CFO Houston. Plan cash for a year that swings.

The close comes first. Bank, cards and loans are matched to the books before anything else gets built on them. Then we put cash for the next several months in front of you, week by week for the near weeks and month by month after that. Then we pick one decision for the month. It might be whether to take the truck now or in the fall, or what to put aside before the next heavy rain. You leave the meeting knowing the next action and who does it.

Harris County's own flood control district says everyone in the county lives in a flood zone. A heavy rain can cost a week of sales, so a cash plan should count on losing that week before it happens. The same is true of a slow quarter after a price drop. The reserve, the credit line and the timing of big purchases are all easier to decide when nothing is wrong. We keep a short list of those decisions and walk through them while the sun is out.

Anyone who has run a hotel, a restaurant or a catering truck in Houston knows March belongs to the Rodeo. The books still close for March, and the strong cash from that run is where a reserve starts. We mark the busy months in advance, count them as they close, and decide what stays in the account before the quieter weeks arrive. That is a plan you can see, which beats a hope.

A reserve is money you already have, held back on purpose. A credit line is borrowing you can use if the reserve is not enough. They do different jobs, and a bank is more willing to set up a line while your statements look healthy. We help you bring closed months and a clear picture of cash, then you choose whether and when to ask. The decision stays with you.

Estimated taxes are where a swinging year hurts most. If the payments are set from last year's strong numbers, a slow quarter still pays a big estimate. We set them from the months that have actually closed, so the amount follows the year you are having. Owner pay works the same way. We decide it with the reserve in view, so a good month does not turn into a draw that leaves nothing for the next soft one. Because the same person reads the books and prepares the return, nothing gets explained twice.

Three numbers are usually enough. What is in the bank, what customers owe and when it should arrive, and what is due out in the next two weeks. Port Houston has eight public terminals along the Ship Channel, and an importer will tell you that a container sitting an extra week raises a cash question before it raises a shipping one. We pick the three numbers that matter in your business and keep them on one short page.

We send the closed month the morning after we finish it, and the cash look sits on the page under the bank balance. You pick the morning that works, and we stay on that rhythm even when a week in Houston gets loud. The Texas dates go on the same plan, from sales tax to the Comptroller to the franchise report in May. Houston also runs into Fort Bend and Montgomery counties, so which county sends your appraisal notice decides a date on the calendar. We keep the dates by county. Read how a week of the work goes.

Sometimes the right plan is to do nothing yet. A line of credit you do not need today can wait. A purchase can wait for the quiet months. If we think your next step is to hold still, we will say that and show you why. If you have no books yet, the first step is a closed month, and we can start there. The short cards on this page leave the rest of the work in the pages they open. A fractional arrangement is part of a senior finance person, billed by the month, with no full salary attached, and it is built for sales that rise and then fall. Storm season is where the cushion gets chosen, in the quiet weeks, before a lost week and a deductible land in the same month. A move in oil prices reaches the books a few months after the headline, so the watch list is the orders, not the ticker. A reserve is sized from the worst month you have already lived and kept in its own account. Each tax that leaves the bank has a date, and that date is the plan.