“What if?” and stress test

What does this tool answer?

You enter your current cash, sales, expenses and collection period, then move three sliders: if sales drop, if collection is delayed, and if expenses rise. The tool draws your cash balance month by month for 12 months, compares the scenario with your current situation, and calculates how many months your cash will last.

How is the balance calculated?

• Each month's balance = previous month's balance + collections − expenses.
• Expenses = fixed expenses × (1 + increase) + variable cost percentage × the month's sales.
• Collections: if you sell for cash, a month's sales are collected in that month; if collection takes two months, for example, each month's sales are collected two months later, and what customers owe you now is collected over the months of the collection period.
• Months of resilience: the number of months before the first negative balance. The well-known rule of thumb in cash management: 6 months or more is good, from 3 to less than 6 is caution, and less than 3 is risk.

Worked example

Cash of 100,000 SAR, sales of 80,000 SAR a month collected in cash, fixed expenses of 50,000 SAR, and a variable cost of 40%:

• With no change: net for the month = 80,000 − (50,000 + 32,000) = −2,000 SAR, so the balance stays positive all year and ends at 76,000 SAR.
• If sales drop by 50%: net for the month = 40,000 − (50,000 + 16,000) = −26,000 SAR, so the balance is 74,000, then 48,000, then 22,000, then turns negative in the fourth month: the cash lasts 3 months (caution), and the lowest balance is negative 212,000 SAR in month 12.

Why does delayed collection matter?

A delay does not change your profit, but it delays cash coming in: every month of delay holds back a full month of sales. A profitable business can stop paying salaries because its customers paid late, and this is what the delay slider reveals.

Limits of the tool

The tool assumes that sales and expenses are the same every month in the scenario, and it does not include installments, Zakat or large one-off purchases; add them to fixed expenses if you want. This is an estimate based on the numbers you entered, not financial or investment advice.

Frequently asked questions

Content last reviewed: 2026-10-28