Managing business cash flow during Ramadan and summer in the UAE

Every business has a different pattern. Retail food and some F&B outlets see strong Ramadan and Eid trade; corporate events, construction site activity and many professional services slow. Tourism-led businesses may be busy in winter and quiet in the summer heat. Do not rely on general assumptions: pull monthly revenue, receipts and payments for the last two years and chart them.

Remember that Ramadan moves about eleven days earlier each year in the Gregorian calendar. A pattern from three years ago may have fallen in a different quarter, so line the data up by event, not by month.

The quiet period for cash often starts before the quiet period for sales. Invoices issued in June are due in July, when many customer finance teams are thin and approvers are travelling. Ramadan’s shorter working hours and the Eid holidays add days to payment runs. Our view: plan for collections to run two to three weeks slower than normal in July, August and the weeks around Eid, and chase hardest in May and June.

• Send invoices for June work before the end of June
• Ask large customers for their summer payment run dates
• Confirm who approves payments while the usual approver is on leave
• Move reminder sequences earlier, not later, in the slow season

Salaries remain due on the first day of each month under the wage payment rules on u.ae, whatever your sales did. Rent cheques, DEWA bills for cooling in the summer, insurance and loan instalments continue. Some costs rise: summer air-conditioning, Eid gifts or bonuses if you pay them, and annual leave tickets where contracts include them.

List these fixed outflows month by month for the season. That list, against a realistic receipts forecast, is the whole seasonal plan.

Add one-off items as well: trade licence renewals, visa renewals and insurance premiums that happen to fall due in the quiet months.

Normal monthly receipts: AED 380,000. Monthly fixed costs including payroll: AED 330,000. The agency’s history shows July receipts at 75% of normal and August at 65%, while costs stay flat and leave tickets add AED 40,000 in July.

July: receipts AED 285,000, costs AED 370,000, gap AED −85,000. August: receipts AED 247,000, costs AED 330,000, gap AED −83,000. Over two months the agency needs AED 168,000 of cash cover. Knowing this in April, it can build reserves from the stronger spring months, agree an overdraft early, ask two retainer clients to pay the third quarter upfront for a small discount, and schedule non-urgent purchases for September.

Because receipts and payments are matched from bank statement uploads, HelloBooks has the actual monthly history you need. Ask the AI agent “compare receipts in the six weeks around Eid with the six weeks before, for the last two years” and it pulls the figures from the ledger.

It can also project the coming season from open invoices and recurring costs, and show the lowest forecast balance. The decisions remain yours: whether to draw on a facility, offer a prepayment discount, or delay a hire until the autumn.