Mohamed Bakr · Finance Portfolio
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Featured Case Study · Liquidity Turnaround

Liquidity Rescue & 6-Month Cash Recovery Model

A management case study showing how a recurring cash deficit was decomposed into project deductions, direct operating costs, corporate cash commitments, debt service and pricing exposure — then converted into quantified recovery scenarios.

Confidentiality protected: client and project names replaced with Project 1001–1012. Financial figures are rounded from the operating model.
SAR 1.30mMonthly project billings
SAR 356kMonthly deductions · 27.4%
(SAR 189k)Current monthly cash deficit
(SAR 1.134m)6-month cash burn if unchanged

1. Executive diagnosis

The problem was not simply “high expenses.” The model showed a measurable break-even gap driven primarily by deductions, with additional pressure from fixed cash commitments and weak pricing discipline.

Deduction leakage

27.4%

Current deduction rate versus a calculated break-even ceiling of 12.84%.

Break-even gap

SAR 189k

Current deductions exceed the break-even deduction limit by approximately SAR 188,996 per month.

Risk concentration

97.2%

Four projects — 1002, 1008, 1009 and 1010 — generate SAR 346k of the SAR 356k total deductions.

Pricing exposure

SAR 183.6k

Monthly labor underpricing exposure identified in two workforce categories. Treated as a separate diagnostic to avoid double-counting in the cash model.

The cash equation

Monthly billings of SAR 1,300,204 had to absorb SAR 575,700 of listed direct project costs, SAR 208,000 of operating/admin commitments, SAR 156,500 of debt service and SAR 193,000 of VAT. This leaves only SAR 167,004 of affordable deductions before cash flow turns negative.

Maximum deductions at break-even
SAR 167,004
Equivalent to 12.84% of monthly billings
Current deductions: SAR 356,000
Excess above break-even: SAR 188,996

2. Project-level risk concentration

The anonymized project table makes the source of leakage visible. “Net contribution” means billing less deductions and the direct costs listed in the source model; it is not the company’s final accounting profit.

ProjectBilling (SAR)DeductionsDeduction %Listed Direct CostsNet ContributionRisk
Project 100166,01010,00015.1%26,36729,643Watch
Project 100244,85527,00060.2%15,5672,288Critical
Project 100357,25900.0%26,16731,093Controlled
Project 100447,88000.0%4,66743,213Controlled
Project 100552,05500.0%7,36744,688Controlled
Project 100644,17600.0%16,46727,709Controlled
Project 100722,22200.0%10,66711,556Controlled
Project 1008252,22080,00031.7%123,46748,754Critical
Project 1009205,12299,00048.3%100,4675,656Critical
Project 1010280,000140,00050.0%121,16718,834Critical
Project 1011133,58200.0%62,66770,916Controlled
Project 101294,82200.0%60,66734,155Controlled
Management focus: Projects 1002, 1008, 1009 and 1010 account for 97.2% of deductions. The turnaround therefore prioritizes operational SLA correction, staffing/equipment controls and commercial escalation on those four contracts before broad company-wide cuts.

3. Where the non-project cash burden sits

The monthly cash model also separated project economics from corporate commitments so management could distinguish structural costs from project-specific leakage.

Operating & administrative commitments · SAR 208k/month

Head office 90.5k · residency/passports 62.5k · GOSI 10k · fines 10k · fuel 15k · leave/travel 10k · vehicle/equipment maintenance 10k.

Financing & statutory cash · SAR 349.5k/month

Debt service 156.5k plus monthly VAT cash requirement of 193k. VAT was deliberately kept fixed in all scenarios rather than treated as an easy “saving.”

4. Rescue scenarios

Three scenarios were modeled over six months. The recovery cases do not assume revenue growth; they focus on controllable deduction reduction, operating savings and negotiated debt-service timing.

Current · No intervention

(SAR 1.134m)
6-month cumulative cash
  • Deductions remain 27.4%.
  • No operating savings.
  • No debt rescheduling.
  • Monthly deficit remains about SAR 189k.

Realistic rescue

SAR 21.8k
6-month cumulative cash
  • Deductions step down 22% → 18% → 15%.
  • Operating savings reach SAR 35k/month.
  • SAR 30k/month debt relief from Month 3.
  • Monthly cash turns positive in Month 3.

Strong rescue

SAR 626.9k
6-month cumulative cash
  • Deductions step down 18% → 12% → 10%.
  • Operating savings reach SAR 50k/month.
  • SAR 50k/month debt relief from Month 2.
  • Monthly cash turns positive in Month 2.

Deduction-rate control path

Current
27.4%
Realistic target
15.0%
Strong target
10.0%

5. Monthly cash-flow recovery

The table below shows the modeled monthly net cash flow under each path. These are scenario outputs, not claimed realized results.

MonthCurrentRealisticStrong
Month 1-188,996-94,041-32,033
Month 2-188,996-32,033110,979
Month 3-188,99636,973136,984
Month 4-188,99636,973136,984
Month 5-188,99636,973136,984
Month 6-188,99636,973136,984

Realistic case improvement

SAR 1.156m

Improvement in six-month cumulative cash versus doing nothing, moving from (SAR 1.134m) to approximately SAR 21.8k positive.

Strong case improvement

SAR 1.761m

Improvement versus current path, producing modeled six-month cumulative liquidity of approximately SAR 626.9k.

6. Management actions behind the numbers

The value of the model is the action plan: each scenario has explicit operating and financial levers rather than a generic instruction to “reduce costs.”

Attack deductions where they are concentrated

Build project-by-project SLA root-cause plans for 1002, 1008, 1009 and 1010, which together represent SAR 346k of monthly deductions.

Set a hard liquidity threshold

Keep total deductions below the SAR 167k / 12.84% break-even ceiling. The practical recovery target is 15%, with 10% as the strong-case objective.

Deliver quantified overhead savings

Implement savings of SAR 35k/month in the realistic case and SAR 50k/month in the strong case, with named owners and weekly tracking.

Reschedule, do not “assume away,” debt service

Model only negotiated timing relief: SAR 30k/month from Month 3 or SAR 50k/month from Month 2. If negotiations fail, the shortfall must be replaced by further operational savings.

Correct bid pricing discipline

A separate pricing diagnostic identified SAR 183.6k/month of workforce underpricing exposure. Future bids require fully loaded labor, housing, equipment, support overhead, financing and risk.

Install a weekly cash-control cadence

Track deductions, collections, payroll, VAT, debt service and project contribution weekly, with escalation whenever forecast deductions move above the approved scenario path.

Model integrity note: pricing exposure and “deduction leakage cost” diagnostics are shown as root-cause indicators but are not simply added on top of the cash deficit, because parts may overlap with project costs already captured in the monthly model. This avoids double-counting and keeps the rescue scenarios decision-useful.

7. What this case demonstrates

Liquidity management

Translating accounting data into a forward cash-control model with explicit break-even thresholds.

Project accounting

Separating project-level deductions and direct cost contribution from corporate cash commitments.

Scenario modeling

Building realistic and strong recovery paths with quantified assumptions and timing.

Management decision support

Turning financial diagnosis into prioritized operational, commercial and financing actions.