The Prompt Pack · 2 of 5 · Secret 1 · Time
The Shot Clock Read
The Shot Clock Read turns 5 numbers off a bank statement into the number of days your business can keep operating. It runs the published Cash Shot Clock™ formula, names the direction of your money, and places the answer in one of the 5 published bands.
The prompt
Run this in the same thread as the Setup. If you are starting fresh, run the
Setup first: it carries the Trust Gate, and this prompt assumes it.
We are doing one thing: how much time the business has.
Apply the Trust Gate to every number below before you use it.
## The 5 numbers
Ask me for these one at a time, in this order, and ask for nothing else first.
1. The balance in the operating bank account right now, today.
2. The balance at the end of the last completed month.
3. The balance at the end of the month before that.
4. The month before that.
5. The month before that.
Tell me to read them off a bank statement rather than out of accounting
software. We want bank truth: every debit and every credit that actually moved,
including debt principal, owner draws, equipment purchases and tax payments.
Those drain a bank account without touching the profit and loss statement the
same way.
If I hold cash in more than one account, have me add them and use the total, and
ask whether any of it is money I do not control: tax withheld on someone else's
behalf, a restricted balance, a customer's money held in escrow. Exclude that.
## The math, shown
Work in this order and print every step.
1. The 4 completed month-end balances give you 3 completed-month changes.
Subtract each month-end from the one after it. Print all 3.
2. Average those 3 changes. That average is the monthly net cash change.
3. The stretch from the last completed month-end to today is a partial month.
Print it so I can see it, and do NOT average it in. On the 23rd it covers 23
days, and treating it as a full month overstates burn by roughly a third.
## The direction
Name the direction of the money in one word:
- building, if the average monthly net change is positive
- steady, if it is close to flat
- burning, if it is negative
Say which, and say it plainly.
## The clock
If the direction is burning, use the formula exactly as published at
ultracfo.co/field-guide/cash-shot-clock:
Days remaining = cash on hand ÷ (average monthly net cash change ÷ 30)
Burn is the average monthly net change expressed as a positive number. Print the
substitution with my numbers in it, then the answer in days.
Then check the 2 published floors, which override the direction entirely:
- The zero floor. A balance at or below zero is 0 days, full stop. A trend
cannot make payroll.
- The fragility floor. A balance that cannot cover 30 days of average monthly
outflow is an emergency even when cash is climbing, because one bad month
ends it.
## The band
Place the number in the published band. Use these 5, in these words:
| Days remaining | Reading |
| --- | --- |
| Under 30 | Emergency. This is the only number that matters this week. |
| 30 to 90 | Tight. The quarter is critical. Prefer moves that change cash quickly. |
| 90 to 180 | Healthy, not strong. Room to make real moves, with the clock still worth watching. |
| 180 to 365 | Strong. A better position than most companies carry. |
| Over 365 | The constraint is almost certainly not cash. |
Do not invent a sixth band, and do not soften a band because my story sounds
good. A band is a reading, not a verdict on the company.
## If the direction is building
Do not print a clock. Say the clock is not the constraint, then ask the honest
follow-up: where did the money come from? Cash building while profit is thin
usually means outside money, which is customer deposits, a loan, or my own
pocket. Outside money does not remove the wall, it moves it. Deposits get earned
or refunded, loans get repaid, and owner cash runs out. Say that, and ask me
which one it was.
## A note on the window
Use 12 completed months of history if I have them, falling back to 6, then to 3.
The current partial month never counts, however large its swing. A shorter
window is not the conservative choice, it is the noisier one: one big collection
or one delayed payable can move me 2 bands.
## Give me back
- The direction, in one word.
- The clock, in days, with the arithmetic shown.
- The band, quoted in the published words above.
- One line on what this number forbids. A 90-day clock means I do not fund a bet
that pays off in 120 days.
- Everything you estimated, listed.
Do not tell me what to do about it yet. That is the next 2 prompts.Where it stops: It gives you the number. It does not tell you what to do about it.
The only number that starts the conversation
Every founder in trouble asks the same question in the wrong order. They ask what to fix. The first question is how long you have, because the answer changes which fixes are even available to you.
A 90-day clock means you do not fund a bet that pays off in 120 days. That is not advice. That is arithmetic, and it takes 5 numbers off a bank statement.
Read it off the bank, not the software
The prompt tells you to pull the balances from a bank statement rather than your accounting system, and that is deliberate. We want bank truth: every debit and every credit that actually moved.
Accounting software will show you a profit that debt principal, owner draws, equipment purchases and tax payments never touched. All 4 of those empty a bank account anyway. This is the single most common reason a profitable business finds itself unable to make payroll, and it is why the clock is measured where the money actually is.
Two floors that beat the trend
Cash going up is good news and it is not a guarantee. The prompt carries both published floors, and they override direction entirely.
A balance at or below zero is 0 days, full stop. A trend cannot make payroll. And a balance that cannot cover 30 days of average outflow is an emergency even while it is climbing, because one bad month ends it.
If your cash is building
The prompt refuses to print a clock. It asks where the money came from instead.
Cash building while profit is thin usually means outside money: customer deposits, a loan, or your own pocket. Outside money does not remove the wall, it moves it. Deposits get earned or refunded, loans get repaid, and owner cash runs out. Do not treat it as earned until it is.
What it will not do
It reads the clock. It does not tell you why the cash moved, and it does not tell you what to pull. The next 2 prompts do that.
If you would rather not type anything, the Cash Shot Clock™ tool runs the same published math in about 90 seconds. The prompt exists for people who want to see the arithmetic and argue with it.
Runs on these published definitions
Next in the same thread
The Choke Point Read walks one path instead of scanning everything. It reads the sign on your cash against the sign on your profit, works upstream to the cause, splits your P&L above and below the line, and lands on the single number worth writing on a wall.
This is only as good as the numbers you typed.
Nobody verified them, and nothing will re-run this next month unless you remember to. That is the honest limit of a prompt. If you want a human to pressure-test what comes out, a CFO Huddle™ is 45 minutes with an operator who has read more than 1,000 businesses, spent on one finding in your numbers.
Built from a book of more than 1,000 businesses. Published