Try this before you read the rest. What’s coming in this week, what’s going out, what’s owed to you, and what you owe, down to the vendor. Could you answer that right now, out loud, without opening a single thing?

On Thursday I’m going to ask a room full of Denver owners this exact question and have them raise a hand. My bet is almost nobody does. Mine wouldn’t have gone up either a year ago.

Most businesses run on a monthly report from the bookkeeper and gut for everything in between. Do we hire? Can we afford this? Should we take that job? Every decision between reports is a guess, and the gap between reports is where the money leaks. Not in one bad decision. In thirty small ones made on a feeling.

How I run it now

I have an agent that acts like a CFO. It’s connected to my bank, my Stripe, my QuickBooks. Every morning before I start, I ask it what’s coming in, where the money’s going, and what I can green light. It answers from the real accounts, not from a report someone built two weeks ago. Can we afford to hire stopped being a feeling and started being an answer.

That’s not a tech thing. It’s a connected systems thing. Your bank, your books, and your invoices already hold every number you need. They just don’t talk to each other, and you’re the one doing the translating, usually late and usually from memory. Put one agent on top of the three and the translating stops.

Nothing got replaced to do that. Same bank. Same books. Same invoicing. One layer on top that can answer a question.

The four questions

Do this today, and don’t guess. Write down your own answer to each of these:

1. What’s coming in this week

2. What’s going out this week

3. What’s owed to you

4. What you owe

Then go find the real numbers and write those next to your answers.

The size of the gap is the point. If you were close on all four, you have a system already, even if it lives in your head, and the win is getting it out of your head. If you were off on two or more, you’re running on a feeling, and every decision you made last month was made on that feeling. Either way you now know exactly which question you’d want answered every morning. That’s your first project.

Thursday in Denver

Then at Colorado Startup Week on Thursday I’m showing what it looks like live. An agent reading a folder of invoices, checking them against the books, catching the mismatch, and answering “how much have we paid this vendor this year” with a real dollar figure on screen. Nothing migrated, nothing replaced.

If you registered from the last issue, that’s the part to show up for. If you didn’t, it’s free, here’s the link: https://hub.catalyzerapp.com/public/events/ai-for-the-business-you-already-have-4037-333

Until next time,

Shawn Kercher

Co-Founder & CTO, HummingAgent AI