The Essential Data You Need for a Successful B2B Restructuring or Turnaround

When a B2B business is in trouble, good data is not optional. It is the base for every important decision. There is usually pressure, emotion and very little time. Clear, reliable numbers cut through all of that.

In a restructuring, insolvency or turnaround, you need one simple thing. A single version of the truth that everyone can trust. That means data that is accurate, up to date and easy to understand. From there, you can decide how to protect cash, where to cut costs and which parts of the business to back.

In practice, you are looking at three main areas. Financial health. Operational efficiency. Customers and revenue. Around all of that, you need data that is clean, fast and consistent.

1. Financial Health Data

Cash comes first.

In a distressed business, cash flow forecasts are the most important reports you have. These should be detailed, often weekly and sometimes daily. They should also show different scenarios. For example, what happens if customers pay late or if sales fall. This tells you how long the business can keep going before it runs out of cash.

Next, look at profit. Start with gross profit margin. That shows whether your core products or services make money before overheads. Then look at net profit margin. That shows what is left after all costs, interest and tax.

You then break profit down by product, segment and customer. This is where you find the truth about the business. Some areas will be deeply loss making. Others will still be strong. In a turnaround, you need to know which is which so you can decide what to fix, what to shrink and what to grow.

Working capital is another key area.

• Debtor days (Days Sales Outstanding) show how long customers take to pay. If this is rising, it is a warning sign for cash.
• Creditor days (Days Payable Outstanding) show how long you take to pay suppliers. If you push this too far, you may damage vital relationships.
• The current ratio, current assets divided by current liabilities, gives a quick view of short term liquidity.

You also need a full picture of all debt. That means every lender, the amounts, interest rates, covenants and maturity dates. This information is central to any plan to restructure loans or agree new terms.

2. Operational Efficiency Data

Financial data tells you what is happening. Operational data tells you why. It also shows where you can make quick, practical changes.

Start with the cost of goods sold. Break it down into raw materials, production and any other direct costs. This helps you spot quick savings. You may be able to reduce waste, change suppliers or adjust order sizes.

Then look at overheads and operating costs. This covers general and administrative spend and other non direct costs. The aim is to find spending that is non essential or duplicated. You want to remove cost without damaging the parts of the business that still perform well.

Supply chain and stock levels matter too.

• Inventory turnover shows how quickly stock is sold. Slow turnover means cash is tied up on the shelf.
• On time in full delivery shows how often you deliver the right product, at the right time, in the right quantity. Poor delivery performance can push key customers away at the worst possible time.

Productivity data brings another layer of insight. Measures such as employee productivity or cost per order or per unit highlight weak points. They may show that a process is too manual, a team is under used or a site is no longer viable. This helps you focus on changes that will have a real impact.

3. B2B Customer and Revenue Data

In B2B markets, a small number of customers often produce most of the revenue. That makes customer data vital in any restructuring or turnaround.

Start with customer concentration. List your top ten to twenty customers and the share of revenue they bring in. This shows how exposed you are. If a single customer accounts for a large share of sales, losing them could be critical.

Then look at customer lifetime value and customer acquisition cost. Even when the business is under strain, you still need to judge if it makes sense to chase new work. If it costs more to win a client than you earn over time, the model needs to change.

Churn and retention rates are just as important. They tell you how many customers you are losing and how many stay. This is key to any forecast you share with stakeholders. High churn usually points to issues with price, product, service or competition. These issues often need to be tackled as part of the recovery.

Sales pipeline data brings a view of the future.

Leads, live opportunities and win or loss rates show the health of future revenue. They can reveal quick win opportunities that help short term cash. They also show whether the targets in your plan are realistic or not.

4. What Good Data Looks Like

The numbers you use matter. The quality of those numbers matters just as much.

First, data must be accurate and clean. If figures do not match across systems, or if there are obvious errors, trust disappears. Poor data can damage financial models, weaken your position in negotiations and create legal risk, especially where a formal insolvency process is involved.

Second, data must be timely. In a restructuring, decisions often need to be made at speed. You need to be able to gather, combine and review data quickly. The faster you can turn raw data into clear insight, the more options you usually have.

Third, data must be clear. It is easy to end up with huge spreadsheets that few people really understand. Lenders, courts, creditors and internal leaders do not want volume. They want a simple, well supported story. They need to see what is happening, why it is happening and what you plan to do.

Finally, data must line up across the business. Sales forecasts should match cash flow forecasts. Operational plans should match capacity and cost numbers. Everyone should work from a single source of truth. Without that, confusion grows and progress slows.

Company Watch analytics are built on carefully curated public data, transparent matching logic and clear confidence scores. That means you can see how each record has been matched and how reliable it is, instead of relying on a black box.

Our models are tuned to spot early signs of distress and support realistic, scenario based planning. Consistently strong client feedback, including an industry leading Net Promoter Score in recent surveys, reflects that users trust the insight they get from our platform. In short, Company Watch data is built for exactly the kind of high pressure decisions that define restructuring, insolvency and turnaround work. It gives you clean, timely, aligned information, so you can move from confusion to clarity and act with confidence.