Cash Asleep in the Building · Chapter One

Profitable on Paper, Short on Friday

A profitable quarter and a short Friday, and the ninety-five days between them.

Ammanuel Santa Anna · ORCID 0009-0008-3244-0306

Chapter One of Cash Asleep in the Building: Working Capital as an Organisational Question.

Abstract

A profitable quarter and a short Friday, and the ninety-five days between them. It is twenty to seven on a Thursday evening, and the managing director of a firm that makes ventilation hoods for commercial kitchens is still at her desk. The office has emptied. On one screen is the management account for the quarter, and it is a good one: sales up, margin held, the best three months the firm has had since she bought it from its founder. On the other screen is the bank portal, and the overdraft is closer to its limit than it has been all year. Tomorrow is payroll. Fifty-one people will be paid, and she will make it, because a large customer paid a fortnight early when she asked, as a favour, and she has not yet worked out what that favour will cost her in the spring. Her jaw has been set since lunch.

Read the PDFRead the whole bookdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989321

Cite this chapter

Santa Anna, A. (2026). Profitable on Paper, Short on Friday. In Cash Asleep in the Building. Luminous Prosperity Inc. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23989321

@incollection{santaanna2026cash1,
  author    = {Santa Anna, Ammanuel},
  title     = {Profitable on Paper, Short on Friday},
  booktitle = {Cash Asleep in the Building},
  chapter   = {1},
  publisher = {Luminous Prosperity Inc.},
  year      = {2026},
  doi       = {10.5281/zenodo.23989321},
  url       = {https://business.hautelumiere.life/library/cash-asleep-in-the-building/01-profitable-on-paper-short-on-friday/}
}

References

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  2. Richards, V. D., & Laughlin, E. J. (1980). A cash conversion cycle approach to liquidity analysis. Financial Management, 9(1), 32–38. https://doi.org/10.2307/3665310
  3. Deloof, M. (2003). Does working capital management affect profitability of Belgian firms? Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, 30(3–4), 573–588. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5957.00008
  4. García-Teruel, P. J., & Martínez-Solano, P. (2007). Effects of working capital management on SME profitability. International Journal of Managerial Finance, 3(2), 164–177. https://doi.org/10.1108/17439130710738718
  5. Aktas, N., Croci, E., & Petmezas, D. (2015). Is working capital management value-enhancing? Evidence from firm performance and investments. Journal of Corporate Finance, 30, 98–113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2014.12.008

Every chapter of Cash Asleep in the Building

  1. Chapter OneProfitable on Paper, Short on Fridaydoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989321
  2. Chapter TwoWhat the Stockroom Is Afraid Ofdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989322
  3. Chapter ThreeThe Invoice Nobody Could Paydoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989323
  4. Chapter FourNinety Days Is Somebody's Payrolldoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989324
  5. Chapter FiveThe Payment Run Held Until Mondaydoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989325
  6. Chapter SixThe First Ninety Daysdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989326
  7. Chapter SevenThe Field Manualdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989327

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The licence

Free to read, share, quote, translate and teach, non-commercially, for ever, under the Luminous Library Licence 1.0. Every other right is the Author’s. Deposited on Zenodo in the Luminous Prosperity community.