Case Studies | Riverine

HVAC technician working on a rooftop unit

Service Business

Meridian HVAC

Phoenix, AZ | 12 technicians | $2.1M annual revenue

The Problem

Meridian HVAC was running a healthy business on paper: a 34% net margin, strong seasonal demand, and a full crew schedule. But their commercial clients paid on 45-to-60-day net terms, which meant Meridian was effectively lending its own revenue back to those clients for two months at a time. By February of last year, the gap between what they were owed and what sat in the bank had grown to $214,000. Owner Victor Sandoval had opened a $75,000 line of credit just to make payroll through the slow winter months.

Victor connected QuickBooks and his business bank account to CashFlow AI in March. Within 72 hours, the system had flagged three patterns he had not been tracking: two commercial clients who were consistently 18 to 22 days late past their stated terms, one residential billing cycle that produced feast-famine cash gaps every eight weeks, and a supplier auto-draft hitting 11 days earlier than necessary.

CashFlow AI's automated payment-reminder sequences went to the two late commercial clients on day 30 rather than day 45. The phrasing was firm but professional, referencing contract terms without accusatory language. One client paid within 48 hours. The other called Victor to renegotiate to net-30, which Victor accepted because the predictability was worth more than the extra float.

By May, Meridian's median days to collection had dropped from 51 to 24. Victor paid down $60,000 of his credit line and has not drawn on it since. The 90-day cash forecast in the dashboard surfaced three upcoming slow patches so clearly that Victor scheduled a major equipment purchase to land between the second and third gap, spreading the capital hit instead of scrambling for it.

51 to 24

Days to collect, before vs. after

$214K

Working capital freed in first quarter

Credit line draws in the 6 months since onboarding

"I knew I had a cash flow problem. I did not know how fixable it was. Turns out most of it was timing. CashFlow AI made the timing visible and then automated the fixes."

Victor Sandoval, Owner, Meridian HVAC

Small agency team collaborating around a table

Marketing Agency

Third Act Creative

Portland, OR | 6 employees | $1.4M annual revenue

The Problem

Third Act Creative is a boutique content and branding agency serving mid-market B2B companies. Their clients are well-funded and generally happy, but three of their seven retainer clients had developed a habit of paying 50 to 70 days late. The agency tracked invoices in a shared Google Sheet. Founding partner Dena Okafor estimated she was spending three to four hours every week chasing payments, writing awkward follow-up emails, and updating the spreadsheet. She had no reliable cash view beyond two weeks out.

Dena connected Third Act's FreshBooks account to CashFlow AI on a Tuesday afternoon. By Thursday morning, the system had built a 90-day forecast and sent its first round of pre-due reminders to all outstanding invoices. It also surfaced a finding that surprised her: two of the three chronically late clients were late not because of payment intent, but because of their internal approval cycles. Their accounts payable departments required PO numbers to process invoices, and Third Act had been sending invoices without them for 18 months.

CashFlow AI flagged the pattern and recommended adding a PO reference field to the invoice template, along with a one-line processing note. Dena made the change that week. Within 30 days, both clients had moved from 60-plus days to under 20. The third late client, once exposed by the automated follow-up cadence, paid two outstanding invoices simultaneously and has been on time since.

The spreadsheet is gone. Dena runs a Monday cash review in the dashboard that takes 11 minutes. Third Act now negotiates payment terms with every new client before signing, using a deposit structure they modeled in CashFlow AI across three revenue scenarios before committing to it.

71%

Reduction in invoices over 30 days late

11 min

Weekly cash review (down from 4 hours)

Increase in forward visibility window

"Two of our late clients were late because of a two-line fix we had never thought to make. CashFlow AI found it in the data within 48 hours. That single insight paid for a full year of the product."

Dena Okafor, Founding Partner, Third Act Creative

Bookkeeper reviewing financial documents at a desk

Solo Freelancer

Priya Nair Bookkeeping

Remote (Austin, TX) | Solo practitioner | $148K annual revenue

The Problem

Priya Nair had run her solo bookkeeping practice for six years. She had 14 steady clients, zero debt, and a stable income. But every January and June, cash flow got thin because several clients paused or reduced hours after the holidays and at the end of Q2. She had no early warning. By the time she noticed a shortfall, she was already in it, covering expenses from savings and feeling behind even though her business was technically healthy.

Priya is not numbers-averse; she is a bookkeeper. But she had been so focused on her clients' finances that she had never systematically analyzed her own. She connected Stripe and QuickBooks Self-Employed to CashFlow AI in January, initially as a test of a tool she was considering recommending to clients.

What she found was useful enough that she stopped thinking of it as a test. CashFlow AI identified that her January shortfalls were entirely predictable from client behavior patterns going back four years. Three clients reliably reduced hours in December and did not return to full capacity until mid-February. The AI built a scenario model showing that if she invoiced those three clients two weeks earlier in November, she would collect the revenue before the pause rather than after it. The change to her billing cycle, not her work schedule, solved the entire pattern.

She also used the 90-day forecast to identify a capacity window in March, and took on a new engagement she would previously have delayed out of uncertainty. That one engagement added $12,600 in revenue for the quarter. The forecast has since become a tool she shows prospective clients as part of her own pitch: she bills better because she practices what she recommends.

Cash shortfalls since onboarding (2 expected annually)

$12,600

Additional revenue from a forecast-confident new hire

90 days

Forward visibility (was 9 days before)

"I tell every client to do this. I was embarrassed that I had not done it for myself sooner. CashFlow AI is the first tool I have genuinely looked forward to opening on Monday mornings."

Priya Nair, Principal, Priya Nair Bookkeeping

How We Measure

Numbers We Report, Numbers We Stand Behind

The metrics in these case studies come from verified account data inside CashFlow AI, cross-referenced against customers' own accounting records at the time of review. Days-to-collection figures are calculated as the median time between invoice sent and payment received across all invoices in the 90-day window before and after onboarding. Working capital figures represent actual bank balance changes attributed to collection cycle improvements, excluding unrelated revenue growth. All customers reviewed and approved their stories before publication. No results have been extrapolated or adjusted.

Real Businesses.
Real Numbers.
Real Results.

Numbers We Report, Numbers We Stand Behind

Your Cash Flow Story Does Not Have to Look Like Theirs. It Can Look Better.

Real Businesses.Real Numbers.Real Results.

Numbers We Report, Numbers We Stand Behind

Your Cash Flow Story Does Not Have to Look Like Theirs. It Can Look Better.

Real Businesses.
Real Numbers.
Real Results.