and over 90 days.
When the share over 60 days rises, someone needs to call those customers that week. Old invoices get harder to collect the longer they sit, and each one is cash the company has already spent money to earn.
A company has $140,000 in open invoices. Of that, $90,000 is 0 to 30 days old, $30,000 is 31 to 60 days, $12,000 is 61 to 90 days and $8,000 is over 90 days. The two oldest groups add to $20,000, which is 14.3% of the total. That 14.3% is the figure that goes on the scorecard each week. The figures are an illustration.
Payables and their due dates
Accounts payable is the money the company owes its vendors. Receivables show cash coming in, and payables show cash going out. The scorecard lists the total due in the next 14 days next to the cash balance. An owner who reads both lines sees a large vendor bill, a payroll run or a quarterly tax payment two weeks before it lands.
The payables figure depends on every bill being entered when it arrives. A bill sitting in an inbox is missing from the report, so the figure reads low until the bill is entered.
A company holds $95,000 in cash. Payables due in the next 14 days total $62,000, and payroll on the 15th is $38,000. Together those are $100,000, which is $5,000 more than the cash on hand. Receivables expected in the same 14 days decide whether the company needs to move a payment date. The owner sees the $5,000 gap two weeks ahead. The figures are an illustration.
Sales against plan
A week of sales means little until it sits beside the figure the company planned for that week. The plan can be a budget, last year's same week, or a target set in the quarterly meeting. The scorecard shows the plan, the result and the difference in dollars.
A miss of one week is a data point. A miss of three weeks in a row points at the sales pipeline, the price list or the team's capacity to deliver, and it is the trigger for a closer look.
A company books $45,000 of sales in a week. Against a plan of $38,000, that is $7,000 ahead, or 118% of plan. Against a plan of $52,000, the same $45,000 is $7,000 behind, or 87% of plan. The sales figure is the same in both cases, and the plan decides whether the week calls for action. The figures are an illustration.
Gross margin each week
Gross margin is sales minus the direct cost of delivering the product or service, shown as a share of sales. Direct cost covers materials, the wages of the people doing the work and any subcontractors. Sales can rise while gross margin falls, for example when material prices go up, when a discount wins a deal or when a project grows past its quoted scope. A scorecard that shows sales alone misses that change.
A services company books $60,000 a week for three weeks, right on plan. Gross margin reads 48% in week one, 45% in week two and 42% in week three. Gross profit falls from $28,800 to $27,000 to $25,200, so week three earns $3,600 less than week one on the same sales. At that rate, 26 weeks would cost $93,600 of gross profit. The owner looks into it and finds a large client whose discount and extra scope were absorbed without a price change. The figures are an illustration.
Running the scorecard
A scorecard that takes an hour to read gets dropped. Keep it to one page with five rows. Each row shows this week, last week and the plan. Pick one day, such as Monday morning, and read it on that day every week. The bookkeeper or finance lead prepares it and sends it, so the owner never has to ask for it.
Read the scorecard for direction. A figure moving the wrong way for three weeks gets a name next to it and a date for an answer. Leave out a sixth, seventh or tenth figure until the first five are read every week. Each row also needs one owner, the person who explains the figure when it moves.
The scorecard is only as current as the books behind it. If bank feeds are a month behind, the weekly cash and margin figures describe last month. Weekly numbers need transactions entered each week and accounts reconciled each month. A reconciliation matches the books to the bank and card statements line by line.
A company's Monday page shows runway at 9 weeks, down from 10. Receivables over 60 days are 11% of the total, up from 8%. Payables due in 14 days are $41,000 against $120,000 of cash. Sales were $47,000 against a $50,000 plan. Gross margin was 44%, flat. Two rows moved the wrong way, so the owner assigns the receivables row to the office manager and the sales row to the sales lead, each with a Friday answer. The figures are an illustration.
What this means for an owner
Five figures cover the weekly check: runway in weeks, receivables over 60 days, payables due in 14 days, sales against plan and gross margin. Each figure comes from the books, so each depends on transactions being entered weekly and accounts reconciled monthly. A drop of three points of margin on $60,000 of weekly sales is $1,800 a week. Read the page on the same day every week and act on any figure that moves the wrong way three weeks running.
Getting the numbers ready each week
Averan Advisors keeps the books current and closes each month on a fixed date, so the weekly figures match the bank. The bookkeeping service covers weekly entry and monthly reconciliation. The controller service adds the monthly close review and builds the scorecard for the leadership meeting.
The EOS finance resources hub covers the books, the monthly close, the Scorecard numbers and the cash forecast in a company that runs on the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS).
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