The 8am cash check: a ten-minute habit that spots today's shortfall early

Why check cash at 8am?

Most cash problems don’t appear out of nowhere. The customer who was meant to pay on the 15th didn’t. The quarterly insurance direct debit was bigger than last year. The pay run falls on the same day as rent. The signs are there, usually days ahead, but they’re easy to miss when you’re running the business.

The difference between an owner who solves a shortfall and one who scrambles is often just when they see it. At 8am, you have the whole business day: time to ring a debtor, move a payment date, or arrange funding while a same-day outcome is still realistic. At 4pm, you have none of that.

business.gov.au describes cash flow management as making sure you always have enough to pay your expenses, debts and yourself. The 8am check is the smallest practical version of that: ten minutes, every business morning, before email and phone calls take over.

Step 1: What’s in every account right now?

Open online banking and write down the available balance of every business account, including:

• your main operating account
• any tax or savings account you set money aside in
• merchant or payment platform balances that haven’t been swept yet
• any undrawn amount on an overdraft or line of credit

Use available balance, not the current balance. Pending card transactions and holds reduce what you can actually spend.

Step 2: What leaves today?

List everything going out today:

• scheduled transfers and BPAY payments
• direct debits (insurance, leases, software, loans)
• any pay run due today
• card payments you know are coming

Direct debits are the ones that catch people out, because they happen without anyone touching anything. Keep a simple list of them with their dates, and add to it whenever a new one starts.

Step 3: What’s due in the next five business days?

This is where the real value is. Look ahead five business days and write down:

Outgoing	Why it’s easy to miss
Wages	Fortnightly runs creep up on you
Super	Under payday super, due within seven business days of each payday
PAYG withholding and GST	Monthly BAS is due on the 21st; quarterly on the 28th of the month after the quarter
Rent	Often due on the 1st, colliding with other month-start debits
Supplier accounts	Terms end on specific dates
Loan repayments	Weekly or fortnightly debits add up

The super line changed recently. From 1 July 2026, the ATO says super guarantee contributions must be received by employees’ funds within seven business days after payday. So every pay run now brings a super cost close behind it, rather than one bigger payment each quarter. If you haven’t adjusted your cash view for that, the 8am check is where to start.

The next quarterly BAS, for July to September 2026, is due on Wednesday 28 October 2026. Put it in the five-day window when you get close.

Step 4: What’s actually coming in?

List money you expect to receive in the next five business days, but be strict: only count what a customer has committed to, not what’s overdue and hoped for. A useful habit is to mark each expected receipt as:

• Confirmed (remittance received or payment scheduled)
• Promised (customer said it’s coming)
• Hoped (overdue, no commitment)

Only count the first two.

Step 5: Work out today’s headroom

Now the one number that matters:

Headroom = available balances − today’s outgoings − the next five days’ outgoings + confirmed and promised receipts

If it’s comfortably positive, you’re done for the day. Close the spreadsheet and get on with running the business.

If it’s close to zero, pay attention. Chase the “promised” receipts today, and check whether any outgoings can move.

If it’s negative, you’ve found a shortfall while you can still act on it. That’s the whole point.

What should you do if headroom is negative?

Work through these in order, starting before 9am:

1. Chase money owed to you. A polite call at 8:30am to a customer with an overdue invoice often works better than an email at 3pm.
2. Talk early to anyone you’ll pay late. Suppliers and landlords are far more flexible with notice than with surprises.
3. Check timing, not just amounts. Sometimes the problem is one day, not the whole week.
4. If a gap remains, act while the morning’s still useful. Same-day funding is possible for smaller unsecured amounts and, with property, $20k to $250k, but it depends on starting early. As planning targets, have the enquiry in by about 10am Sydney time with property security or 11am without.

If you’re doing this check and the gap is real, start the enquiry now rather than waiting to see if things improve by lunchtime.

What does a good 8am check look like in practice?

Here’s an illustrative example for a small bakery with eight staff:

Item	Amount
Available: operating account	$21,400
Available: tax account	$9,800
Today: flour and dairy direct debit	−$3,900
Next 5 days: wages (Thursday)	−$16,200
Next 5 days: super on Thursday’s wages (due within 7 business days)	−$2,000
Next 5 days: rent (1st)	−$6,500
Next 5 days: café wholesale customer, promised	+$4,800
Headroom	$7,400

Positive, but the tax account is carrying it. The owner notes that the BAS is due on the 28th and the tax money isn’t really spare. Real headroom, excluding the tax account, is negative $2,400. Found at 8am on a Monday, that’s easily solved: she rings the wholesale customer to confirm Wednesday payment and moves a flour order back two days. Found on Thursday morning, it would have been a same-day scramble.

How do you make it stick?

• Same time, every business day. Before email.
• Keep it short. Ten minutes. If it takes longer, simplify the spreadsheet.
• Update the list of direct debits whenever one changes.
• Review weekly with your bookkeeper or accountant if you have one.

A same-day loan is a useful tool when a real shortfall lands. The 8am check makes sure you see it while that tool still works, and often makes it unnecessary. Our cut-off checker shows how much of today’s window is left in your state, and our guide to same-day or next-day loans helps decide which you need.

What tools make the 8am check faster?

You don’t need anything fancy, but a few things help:

• Bank feeds into your accounting software, so balances and transactions are up to date without logging in to every account.
• A saved list of direct debits, with dates and amounts, reviewed monthly.
• A calendar with statutory dates: BAS, payday super deadlines, payroll tax, insurance renewals.
• A simple spreadsheet with the headroom formula already built in, so you only type in today’s numbers.
• Notifications from your bank for large debits or low balances.

Keep it simple enough that you’ll actually do it every morning. A basic check done daily beats a sophisticated one done occasionally.

Who else should see the numbers?

If you have a business partner, bookkeeper or office manager, share the headroom figure with them, not the whole spreadsheet. A one-line message such as “headroom this week is tight; hold the stock order until Wednesday” keeps everyone making decisions from the same picture. It also means someone else notices if the check didn’t happen, which is the most common way a good habit quietly lapses.

If today’s gap is wages, wages due today walks through the payroll cut-off you need to beat.

Found a gap this morning?

Good. You found it early, which means you still have options. Asking what’s possible takes about a minute and there’s no credit check when you enquire. Your details stay with our team instead of being handed around to lenders who then all ring you.

A real person will read your enquiry and call to talk through what your check found, and whether today or tomorrow morning makes sense. Please be accurate about the gap and when it falls due, because the answer depends on both.

See if I can close today’s gap →