Payroll is on a calendar. Your clients are not. See the gap before it opens.
An IT services or outstaffing company sells people's time and pays for it before the client does. That makes three questions weekly rather than quarterly: will the money arrive before payroll leaves, is the rate still paying for the person as salaries rise, and which clients are paying late. CeoDash answers them from the files you already have — an export from your accounting system, a bank statement — and the first figures show in minutes. Fully connected takes about a day.
Payroll leaves on the 25th. The client pays when the client pays.
Your largest cost is people, and it is paid on a calendar nobody can move. Your income arrives when a client approves a timesheet, accepts an invoice and runs their own payment cycle. The distance between those two dates is the cash risk of the whole business, and it is different every month.
Salaries move every year. Contract rates move when the contract does.
A developer who was paid one figure when the contract was signed is paid more today, and the rate the client pays has not changed. The margin on that engagement shrinks quietly, month after month, and the P&L only shows it when the year closes.
A person between projects costs the same as a person on one
Bench time is full salary with no invoice behind it. Two engineers waiting a month for the next engagement can take the profit of a good quarter, and the question of how many people to keep busy is really the question of how much to sell.
Four questions an IT services owner answers every week
Three are answered from your books today. The fourth needs hours, and we say where they live.
Will payroll be covered in week seven?
A rolling 13-week cash forecast built from your opening cash, your budget or last closed months, and the real timing of what you are owed and what you owe. It names the week the gap opens and says whether it closes on invoices you have already issued, or only if the engagements still in negotiation sign on time. A gap that depends on a signature is a different Monday from a gap that depends on a late payer.
Is the rate still paying for the person?
Gross margin and its trend from your own books, month by month, so a salary review that outran your rates shows up in the month it happened rather than at year end. Ask the AI CFO in words why margin moved and the answer names the figures it used and where each one came from.
How many people can the order book carry?
Utilisation and margin per client are computed from hours, and hours live in your time tracking. CeoDash does not replace that tool and does not guess hours from the ledger. What it gives you from the books is the money side: what has to be invoiced, and by when, for payroll to stay covered.
What do you tell the bank, or your partners?
A board pack generated from the same live numbers, for a lender, a partner or a shareholder, plus a revocable read-only link you can hand over without creating an account for anyone.
In services, cash problems are collections problems first
A month can close profitable and still leave you deciding whether payroll or a supplier waits. The money is usually already earned — it is sitting in invoices a client has not paid.
That is why the forecast separates a gap that closes on money you are already owed from one that only closes if new work signs. The first is a list of invoices to chase, in the order the next payroll needs them. The second is a sales problem with a date on it. When your invoices arrive with their due dates, CeoDash also ages them by how late they are, so the client who always pays a month behind is a name on a list rather than a feeling. And when the same gap keeps coming back every quarter, it is rarely about timing: it is the rate, arriving on a delay.
Start with a file, connect later
Uploading a CSV or Excel export is free and needs no card. Connect your tools when you want the numbers to refresh without a file. Every name below is live.
- Financial CSV
- Bank statement
- PostgreSQL (read-only)
- Google Calendar
- Gmail
- Manual Google export
- Jira
- Linear
- Manual task import
- Roster upload
- HubSpot
- Client list (CSV)
- Pipeline / Deals CSV
Does CeoDash replace our time-tracking or PSA tool?
No. Hours, timesheets and project allocation stay in the tool your team already uses, such as Scoro, Productive or Kantata. CeoDash works on the money: cash, margin, receivables and the story for the bank. Utilisation and margin per client are calculated from hours, so they belong to the system that holds the hours, and we do not estimate them from the ledger.
Our clients pay on long terms. Does the cash forecast know that?
Yes. The 13-week forecast uses the real timing of what you are owed and what you owe rather than the date an invoice was raised. If your clients pay later than their terms say, that lateness is what the forecast should be built on, and the week the gap opens moves accordingly.
Can we start without connecting our accounting system?
Yes. Upload the files you already have — a CSV or Excel export from any accounting system, or a bank statement — and the first figures show in minutes. Uploading is free and needs no card. A full connection takes about a day, and you can make it later.
We are an outstaffing company with a few large clients. Is that a fit?
It is the situation the cash forecast is built for. When a handful of clients carry most of the invoices, one late payment moves the whole quarter, and the forecast shows which invoice the next payroll is leaning on so you chase that one first.
Who in the company sees the numbers?
You decide. Each person is invited to the sections they need, and a lender or partner can read a board pack through a read-only link you can revoke at any time, without an account of their own.
- Guide: seeing the cash gap between payroll and client payments before it opens →
- The four decisions every owner-operator answers, whatever the business →
- What CeoDash reads, and what stays in your other tools →
- Pricing — free with uploads, and what each plan adds →
- Verify us in two weeks on your own numbers →
- Run a consulting firm on day rates? The consulting page →
See the week payroll outruns your clients — while there is time to act.
Upload the files you already have and the first figures show in minutes. Nothing to build, and no card to start.
No card · Free CSV and Excel uploads · No per-connector charge