What needs attention?

Why small problems become big ones without a monthly check

A $12,000 invoice slips to 45 days overdue. Your margins drop 2 percentage points. Your ad spend creeps up $1,500 without a matching increase in leads. None of these feel like a crisis on their own. But stack three of them together and you are looking at a cash crunch in 60 days.

The businesses that survive and grow are the ones that catch warning signs early, when they are still cheap and easy to fix. A 45-day overdue invoice is a phone call. A 120-day overdue invoice is a write-off.

The challenge is that warning signs do not announce themselves. They hide in the details of reports you may not check regularly. A monthly “what needs attention” review takes 20 minutes and can save you thousands.

Five warning signs to check in your business every month

These are the most common areas where problems show up first:

• Overdue receivables. Money that is owed to you and past due. The longer it sits, the less likely you are to collect it. Anything over 60 days is a serious warning.
• Shrinking margins. If your gross or net margin dropped from last month, something changed. Either revenue mix shifted, costs went up, or pricing slipped.
• Expense spikes.Any category that jumped significantly month over month. A $3K increase in advertising might be planned. A $3K increase in “Other” probably is not.
• Low cash runway. If your cash on hand divided by monthly expenses is less than 2 months, you are operating without a safety net.
• Customer concentration risk. If any single client makes up more than 30% of your revenue and their contract is not locked in, that is a vulnerability you need to address.

How to find what needs attention in QuickBooks Online (6 steps)

You will pull four reports and compare key numbers against last month. Budget about 20 minutes.

1. 1
   Go to Reports → Accounts Receivable Aging Summary

   This is your first stop. Look at the 31-60 day and 61-90 day columns. Any amount over $1,000 in the 60+ column deserves a follow-up call this week.

2. 2
   Go to Reports → Profit and Loss Comparison

   Set the date range to the current month vs. the previous month. Look at the “% Change” column. Any expense category up more than 15% needs investigation.

3. 3
   Check your margin trend

   From the same P&L Comparison, calculate gross margin and net margin for both months. Gross margin = (Total Income - COGS) / Total Income. Net margin = Net Income / Total Income. If either dropped more than 2 points, that needs attention.

4. 4
   Go to Reports → Balance Sheet

   Find “Total Bank Accounts” under Current Assets. Divide by your monthly Total Expenses from the P&L. If the result is less than 2, your cash cushion is thin.

5. 5
   Go to Reports → Sales by Customer Summary

   Sort by amount descending. Divide your top client's total by Total Income. Above 30% is a concentration risk. Above 40% is an urgent one.

6. 6
   Make your attention list

   Write down every item that triggered a warning. Rank them by urgency: what could hurt you this month vs. what could hurt you in three months.

How to find what needs attention in Xero (6 steps)

Same five warning signs, different navigation. Xero organizes things a bit differently, but you are checking the same numbers.

1. 1
   Go to Accounting → Reports → Aged Receivables

   Focus on the 30+ day columns. Any significant amounts in the 60+ day range need immediate follow-up.

2. 2
   Go to Accounting → Reports → Profit and Loss

   Set the current month and select “Compare with: Previous Period.” Scan for expense categories that increased significantly.

3. 3
   Check margin trends

   Xero shows Gross Profit as a subtotal. Divide it by Total Revenue for gross margin. Divide Net Profit by Total Revenue for net margin. Compare both periods.

4. 4
   Go to Accounting → Reports → Balance Sheet

   Find “Bank” under Current Assets. Divide by your monthly Total Operating Expenses. Anything under 2 months of runway is a flag.

5. 5
   Go to Accounting → Reports → Income by Contact

   Sort by amount to see your largest customers. Calculate what percentage of total revenue each represents. Flag any above 30%.

6. 6
   Prioritize your findings

   List everything that flagged as concerning. What is urgent (cash, overdue invoices) vs. what is important but not immediate (margin trends, concentration)?

What it takes to run an attention check every month

A monthly attention review is one of the most valuable things you can do as a business owner. Here is the honest commitment:

• 20 minutes across four reports. AR Aging, P&L Comparison, Balance Sheet, and Customer Summary. No single report covers all five warning areas.
• You need to know what “normal” looks like. A margin drop of 1 point might be seasonal noise. A drop of 4 points is a real signal. Without tracking these numbers consistently, you lack the context to tell the difference.
• Prioritization is subjective. After pulling the data, you need to decide what matters most. That decision is harder than it sounds when you are looking at five different warning signs simultaneously.
• You only see what is in your books. Your accounting data cannot tell you that ad conversions are declining, that your CRM pipeline is thinning, or that a key customer has gone quiet. Some of the most important attention items live outside your financial statements.

Or get your attention items flagged automatically

Bottomline connects to your QuickBooks or Xero account and scans for warning signs on the first of every month. It flags anything that needs attention and ranks items by urgency.

Because Bottomline also connects to your CRM, ad platforms, and payment processor, it catches attention items your accounting software cannot see. A thinning sales pipeline, ad spend with declining returns, or a top customer who has not reordered in 45 days. Those signals often matter more than what shows up in your P&L.