Revenue Is Up. So Why Is Cash Down?

Sales are growing. The P&L shows a profit. And the bank balance keeps falling.

If that sounds familiar, you are not doing anything wrong. You are seeing one of the most common and most dangerous patterns in D2C. Here is a case from The D2C Metrics Playbook:

The business is profitable and growing, yet cash fell by more than half. Growth was being funded by buying far more stock before the money from sales came back.

Profit measures performance. Cash measures survival.

Every rupee of growth needs cash up front: inventory bought weeks before it sells, COD money held by couriers for days, ad spend paid before customers buy. That gap between paying out and getting paid is your cash conversion cycle. The faster you grow, the more cash it swallows.

In the Founder's Calculator example, growing from ₹16.5 lakh to ₹30 lakh a month needs almost ₹10 lakh of extra working capital, before the extra profit arrives.

What the playbook shows you

• Why profit and cash move differently, and how to read both
• How to calculate working capital and your cash conversion cycle
• How inventory days, COD remittance and supplier credit change your cash needs
• A step-by-step diagnosis for "revenue growing but cash falling"
• What to check before you scale ad spend or place a big inventory order

Get the playbook

The D2C Metrics Playbook — ₹999
The full 90-page PDF: 16 parts, 45 chapters, 10 case studies. Instant download.

Playbook + Founder's Calculator — ₹1,499
Includes a Cash Check calculator: enter your revenue, inventory days and COD share to see how much cash your growth target needs.