For distributors and manufacturers, $20M to $200M in sales
Sales are fine. Margin is fine. The credit line keeps climbing.
More cash from the same sales, and an inventory number that stands when a lender or a buyer tests it.
I am Sharon Custer. Inventory is the bottleneck on your growth and your survival. I help you stop your sales from funding inventory debt. Fortune 500 inventory finance at 3M, then CFO and FP&A roles across several industries.
How I can help
Cash is tight and nobody knows where it went.Where the money is stuck, which decisions put it there, and whether the next one is safe.
The close went through, and the number still does not feel safe.A month-end number that holds when a board, a lender or a buyer pushes on it.
This month's numbers are needed in a report the board can read.One clean report, in time for the buying and pricing decisions that depend on it.
For a team or an audience: workshops, group coaching and speaking.
Real results, from real companies.
8.5% to 5%Non-moving inventory as a share of total inventory value, while fill rates held at 100% through the semiconductor shortage.
On $10M of inventory, 3.5 points is $350,000.
$300,000Loan retired ahead of schedule, once material purchases were timed to when client payments landed.
We thought we had a cash problem. We had a sequencing problem.
12%Storage cost cut, once buying stopped following the bestseller: 35% of revenue, turning 1.5 times a year.
The metric looked like a strength. It was the single biggest drag on our working capital and we had been doubling down on it.
She reads financial reports quickly and spots patterns, opportunities, and potential issues that others might miss, turning insights into actionable strategies. Her ability to notice hidden details and identify root causes instead of just surface issues makes her invaluable.
Charles TuCEO, technology manufacturer, TaiwanSharon is an insightful, kind, and hyper-detailed analyst. She quickly recognizes core issues and provides a clear path to the answer ... she has developed a powerful intuition and sense of clarity in a very difficult subject matter: cash and inventory optimization.
Mark LuptonCFO and advisor to 8-figure companies. Founder, Greenhouse Business AdvisorsShe has a remarkable depth of understanding regarding inventory analysis, controls, and optimization. Sharon also understands how inventory translates to cash and cash flow.
David SafeerArchitect of Cash-First Operating Systems. Founder, Cash is ClearSharon Custer helps businesses maximize their cash flow through scenario planning and forecasting utilizing POs, inventory, cash, and cash flow assumptions. She has helped make this process turnkey with AI powered tools such as custom agents, dashboards, and monthly workflows and automations.
Eve ReiterDigital Solutions Architect and Lead Advisor, Procurement, NTT DATAThe inventory optimization workflow
A number that reconciles on the financial report is not automatically a number that is correct. Across these 5 stages there are costs that never show up as a line item, and that is where the cash is.
Less money sitting in stock for the same sales. The capital parked in slow lines gets named, priced and moved.
$264,590 sitting still for 180 days, found on one screen.
Margin stops carrying costs nobody priced: cost in the wrong period, shrink, rework and returns.
$20,000 of unexplained adjustments eliminated at a medical consumables company.
Purchases timed to when the cash lands, so the credit line stops covering the gap.
A $300,000 loan retired ahead of schedule at a bespoke build firm.
The report out days after close and not weeks. The 3 days of tagging rows go away.
13 days a month decided on last month's numbers, priced in dollars, on your own figures.
The method lives in the workflow, not in one person. The team's hours go to decisions, not to hunting through lines.
36 shipments found in 420 without anyone reading 1,300 documents.
Items, costs and the timing between systems.
Where cash hides
Cost landing in the wrong period, absorbed as an adjustment every month.
Trust the closeReceiving, issuing, counts, returns.
Where cash hides
Shrink, rework and returns that nobody prices, so margin carries them quietly.
Trust the closeABC, product mix, turns, ageing, margin.
Where cash hides
The bestseller by revenue that turns 1.5 times a year and parks the capital.
Find the cashInventory budget, cash flow projection, scenarios.
Where cash hides
Purchases committed before the cash arrives, covered by the credit line.
Find the cashThe pack, the dashboard, the action plan.
Where cash hides
Reports that land after the decisions, so this month is run on last month's numbers.
Get the reportYour competitive edge
Why each of your items was bought. Every line checked, not a sample. Questions your team could never afford to ask before.
Your assumptions named and tested before the purchase order is signed, a quarter before a write-off would have shown them.
Every figure traceable, the same tests every month. When a lender, a buyer or your board pushes, your number stands.
Money that is no longer sitting in your inventory buys the opportunity, carries less debt, and lets you price with confidence.
Your method keeps running when people change, because the workflow holds it.
Put together: your company grows on its own cash, and can prove its numbers to anyone who asks.
CFOs, heads of finance and FP&A leaders I have coached, in their own words.
Sharon is knowledgeable and approaches a situation from a real-world perspective.
New tools and worked cases on cash, margin and the month-end number, sent when they are ready. No schedule, no filler.
By clicking Send it to me you agree to receive the newsletter. Cancel any time with one click. Your email is never shared or sold. Privacy.
