Do not count accelerated cash as new revenue

If an invoice would have been paid next month and is paid this month instead, the business gains earlier access to cash. It has not sold the same service twice.

Allianz Trade's working capital analysis treats collection timing as part of the capital needed to operate.^[1] That is the right starting point for evaluating an automation claim.

Illustratively, five days of acceleration on $730,000 of steady annual credit sales corresponds to about $10,000 less receivables. If that reduces borrowing at an assumed 10% annual rate, the potential annual funding benefit is about $1,000. The $10,000 release and the $1,000 financing effect describe different things; neither is $10,000 of new annual revenue.

Similarly, saving staff time creates capacity unless a cash expense is actually removed. Ask a provider to show implementation fees, recurring costs, internal effort and a downside case before presenting a payback period.

The automation business case provides a worked example. Pair it with the dashboard definitions so the post-launch measurement uses the same assumptions as the buying decision.