Cash and liquidity
Severance pay kept in the business is a debt, and with high inflation it costs more than a loan
14 November 2026, 08:17
With consumer prices rising fast again, the amount a business adds each year to what it owes its employees for severance pay is growing too. It is a debt with a rate set by the Civil Code, and in the profit and loss account it ends up among staff costs.
Mothers' bonus: the budget raises it for those with two children. From those with three and a permanent job it can take up to three thousand euros a year
11 November 2026, 23:03
From 2027 the budget law replaces the relief on the pension contribution of mothers with at least three children with an allowance of one hundred euros a month, only below forty thousand euros of income. It is presented as a measure against the falling birth rate: the technical report says how much it costs, not how many mothers lose out.
Second IRES advance payment: the forecast method only holds up on a well-built pre-closing estimate
10 November 2026, 08:09
By the end of the month, Italian limited companies pay the last instalment of their income tax for the current year. A company earning less in 2026 can base it on an estimate for the year rather than on its 2025 tax, but the estimate has to go all the way down to taxable income: if it turns out too low, a penalty is charged on the shortfall.
Variable-rate loans: an interest rate swap protects a business only if it mirrors the loan
9 November 2026, 08:17
With euro-area inflation accelerating, markets expect the European Central Bank to raise the cost of money again soon, and businesses with indexed debt may be offered a hedging contract by their bank. It works only if it follows the loan in amount, dates and benchmark, and what it costs can be read before signing.
The withholding on invoices between businesses is measured against corporate income tax, not against turnover
6 November 2026, 08:13
The 2027 budget doubles the withholding that, from 2028, anyone paying another Italian company's invoice will hold back and pay to the Treasury on the supplier's behalf. How much cash it takes is not decided by sales but by how they compare with income tax: below a certain level of profitability, a credit towards the Treasury builds up every year, and it has to be forecast, recorded and used.
Safety stock is not set by falling orders
5 November 2026, 08:13
The monthly survey of purchasing managers says that in October Italian factories received fewer orders and slimmed down their warehouses, and that some of them ate into the reserves set aside when the conflict in the Middle East broke out, while suppliers' deliveries kept being interrupted. The stock of an item is made of two parts that respond to different causes: which one shrinks when demand falls, which one must be protected when supplies become uncertain, and what to enter in the management software.
Superbonus: the budget pushes back to 2036 the credits banks and businesses were due to use in 2027. Without interest
4 November 2026, 16:13
Article 37 of the budget bill splits into ten annual instalments the 20.5 billion in tax credits falling due next year. The Treasury lightens its own debt; those who wait lose value.
A customer entering a creditors' arrangement can happen to anyone: credit management decides what it costs
4 November 2026, 08:13
A yacht builder is offering its suppliers a small part of what they are owed. Anyone selling on credit cannot choose which customer will get into trouble, but decides every day how much to be exposed: how exposure grows unseen, the credit limit and the order block, the email that gets the debt acknowledged, credit insurance and factoring.
Letter of credit: how to get paid by a foreign customer you do not know
2 November 2026, 08:13
Istat records falling sales to the United States and strong growth to Turkey and China. Anyone looking for customers in new markets has to decide who answers for payment: a documentary credit shifts the promise from the buyer to a bank, which however pays only against documents that comply with what is written.
Slot machine emergency: Italians are gambling less and less. The budget steps in and doubles the stake
1 November 2026, 21:46
The 2027 budget bill raises the maximum stake from one euro to two to halt the «marked fall» in the sums staked, and expects «positive effects» from it. The State takes €11.4 billion a year from gambling; to prevent and treat gambling addiction it sets aside little more than €32 million.
Car tax 2027: the State scraps it for one year and reimburses the Regions. From 2028 the money is not there
28 October 2026, 16:00
The Parliamentary Budget Office has examined the car tax exemption for 2027: it helps less well-off families more but is paid for with one-off PNRR savings that will not recur, and the higher rate chosen by some Regions ends up being borne by everyone.
Gratta e Vinci: the State promises the million-euro prize to everyone. The loss is that someone won it
26 October 2026, 18:19
The Court of Auditors wants €25 million from five former Lottomatica employees over four winning tickets that ended up with friends and relatives. The State, which in 2017 had left the game with the same companies without a tender to collect in a hurry, noticed at its leisure.
The delivery term written into the contract decides who collects a duty refund
22 October 2026, 09:42
Sartorius has passed on to its customers the US tariffs that US customs is returning to the group. A duty refund goes to whoever appears as the importer on the customs declaration, and who that is depends on the delivery term in the sales contract.
Liquidity ratio: how it is calculated and what it should be
19 October 2026, 10:34
There are two versions, with and without inventory, and the gap between them shows how much the payments of the coming months depend on stock. Reference thresholds only hold for the formula they were built on.
High-speed rail: Webuild's consortia halt the sites, and whoever pays for the work and whoever owns a sixth of the builder answer to the same ministry
18 October 2026, 18:23
The consortia led by Webuild have suspended work on the Terzo Valico and the Messina-Catania line over a money dispute with Rfi. The extra claims are worth almost as much as the contracts, and the Ministry of Economy and Finance sits on both sides of the table.
When a business grows, receivables absorb cash even if customers pay on time
15 October 2026, 09:23
On 14 October Airbus said it will soon decide whether to build more A350 aircraft each month than the 12-13 its current assembly line is designed for. For anyone supplying a customer that is increasing production, selling more means advancing more money: receivables and stocks grow with turnover before the payments come in.
The hyper-depreciation allowance is worth the tax it saves, and that saving comes back one year at a time
14 October 2026, 09:27
In the third quarter, machine-tool orders placed in Italy fell by 7.1%, and the manufacturers are counting on the hyper-depreciation allowance for a recovery. For the buyer, the 180% uplift is not the value of the support: the support is the IRES paid less, payment after payment, over the years of depreciation.
Lorries on ships: the State promised up to 30 cents a kilometre, it pays 6, and late
11 October 2026, 18:19
Sicilian hauliers are stopping from 16 to 22 October. The Sea Modal Shift, the Ministry of Infrastructure's reward for putting a lorry on a ship, covers a fifth of what was claimed for the first year of journeys, and the balance has still not arrived; meanwhile the ferry ticket now carries the cost of CO2 as well.
Money idle in one account, an overdraft in another: the interest is paid all the same
10 October 2026, 09:37
In August, according to the Bank of Italy, businesses earned an average of 0.63 per cent on money in current accounts and paid 4.33 per cent on overdrafts. A business with cash at one bank and debt at another pays the difference, even though its net debt does not change.
Storms in Lombardy, €376 million of damage: the compulsory policy pays for the machines, cash pays for the months of shutdown
7 October 2026, 09:36
Since 2026 every business must insure its buildings and plant against floods, landslides and earthquakes, but the compulsory policy only reimburses damaged assets: the weeks in which the company produces nothing and keeps paying remain uncovered, and they need measuring beforehand.
Amazon sells its chips and rents them back: selling an asset and leasing it back is debt under another name, and in an SME's accounts it weighs on the margin
3 October 2026, 09:54
A sale and leaseback brings in cash at once and pays it back in instalments; under Italian accounting standards it moves the whole lease payment above EBITDA, and the bank sees the debt anyway.
Gold bars: to plea-bargain a tax fraud you pay the State first; to plea-bargain after collecting the savings of 2,400 people you give nothing back
1 October 2026, 18:17
Italy's Court of Cassation has made five plea bargains final in the gold-bar investigation into Global Group Consulting, and the savers will not get a single euro out of that trial. The law requires payment before a plea bargain only when the victim is the State: yes for tax fraud and corruption, no for people's savings.
French inflation keeps pushing rates up: the rise reaches the accounts through variable-rate debt, on the date written in the contract
30 September 2026, 09:46
In France prices have risen by 3 per cent in a year, and the ECB, which has already raised rates twice in 2026, remains under pressure. For a business the rise does not arrive on the day of the announcement: it arrives through Euribor, only on variable-rate debt and on the reset date written in the contract. It is a sum that can be worked out in advance.
Building-bonus tax credits were created without checks, and if one is fake, the buyer pays
29 September 2026, 21:46
In Trani, seizures worth €88 million: building-bonus tax credits generated several times over on the same homes, without a single job being done. The system allowed it: all it took was an online notice with no checks, and a VAT number to do the work. And when a credit turns out to be fake, even those who bought it in good faith lose it.
Japan's rice has gone from shortage to glut: stock bought out of fear is paid for twice
29 September 2026, 09:29
In two years Japan has gone from empty shelves to a rice surplus, and today growers are selling below the cost of production. It is the path of every stock built up out of fear, in business too: it is paid for once in cash, when it is bought, and a second time in the accounts, when the price falls.
The bank asks its customers for an extra confirmation. For €95 million, a WhatsApp was enough
25 September 2026, 18:14
The then chairman of Fideuram sent off €95 million after a message from a fake Carlo Messina and the cloned voice of a lawyer: €36 million is still missing. The same bank tells its customers to be wary of urgent requests.
The customer who pays after the due date is borrowing money from the supplier
25 September 2026, 08:13
In the second quarter of 2026 only 42 per cent of Italian companies paid their suppliers on time, and among large companies just over one in five. Every day of delay is money the supplier lends the customer: it can be measured customer by customer, and the law even puts a price on it.
To be let off, you must have collected the money you never collected
23 September 2026, 22:32
Bari, a curtain company: €539,956 of VAT declared and not paid, a six-month prison sentence upheld by the Court of Cassation in June. In 2024 a way out arrived for those left without money. It only applies to those who had collected the tax.
The diesel discount is paid for by the VAT on a full tank
22 September 2026, 16:06
The dearer the pump, the more VAT flows to the State. And that extra VAT comes back in the form of lower excise duty. It's called a discount.
Profit cannot be paid into the bank
20 September 2026, 17:38
A company can close the year in profit and not have the money to pay its suppliers. It is not an accounting paradox: it is a matter of timing, and it can be measured before it happens.
Your stock is your bank. But without the IBAN
Training
In a business, what seems “normal” is often what locks up liquidity. And among all the invisible blockages, there is one that keeps making itself felt without saying a word: inventory.
“I don’t need a controller. I already have an accountant”
Training
That is what a business owner told us at our first meeting. His financial statements showed a profit and his turnover was good.
Optimising cash flows: much more than “getting on with the bank”
Training
Financial statements and performance indicators help us understand the health of the company, but there is another aspect that separates those who react from those who anticipate: the management of cash flows.
When debt speaks: the indicator that reveals a business crisis
Training
In previous posts we learned how to read financial statements, but one fundamental issue remains to be addressed: knowing how to recognise the warning signs of a crisis.
Why the cash flow statement is an essential tool
Training
The balance sheet and the profit and loss account say a great deal about a company.
Company financial statements explained in simple terms - Part II
Training
Having learnt how the Balance Sheet captures the structure of the business, it’s time to set that picture in motion.
Company financial statements explained (really) in simple terms – Part I
Training
Accounting helps us tell the story of the business through numbers: now it’s time to understand where all these numbers come together.
Financial accounting explained (really) in plain words
Training
Together we will set out on a structured journey to talk about controlling but, to do so, we first need to understand where the numbers come from, so that we can then interpret them.