Hi {{first name|there}},

Every leadership team has a dashboard. And most dashboards are overflowing with metrics: revenue growth, headcount, website traffic, pipeline coverage, customer satisfaction scores, open tickets, utilization rates — the list expands every quarter until the dashboard becomes noise.

But if you had to identify 6 numbers that tell you whether your business is financially healthy, fundable, and building enterprise value — could you name them? Not 40. Not 20. The 6 that tell you the business is fundamentally on track if moving in the right direction?

Here’s what we’re covering in this issue:

I'm partnering with Ramp to bring you this session for finance leaders who are done finding out about cash problems after they've already arrived.

A business can be profitable and still run into cash pressure. Revenue can be growing and liquidity can be tightening — at the same time. Most leaders know this in theory. Very few have the system to see it coming before it becomes a constraint.

In this exclusive masterclass, you'll uncover:

You'll walk away with a sharper framework for using cash flow as a decision tool — not just a reporting output.

Those who join live and stay until the end will receive my exclusive Cash Flow Playbook Checklist — so don't miss out.

PS. Ramp is giving away 20 Ember To-Go Mugs ($100 value each) to 20 lucky live attendees — come for cash flow and stay for coffee.

Most CEOs delegate financial intelligence and hope for the best.

The May 6 cohort inside the CEO Financial Intelligence Academy gives you the 5* curriculum, the engaged community, and — for the first time — the direct coaching you need to scale in full control of your numbers.

Our powerful CEO Finance Dashboard™ is custom-built by our team on your actual numbers and handed to you before the first CEO Live Program session begins.

Connect your past five years to your next five. See what your every decision does to cash, financial health, and enterprise value — before you make it.

Until April 19 you can join The CEO Financial Academy at early bird savings of $500 using code earlybird2026.

Watch the free 60-minute CEO Masterclass or go straight to securing your spot in the May 6 cohort.

Now let’s talk about KPIs.

A KPI is a number that, when it moves, tells you something consequential is changing about the financial health, growth quality, or capital efficiency of the business.

Here is a solid list of 6 KPIs that every CEO should own before you scale to more.

What it measures: the profitability of your product or service before overhead and operating costs. Formula: (Revenue minus Cost of Goods Sold) ÷ Revenue.

Why it matters: Gross margin is the foundation. If it isn’t structurally strong, every other metric becomes harder to improve. Overhead costs come from gross margin. Growth investments come from gross margin. Debt service comes, ultimately, from gross margin. A declining gross margin is a structural signal — not a quarterly blip.

What CEOs miss: Aggregate gross margin can look stable while margin by product line, customer segment, or channel deteriorates. Track it at the component level, not just the total.

What it measures: the cash generated from core business operations after working capital changes. It is the most reliable indicator of whether the business can fund itself.

Why it matters: Profit is an accounting result. Operating cash flow is a financial reality. A business that consistently generates strong operating cash flow can weather revenue volatility, self-fund growth, and service debt without relying on the next financing round.

What CEOs miss: Operating cash flow can be inflated by stretching payables or deflated by aggressive receivables collection in a given period. Track the trend over trailing twelve months, not just the most recent quarter.

What it measures: operating cash flow minus capital expenditure. The cash the business generates after it has paid for the assets required to operate and grow.

Why it matters: This is the number that funds acquisitions, pays down debt, and determines whether distribution policy is sustainable. A company with positive and growing free cash flow is building optionality. A company with consistently negative free cash flow — outside of a planned investment cycle — is becoming more dependent on external capital over time.

What CEOs miss: Many companies track EBITDA as a proxy for cash generation without ever calculating free cash flow. But Free Cash Flow is not free, so the gap between these metrics is ultimately where crises start.

What it measures: how many days it takes to convert operating activity into usable cash. Formula: Days Inventory Outstanding + Days Sales Outstanding – Days Payable Outstanding.

Why it matters: A shorter CCC means faster cash recovery and lower working capital requirements. A lengthening CCC means more cash trapped in operations, which forces the company to slow down, or fund growth - choosing between debt or equity capital it wouldn’t otherwise have considered.

What CEOs miss: The CCC is a leading indicator of cash pressure. It starts moving component by component before the P&L shows any change. And companies that track it monthly catch working capital deterioration before it becomes a funding crisis.

What it measures: the return generated by the business on all capital deployed, relative to the cost of that capital. Formula: Net Operating Profit After Tax ÷ Invested Capital.

Why it matters: ROIC above WACC (Weighted Average Cost of Capital) means the company is building enterprise value with every dollar it deploys. ROIC below WACC means growth is destroying value, even if revenue and profits are increasing.

What CEOs miss: ROIC is rarely tracked at the project or initiative level. Capital gets deployed, results get reported as revenue, and nobody checks whether the return cleared the threshold it was supposed to clear.

What it measures: the distance between the company’s current financial metrics and its debt covenant thresholds (typically leverage ratio and fixed charge coverage ratio).

Why it matters: Covenant breach is not a financial risk. It is an existential operational risk. When covenants are breached, lenders gain rights over the company that change the balance of power entirely. CEOs who track headroom monthly can act before the breach. CEOs who discover a breach through a lender conversation are reacting from a position of maximum weakness.

What CEOs miss: Covenant definitions in loan agreements often differ from how the company calculates the same metric internally. Always model covenant compliance using the lender’s definitions, not your own.

A CEO scorecard is not a dashboard. A dashboard reports. A scorecard governs.

Every metric on the scorecard should have three things: a current value, a target, and a direction signal (improving, stable, or deteriorating). Without targets, metrics are just observations. Without direction signals, weekly reviews become reporting sessions rather than decision triggers.

Organize the 6 metrics into three categories: Financial Health (gross margin, operating cash flow, free cash flow, cash conversion cycle), Capital Efficiency (ROIC, covenant headroom).

For each metric: show the trailing 12-month trend, the current period value, and the target. Add a one-line commentary when any metric is flagging — not to explain the past, but to assess impact and state the action being taken.

The scorecard should be reviewed by the CEO and CFO monthly. Any metric in a deteriorating direction for two consecutive months triggers a formal response: a defined action plan with an owner and a timeline. Not a discussion. An action.

This turns the scorecard from a reporting tool into a control mechanism — which is what financial leadership actually looks like in practice.

Most KPI dashboards are built on the first three rows of the P&L. That’s important, but it’s just the start.

The majority of the numbers that actually protect you live on the balance sheet and the cash flow statement.

And if you're wondering how to track all 6 in one place — that's exactly what the CEO Finance Dashboard™ does inside the CEO Financial Intelligence Academy. It connects these metrics - and several others more, to your actual company numbers - live, so you see and assess the impact and get guidance on best course of action - every time.

The next live cohort starts May 6. Early Bird saves you $500 through April 19.

👉 Secure your spot here: https://academy.oanalabes.com

See you next week.

Oana