Debtors who pay late. Inventory that doesn't move. Suppliers paid too fast. The working-capital cycle is where profitable businesses quietly bleed cash, and where a CFO with the right lens can unlock crores without a single new sale.
Every day a customer delays payment, you finance their business with yours. Debtor days of 60–90 are common in Indian SMEs; shrinking them by 15–20 days can unlock months of operating cash. In manufacturing and trading, 15–25% of inventory is typically dead, slow-moving or obsolete. And many businesses pay suppliers within days because nobody has renegotiated terms.
The cash-conversion cycle, debtor days plus inventory days minus creditor days, tells you how long your cash is tied up. Many Indian SMEs run at 60–120 days. Best-in-class businesses in the same industry run at 30–45. That gap is crores of cash sitting idle.
Debtor ageing analysis, credit policy redesign, a collection process with escalation, and early-payment incentive structures that work in your market.
SKU-level inventory ageing, dead and slow-moving stock identification, reorder-point and safety-stock optimisation, and a liquidation and write-down strategy.
Creditor-terms benchmarking, supplier negotiation strategy, payment-run optimisation and dynamic-discounting analysis. Extending creditor days by 15–30 days without damaging relationships is free financing.
Concrete deliverables, not a slide deck.
Enter revenue, debtor days, inventory days and creditor days. The calculator estimates the release from moving to benchmark targets. Sixty seconds, no sign-up.
Anonymised, with outcomes shown as typical ranges across comparable work.
The situation. A 60-day working-capital cycle and buffer stock were pushing a profitable manufacturer into expensive short-term debt.
What we did.
Typical outcome. ₹2–4 crore of cash typically released within two quarters, and reliance on cash-credit limits cut.
The situation. Thin margins, long credit to customers and slow-moving inventory left the business permanently borrowing.
What we did.
Typical outcome. 15–25% of working capital typically released.
The situation. A fast-growing agency billed well but collected slowly. Debtor days kept rising until salaries felt at risk.
What we did.
Typical outcome. Debtor days cut sharply and cash flow stabilised without external debt.
The first release usually comes within 60 days, from overdue debtors nobody was chasing and from stock that can be liquidated. Structural gains, better credit terms, lower buffer stock, renegotiated supplier terms, build over two to three quarters.
A clear credit policy applied consistently improves relationships, because customers know the rules. Damage comes from random escalation after months of silence.
Service businesses have the same leak in a different place: unbilled work and slow collections. The method is the same, applied to work-in-progress and debtor days.
Book a free 30-minute call. We will calculate your cash-conversion cycle, benchmark it and tell you where the first crore is hiding.