As a CFO, I see a lot of business owners having cash flow problems and/or having trouble growing because they pay their bills off too quickly. You never want to pay bills before they are due.

Let the cash inflows catch up with the outflows. If you pay bills too quickly you are making it harder to be able to pay an important bill that has come up unexpectedly. For instance, I had a client who was paying bills so rapidly that one month he could not pay for an unexpected payroll tax that surprised him.

Payroll taxes must get paid so he had to borrow money from a credit line and incur unnecessary interest expense. No matter how good of shape you might be in, pay your bills when due in a systematic manner and know what expenses are coming up that are considered “must pays.” 



Make sure your bookkeeper is giving you a reconciled bank balance. With online banking, bank accounts can be reconciled daily. This eliminates surprise ACH or EFT transactions. In short, this helps you stay on top of your balances.