---
name: financial-operations
description: Monitor cash flow, manage receivables, and guide financial decisions for events businesses. Use when reviewing invoices, tracking outstanding payments, preparing financial summaries, analyzing budget vs. actuals, identifying payment risks, or drafting payment follow-up communications. Triggers on requests involving invoices, cash flow, outstanding payments, QuickBooks data, budget review, financial health, overdue accounts, or payment follow-up.
---

# Financial Operations

## Purpose
Turn financial data into cash flow clarity and action. This skill works with data from QuickBooks, spreadsheets, or a manual summary — and produces honest assessments of your financial position with specific steps to improve it.

## When to Use
- Reviewing outstanding invoices and accounts receivable
- Analyzing cash flow timing and identifying near-term gaps
- Comparing budget vs. actuals for an event or time period
- Drafting payment follow-up communications matched to relationship and risk level
- Preparing a monthly or quarterly financial health summary
- Identifying which accounts or invoices to prioritize for collection

## Inputs
- Invoice data: QuickBooks export, spreadsheet, or verbal summary of outstanding amounts and ages
- Cash flow context: known upcoming expenses and their due dates
- Budget vs. actuals data (per event or time period) if applicable
- Client relationship context: payment history, relationship length, any known issues

## Quick Reference

### Payment Risk Levels
- **Low risk**: Payment history is consistent, invoice is within terms, client is active
- **Medium risk**: First or second late payment, invoice 7–21 days overdue, no response yet
- **High risk**: Invoice 30+ days overdue, pattern of lateness, no response to follow-up, client activity has decreased
- **Write-off risk**: 60+ days with no contact, project completed, no contract disputes known

### Cash Flow Health Check
- **Healthy**: Receivables coming in on schedule, no invoices beyond 30 days, revenue covers near-term expenses
- **Tight**: 1-2 overdue invoices creating a gap, expenses due before expected income
- **Critical**: Multiple overdue invoices, operating expenses at risk, needs immediate action

## Workflow by Task

### Task 1: Accounts Receivable Review
1. Receive invoice data (QuickBooks export, spreadsheet, or verbal summary)
2. Sort invoices by age: current / 1-30 days / 31-60 days / 60+ days
3. Flag high-risk accounts (see above criteria)
4. Calculate total outstanding by risk category
5. Recommend follow-up sequence per account — tone and timing should match the relationship and the risk level
6. Identify which accounts, if paid, would most improve near-term cash position

### Task 2: Cash Flow Timing Analysis
1. List incoming (expected invoice payments + dates)
2. List outgoing (known expenses + due dates)
3. Identify gaps: periods where expenses exceed expected income
4. Flag near-term risk windows (next 30-60 days)
5. Suggest short-term moves: which invoices to prioritize collecting, which expenses to defer if possible

### Task 3: Budget vs. Actuals (Per Event or Period)
1. Review original budget and actual spend by category
2. Calculate variance per line item (over/under and by %)
3. Identify the top 3-5 variances worth explaining
4. Diagnose likely causes (scope change, vendor cost increase, underestimate)
5. Recommend budget adjustments for future events of the same type

### Task 4: Payment Follow-Up Strategy
1. Review the account: invoice age, client relationship, past payment history
2. Determine tone: warm nudge vs. firm request vs. escalation
3. Generate a follow-up message that matches the tone and situation
4. Set a follow-up cadence: when to send each message and what changes if no response
5. Advise on when to escalate (internal review, late fee notice, collections)

### Task 5: Financial Health Summary (Monthly / Quarterly)
1. Review revenue in, expenses out, and outstanding receivables
2. Calculate: gross margin, effective hourly rate (if applicable), revenue per event type
3. Compare to prior period or goal
4. Identify the top revenue drivers and top cost drivers
5. Surface any pattern worth addressing: fee structure, client mix, seasonal gaps

## Output Format

**Financial Position Summary**
[2-3 sentence plain-language overview]

**Outstanding Receivables**
| Client | Invoice # | Amount | Age | Risk Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [Client] | [#] | [$] | [days] | [Low/Med/High] |

**Immediate Action Items**
1. [Specific action — client, amount, recommended message or step]
2. [Specific action]

**Cash Flow Watch**
[Flag any near-term gaps with specific dates and amounts]

**Recommended Follow-Up Messages**
[Draft per account if requested]

## Key Principles

### Cash Is Not Profit
Revenue on paper doesn't pay vendors. Every recommendation should prioritize actual cash in the door, not just booked revenue.

### Tone Matches the Relationship
A first late invoice from a 3-year client gets a warm nudge. A third late invoice from a new client gets a firm request. The relationship context changes everything.

### Flag Patterns Early
One late payment is an incident. Two late payments from the same client is a pattern. Three is a risk you need to manage proactively.

### Don't Bury the Lead
If there's a cash flow gap in 14 days, say it in the first line. Not buried in a table.

## What to Avoid
- Leading with data tables before stating the headline — if there's a cash flow gap coming, name it first
- Applying the same follow-up tone to every overdue account regardless of relationship or history
- Treating booked revenue as available cash — focus recommendations on what has actually been paid
- Waiting until 60+ days overdue to escalate — flag patterns at 2 late payments, not 3
- Recommending collection action without first considering the long-term client relationship value
- Producing a budget vs. actuals report without diagnosing the likely causes of variances

## Tool / System Integration
- **QuickBooks (connected)**: Ask Claude to review your A/R aging report, outstanding invoices, or a specific client's payment history directly
- **QuickBooks (manual)**: Export A/R Aging Summary or Open Invoices report from QuickBooks, upload the CSV, and ask Claude to analyze using this skill
- **Google Sheets**: If you track invoices in Sheets, point Claude directly at your invoice tracker file
- **OneDrive**: Save QuickBooks exports to your `Claude — Skills & Context/References/` folder for easy access each session

## Resources
- `references/client-payment-history.md` — Notes on each client's payment patterns and any past issues
- `references/standard-payment-terms.md` — Your standard net terms, late fee policy, and escalation thresholds
- `references/follow-up-templates.md` — Approved messaging for each stage of the follow-up sequence