Monthly checklist for your business financial health

Reviewing your business finances once a month can be the difference between anticipating problems or discovering them when it's too late. Here's a concrete checklist to do it in less than two hours.

The most common mistake: confusing activity with health

Many freelancers and small businesses feel the business is going well because there's activity: clients, projects, invoices. But activity is not synonymous with financial health. You can invoice a lot and have liquidity problems. You can grow and, at the same time, accumulate silent debts.

The problem is usually not a lack of money, but a lack of visibility. Without a periodic and structured review, the numbers become noise. You know there are incomes and expenses, but you don't have clarity about where you really stand.

Dedicating a fixed moment each month to review your business's financial health is one of the most profitable habits you can adopt. You don't need to be an accountant. You need to know what to look at and in what order.

Block 1: Liquidity and cash flow

The first thing you should review each month is whether you have enough money to operate comfortably in the coming weeks.

How much money do you have available today?

Add up the balances of all your business-related bank accounts. That number is your real starting point, not what your theoretical accounting says.

What payments do you expect to receive this month?

Review the issued invoices pending collection. Classify them by due date. If any has gone more than 30 days without being collected, now is the time to claim it, not in three weeks.

What payments do you have committed?

Salaries, rent, suppliers, self-employed contributions, subscriptions. Make a list with date and amount. Compare it with what you have available. If there's tension, better know it now.

Is your minimum cushion sufficient?

A healthy business should be able to cover at least one to three months of fixed expenses without income. If you're below that threshold, it's a warning signal that requires action.

Block 2: Incomes, expenses and margins

Once you have a clear picture of your cash flow, the next step is to analyze whether the business is being profitable, not just whether it's active.

Compare this month's income with the previous month and the same month last year. Is there an upward trend, downward trend, or is it seasonal? Identifying the pattern helps you make decisions with criteria.

Review your fixed and variable expenses. Fixed expenses are those you have always, whether you invoice or not. Variable ones change with activity. Ask yourself if there's any fixed expense that's no longer justified or that you could renegotiate.

Calculate your gross margin. That is, what's left after subtracting the direct cost of what you sell or produce. If your margin is falling month after month, there's a problem worth identifying before it affects your liquidity.

Identify the most profitable client or service of the month. Not the one that invoices the most, but the one that leaves the most margin with the least effort. That's the type of business worth promoting.

Block 3: Tax obligations and documentation

The third block has less glamour, but ignoring it is one of the most avoidable sources of stress.

• Check what tax obligations you have next month. VAT, income tax, corporate tax... Mark the dates on the calendar at least two weeks in advance.

• Verify that all issued invoices are correct and registered. An error in an invoice can delay a collection for weeks.

• Review that you have receipts for all deductible expenses of the month. Receipts, invoices, contracts. If you rely on your accountant, send them before they ask for them.

• Confirm that contracts with active clients are signed and updated. An unsigned contract doesn't protect you. If you're still managing this by email and printouts, tools like MITIKUS allow you to sign digitally from any device and have everything centralized.

• **Note any relevant changes in working conditions with