Vending Machine Business PlanWhat cash reserve does machine downtime require?
Use a dated cash ledger for the interruption. The repair bill, inventory payments and bills due before sales recover determine the cash low point. Lost revenue by itself is not an additional cash payment, and operating profit is not a complete cash forecast.
This ten-day emergency example starts with zero incremental cash and assumes no credit, financing or owner draw. All amounts are illustrative USD payments or receipts. Sales receipts below are actual cash collected after the interruption, not a second charge for lost sales.
| Timing | Cash movement | Cumulative balance from zero |
|---|---|---|
| Day 0: repair paid | −$450.00 | −$450.00 |
| Day 1: inventory paid | −$120.00 | −$570.00 |
| Day 3: receipts collected | +$160.00 | −$410.00 |
| Day 7: bills paid | −$200.00 | −$610.00 |
| Day 10: receipts collected | +$240.00 | −$370.00 |
The lowest cumulative balance is −$610 on day 7. Covering that shortfall requires $610; a separately chosen $200 minimum floor raises the opening cash requirement to $810. With $810 at the start, balances after each event are $360, $240, $400, $200 and $440. The reserve is cash held, not a second operating expense.
Keep a lost-contribution scenario separate
Suppose a different steady-state demand estimate is 20 units/day at $1.30 contribution per unit. Four completely unavailable days put $104 of contribution at risk. That is useful for deciding whether faster service is worth its price. It must not be added as another $104 payment to the cash ledger when the ledger’s receipts already reflect the interruption.
The time of payment matters. If the $450 repair is payable after day 10, the low point in this ten-day ledger before that payment falls to −$160. But the liability still exists and the schedule must extend through its payment. A shorter horizon can make funding need look artificially small. Refunds, payment-processor settlement delay, loan service and taxes can create additional troughs.
Use this as an operating procedure
- Record expected repair, replacement and spoilage payments by date.
- Estimate collectible receipts during downtime and the restart, using settlement dates.
- Add fixed bills, wages, taxes and financing payments actually due.
- Compute the cumulative low point over a horizon long enough to include deferred bills.
- Add a chosen minimum cash floor once, then subtract only committed available funding.
In Startup Funding, enter $610 as cumulative operating cash shortfall and $200 as minimum cash floor to reproduce $810 opening cash. The tool accepts a shortfall from your schedule; it does not create a monthly cash-flow forecast. Equipment capex, opening inventory and pre-opening expenses have separate input lines.
