Find Your Sleep Well Number
Your Numbers
Wholesale turns inventory fast, so it recovers quicker. Brands tie cash up in production and freight, so they need a deeper cushion.
This calculator uses static numbers. Get this tracked live from your real bank and sales data →
Your Result
Your Sleep Well Number
$120,000
$40,000 fixed costs × 3 months = $120,000
You have 3.0 months of cushion, right at target.
Months of Cushion
3.0
Gap to Target
+$0
You're sleeping well. Stay there automatically.
Futureproof connects to your bank, Amazon, and Shopify and updates your cushion daily as cash, payouts, and fixed costs change.
Join the ecommerce waitlistWhat Is a Sleep Well Number?
Your Sleep Well Number is the minimum cash balance you need to keep in the business to stay calm when something goes wrong. Not the dream balance. The floor.
A bad inventory cycle, a delayed Amazon payout, a returns spike, a shipping delay on a $40k container. Any of those can blow a hole in your week. The Sleep Well Number is the cushion that lets you absorb the hit without scrambling, raising at bad terms, or maxing out a line of credit.
How to Calculate It
Add up every fixed monthly cost, then multiply by your target months of cushion. Wholesale operators use 3 months. Brands and private label use 6.
SWN = Fixed Costs × Target Months
Wholesale = 3 mo · Brand / Private Label = 6 mo
Example: a private label brand with $40,000 in fixed monthly costs needs $240,000 in the bank to sleep well. A wholesale operator with the same costs needs $120,000.
Why Wholesale Needs 3 and Brands Need 6
Your business model dictates how long cash stays trapped. The cushion has to be deep enough to cover that.
Wholesale: 3 months
You buy known SKUs, turn them in 30 to 60 days, and reorder. Cash recycles fast. A 3-month cushion covers a bad turn, a slow-paying account, or a payout gap without stalling your buying calendar.
Brand / Private Label: 6 months
You front production deposits, wait on freight, hold safety stock, and absorb launch risk. Cash is tied up for 90 to 180 days. A 6-month cushion keeps you funded through one full production and selling cycle.
How to Get to Your Sleep Well Number
If you're short of your number, you have three levers: trim fixed costs, free up cash from inventory, or tighten the gap between paying for goods and collecting payouts. Pulling all three at once is what moves the cushion fastest.
Start with the costs that don't move revenue: redundant software, oversized warehouse space, contractor overlap. Then look at inventory: which SKUs are sitting longer than 90 days? Liquidating slow movers at break-even turns dead cash into cushion cash.
Last, watch your payout cycle. Amazon holds cash for 14 days. Shopify Payments holds 2 to 3. Wholesale terms can stretch to net-60. The bigger the gap between paying suppliers and getting paid, the deeper your cushion has to be.
Sleeping Well
At or above target. Reinvest with confidence.
Restless
Halfway there. Pause big buys, tighten costs.
Wide Awake
Under half target. One bad week ends the business.