A Friday count for money that arrived in pieces

If your money arrives as a transfer in the morning, cash at the stall, and a message that says “I’ll send the rest,” a single balance lies. It treats a loan you are still waiting on as if it were already in your hand. The Friday count is a way to sit down once and separate those things. Kept is built around it. You can do it on paper the same way.

The three numbers

• In: money that actually arrived this week. Transfers you can see, cash you took, refunds that landed.
• Out: money that actually left. Stock, transport, data, the thing you bought because the week ran long.
• Still owed: money you earned but do not have. A customer’s promise, an unpaid job, a transfer that was “sent” and is not in the account.

Kept is in minus out. Still owed is not part of kept. That is the whole method. People get into trouble when they spend the owed number because the message sounded confident. Write the name next to it. If it is still there next Friday, it is a collection problem, not income.

A week, not a year

You do not need a chart of twelve months to decide whether the week worked. Take the three numbers, look at the largest “out,” and decide one thing to change. Smaller stock. Fewer transfers you cannot explain. A clearer price. Then stop. A cashbook you finish beats a finance app you abandon on Tuesday.

Example, in naira, from a made-up stall week: 18,500 arrived by transfer, 4,000 in cash, 6,200 left for stock. Kept is 16,300. Someone still owes 3,000 for a job you already did. That 3,000 is not in the 16,300, and it should not be in what you send home on Friday night.