The Importance of Cash Flow (and How to Improve Yours)

What is Cash Flow? Definition and Why it's Important

Every business needs cash to operate. To keep their doors open, businesses must closely monitor their cash inflows and outflows, making sure they're making more money than they're spending. This process of tracking the net amount of cash moving into and out of your business at a specific point in time, is called cash flow management.

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Cash flow management is important for many reasons: it allows businesses to easily identify growth opportunities, spot potential problems, and track their overall financial health. In 2025, treasuries that outperform are pairing real-time liquidity tools with AI-enhanced forecasting to surface risks and unlock trapped cash faster. Keeping an eye on cash flow also helps businesses keep their costs in check and plan for future expenses.

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By understanding and managing cash flow effectively, businesses can ensure their financial stability and meet their obligations - along with some wiggle room for variables like seasonality or unexpected events, such as a pandemic. Peer conditions also shift: the cash conversion cycle improved to ~37 days in 2024 across large U.S. companies, so it’s critical to benchmark against your peer set and not a fixed number.

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Businesses that don't optimize their cash flow run the risk of falling behind their competitors as they struggle to find enough money to pay bills and cover costs. This can compound, and cause teams to miss out on opportunities to expand or invest in new products or services.

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Keep reading to learn about the effects of a positive cash flow versus a negative cash flow, along with 4 key practices to help your team track, manage, and improve your cash flow.

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What are the Benefits of Positive Cash Flow?

The term ‘positive cash flow’ refers to a situation in which the money coming into an organization is greater than the amount of money going out. Positive cash flow is crucial for the smooth operation and growth of a business, allowing them to make investments, pay off debt and build reserves, all while continuing operations.

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There are ample benefits to positive cash flow, including:

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Extra security. Positive cash flow ensures that businesses have sufficient funds to sustain operations despite unforeseen circumstances, such as supplier loss or seasonal variations.
Stronger credit. A positive cash flow means your team is more likely to maintain timely payments to creditors. This not only boosts your credit rating but also opens up access to additional credit options.
Financial independence. By having adequate cash reserves, you may even eliminate the need to borrow altogether. This helps you stay out of debt and avoid costly fees and interest charges.
Better deals with suppliers. Positive cash flow also allows you to take advantage of early supplier discounts and invest in necessary upgrades or expansions.
‍Lower payment-rail costs & faster cash. Steering customers to ACH (and using Same Day ACH when timing is critical) reduces fees vs. cards/wires and accelerates settlement—ACH volume reached 33.6B payments in 2024, with Same Day ACH up 45% YoY.

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Ultimately, positive cash flow brings peace of mind to business owners, alleviating the stress associated with negative cash flow situations.

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What are the Impacts of Negative Cash Flow?

Negative cash flow is the opposite of positive cash flow. It occurs when a business spends more than it makes. This can arise from various factors, such as ongoing operational expenses exceeding sales revenue or poor timing of income and expenses. Regardless of the specific cause, negative cash flow should be a cause of serious concern for business owners. Recent Fed small-business survey results show revenue softness and mixed credit satisfaction—conditions that heighten cash-flow gaps for smaller firms.

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One of the primary consequences of negative cash flow is the inability to cover expenses from sales alone. This means that the business requires additional funds to bridge the gap and avoid the risk of bankruptcy. These additional funds can come from investments or financing, which serve to make up the difference between outgoing and incoming money.

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While negative cash flow may be common for new businesses, it is not sustainable in the long run. Without sufficient profits to cover expenses, a business will eventually run out of funds. This highlights the importance of addressing negative cash flow promptly and implementing strategies to improve the financial situation.

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It's worth noting that negative cash flow can persist even when a business embarks on new projects. For example, bills may be due before a customer pays an invoice, leading to a shortage of cash to cover immediate expenses. This scenario further emphasizes the need for effective cash flow management and planning.

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Negative cash flow also hampers a business's ability to reinvest cash into its operations. Instead of focusing on growth and expansion, the primary goal becomes keeping the business afloat. This lack of financial flexibility stunts the potential for business growth and limits opportunities for innovation.

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Improve Your Cash Flow By Focusing on These 4 Areas

Improving cash flow is crucial for the success of any business. By focusing on key areas such as pricing, manufacturing, accounts payable (AP), and accounts receivable (AR), businesses can effectively enhance their cash flow.

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Pricing. Analyzing pricing strategies can help identify opportunities to increase prices or reduce costs, ultimately leading to improved profitability. By carefully evaluating market demand and competition, businesses can adjust prices for high-demand goods or unique products, optimizing profit and cash flow per sale. Additionally, conducting regular price elasticity studies can provide insights into customer behavior and price sensitivity, enabling businesses to fine-tune their pricing strategies for maximum impact. Tie pricing moves to cash impact by modeling AR days and expected adoption; revisit monthly as industry late-payment behavior shifts.

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Manufacturing. Companies can consider redesigning products to use common parts, reducing the need for diverse inventory investments and streamlining production processes. By adopting lean manufacturing principles and implementing efficient production techniques, businesses can minimize waste, improve productivity, and achieve cost savings. Furthermore, exploring strategic partnerships with reliable suppliers can result in better pricing terms and reduced lead times, further enhancing manufacturing efficiency. For inventory-heavy businesses, track DIO in your forecast—peer CCC movements show why inventory turns materially change cash needs.

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Accounts payable. When it comes to managing accounts payable, businesses can explore various strategies to optimize cash flow. Negotiating longer payment terms with suppliers can provide additional time to manage cash flow and allocate resources effectively. Furthermore, consolidating purchases with fewer suppliers can result in volume purchase discounts and streamlined procurement processes. By leveraging technology, businesses can also automate invoice processing and payment systems, reducing manual errors and ensuring timely payments. Benchmark AP cost per invoice and cycle time—APQC data shows top-quartile costs near $1–$2 per invoice versus >3× higher for laggards; automation and three-way match close the gap.

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Accounts receivable. When it comes to cash flow management, accounts receivable can be tricky. This is because you ultimately can’t control when your customers pay you. But don’t worry, there are still actions you can take to help. To enhance cash flow management, implementing a stricter credit policy for accounts receivable can help businesses encourage customers to pay within a shorter period. By setting clear payment terms and actively monitoring customer creditworthiness, businesses can mitigate the risk of late payments and bad debts. Additionally, offering incentives for early payments or implementing automated payment reminder systems can further improve cash flow and reduce the collection period. Offer an ACH “Pay now” link on every invoice (benefiting from the network’s rapid growth), and set an automated reminder cadence (pre-due and post-due) in your AR tool.

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By focusing on these key areas and adopting proactive cash flow management strategies, businesses can establish a solid foundation for sustainable growth, improve financial stability, and seize opportunities for long-term success.

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Conclusion

To sum up, managing cash flow effectively is paramount to ensuring the financial health and sustainability of any business. Negative cash flow is a clear signal of financial instability and requires immediate intervention.

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By focusing on pricing, manufacturing, accounts payable, and accounts receivable, businesses can transform their cash flow from negative to positive. It is crucial to remember that dealing with cash flow issues is not only about troubleshooting present problems but also about planning for the future.

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Learn more about how you can automate cash flow forecasting and get a handle on your cash flow today.

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**Deposit placement through ICS is subject to the terms, conditions, and disclosures in the applicable agreements. Although deposits are placed in increments that do not exceed the FDIC standard maximum deposit insurance amount (“SMDIA”) at any one destination bank, a depositor’s balances at the institution that places deposits may exceed the SMDIA (e.g., before settlement for deposits or after settlement for withdrawals) or be uninsured (if the placing institution is not an insured bank). The depositor must make any necessary arrangements to protect such balances consistent with applicable law and must determine whether placement through ICS satisfies any restrictions on its deposits. A list identifying IntraFi network banks appears at https://www.intrafi.com/network-banks. The depositor may exclude banks from eligibility to receive its funds. IntraFi and ICS are registered service marks, and IntraFi Cash Service is a service mark, of IntraFi Network LLC.

^††2.75% Annual Percentage Yield (APY) as of 09/24/25. Deposit rate may adjust to current market rate and may change daily. Fees may reduce earnings.

*Centime is not a bank and is not authorized by any federal or state agency to engage directly in core banking activities.
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*All banking products and services available through Centime are provided by FNBO and are governed by the applicable agreements and related disclosures provided to you by FNBO. Member FDIC.
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‍*While Centime facilitates traditional banking activities (such as the acceptance of deposits or extensions of credit), these services are actually provided by our banking partner, FNBO.
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*Centime may provide support services to FNBO, as permitted by applicable law, to facilitate the delivery of its bank products and services.

**Deposit placement through ICS is subject to the terms, conditions, and disclosures in the applicable agreements. Although deposits are placed in increments that do not exceed the FDIC standard maximum deposit insurance amount (“SMDIA”) at any one destination bank, a depositor’s balances at the institution that places deposits may exceed the SMDIA (e.g., before settlement for deposits or after settlement for withdrawals) or be uninsured (if the placing institution is not an insured bank). The depositor must make any necessary arrangements to protect such balances consistent with applicable law and must determine whether placement through ICS satisfies any restrictions on its deposits. A list identifying IntraFi network bank

The Importance of Cash Flow (and How to Improve Yours)

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