The intersection of Merchandising (responsible for sales forecasts, orders, intake and stock) and Finance (responsible for budgeting, reporting and purchasing) is cash. It is always surprising as a consultant to see how quickly the combination of a few weeks of flat or declining sales, together with high intake levels, can trigger a cash flow crisis, but also how this can come as a surprise to the business. More often than you might expect, Merchandising and Finance teams work in isolation, when a common view of weekly sales, forecasts, orders, intake, stock levels, supplier Ts and Cs, and peak payment periods, would identify any cash flow anomalies far enough in advance to deal with them.
We use analytics tools to generate cash flow forecasts that combine both the Merchandising and Finance perspectives.