One of the greatest challenges for the small firm practitioner is keeping track of the Horizon of Doom, the theoretical day that the money in firms operating account at the bank is not enough to cover the firm’s bills and payroll. Subtract the sum of the firm’s financial obligations from the firm’s bank balance and pro-rate the sum by the anticipated bills into the future, and you have projected your Horizon of Doom for years, months or weeks into the future.[1]�
If the balance is negative, then the firm has reached the Horizon of Doom and gone over the edge. In the practice documented by Jonathan Harr in A Civil Action, (1995) Jan Schlictman’s comptroller fought valiantly to keep the firm away from the Horizon of Doom, and Mr. Schlictman realized that battle was lost the morning his car was repossessed.
