The August Business Review: 8 Things to Check Before Q4
August is the most misleading month in the business calendar. It’s quiet, the phone doesn’t ring much, half the team is away — and that is exactly what makes it the most valuable review window of the year.
Because in September everything restarts at once: the order wave, the back-to-school cash squeeze, the heating season, the year-end targets. A problem you spot in September leaves you four months to fix it, and those four months are already full.
A problem you spot in August leaves you five months — and right now your desk is clear.
This is a checklist you can do in one sitting. Every item hangs on a single question: do you know the answer, or are you guessing?
1. Cash: can you see the next 90 days?
Profitable businesses don’t fail from a lack of profit. They fail from a lack of cash. And by the time a cash crunch shows up in the accounts, it’s late.
Ask: Which week in September, October and November has a large payment going out? Have you seen those dates written down?
The five signals that appear before the P&L says anything are in 5 early warning signs of a cash crunch. If two of them are present in your business, park the rest of this list and start there.
2. Receivables: how old is your oldest invoice?
Collections slow in summer; by the end of August the age of your overdue invoices has quietly grown.
Ask: How much is overdue today — and how many days old is the oldest one?
The second answer matters more than the first. Recovery odds drop sharply past 90 days, and most owners discover this only at year end. The ageing table and the collection rhythm are in accounts receivable.
3. Pricing: when did you last update it?
Cost increases are continuous; price updates are occasional. The gap between them is eaten out of margin — and nobody notices, because revenue keeps growing.
Ask: How many times have I updated the price list this year? How much have my input costs risen over the same period?
If those two numbers differ, margin is being consumed. The ways to protect it without a blanket increase — line-by-line revision, repackaging, an index clause in the contract — are in pricing under inflation.
4. Assets: what do you own, where is it, who has it?
This is the quietest loss in small businesses. Equipment bought, used, set aside — or left with someone and forgotten.
Ask: Is there a written list of the equipment the business owns? Does each item have a named owner?
A business without an inventory also comes up short at claim time: whoever can’t answer “what did you have?” is the one who loses. The setup steps are in the business asset inventory.
5. Vehicles: do the renewals stack up in September?
In businesses with a fleet, insurance, inspection and service dates tend to cluster around purchase dates — and that cluster often lands in autumn.
Ask: In the next 90 days, which vehicle’s insurance, inspection or service expires?
An expired inspection is a fine; a skipped service is downtime. And downtime costs more than the repair bill: the true cost of an unplanned breakdown. To set up the record side, company vehicle expense tracking.
6. Contracts: which ones renew silently?
Premises lease, supplier agreements, software subscriptions, service contracts… most carry an auto-renewal clause with a 30–60 day notice period.
Ask: Which of my contracts renew before year end, and when does the notice window close?
Here’s why this matters: negotiation is possible before the notice window closes. After it, you just sign. What to look for on the premises lease is in what to include in a lease agreement.
7. Insurance: does the cover still match reality?
Businesses grow; policies stay the same. A commercial policy written two years ago rarely covers today’s stock and equipment values.
Ask: Does the sum insured match today’s replacement cost?
The answer to this depends on item 4. No inventory, no answer.
8. Records: where do the answers to these eight questions live?
If you said “I don’t know” more than once while reading the seven items above, the problem isn’t discipline. It’s not knowing where the record lives.
In most small businesses the answers sit in four places: a spreadsheet, a paper book, a WhatsApp thread, and the owner’s head. That arrangement works for three or four items and collapses past that.
This is the most durable thing you can do in August: pick one place for each asset category and connect the renewal dates to reminders.
- Property and rent → RentMind: rent, lease end, deposit and collections on the same record; first two properties free.
- Vehicles and fleet → Odovo: insurance, inspection and service reminded by date or mileage, plus true cost per mile.
- Equipment and warranties → Duevo: the item, its warranty expiry, invoice photos and service reminders.
How to finish the list today
All eight items take about two hours if you can reach the data. If you can’t, you already have your answer: what’s missing isn’t the data, it’s the record.
A practical order:
- Do 1 and 2 first (cash + receivables) — these can be urgent.
- Then 5 and 6 (vehicle renewals + contract notice windows) — these have deadlines.
- Spread 3, 4 and 7 across the month.
- Make 8 permanent — running continuously, not annually.
And put the date in now: open the same list again on 1 February. A business reviewed twice a year is always ahead of one that’s surprised once a year.
Frequently Asked Questions
When should year-end preparation start in a small business? In practice, August or September. Starting in December leaves no time to fix what you find; it only reports it. The advantage of an August review is that every finding has five months in front of it.
Doesn’t my accountant do this? Your accountant sees the financial picture: income, expenses, tax, filings. Most items on this list are operational — which vehicle’s inspection is expiring, which contract renews silently, who has which piece of equipment. Those don’t show up in the accounts, because they never get entered there.
If I can’t do all eight, where should I start? Items 1 and 2: cash visibility and receivables ageing. They’re the fastest to do and the earliest to deliver bad news. The other six matter, but a delay on them won’t stop the business.
Fuat Çakır — industrial engineer, management consultant and the developer of the Sofft apps. He works on operational design in manufacturing and service businesses.