By the time you're choosing which supplier to pay this week, the real problem started weeks or months earlier — cash trouble is almost always a margin problem that finally showed up where you could see it. That doesn't make this week easier, but it does change what to do about it: triage the cash you have, and separately go fix the leak that put you here.
Call before the due date, not after
A supplier who hears from you before the invoice is late reads it as a business managing a rough patch. A supplier who has to chase you reads it as a risk to write off. Call, say plainly what's happening, and propose a schedule — even a modest one — before they have to ask. Most suppliers would rather be paid in three installments than not paid at all, and most will say yes to a plan they're offered instead of one they have to extract.
Protect the two or three you can't lose
Not every supplier carries equal weight. The ones who deliver daily, who carry your house account without complaint, who you'd struggle to replace mid-week — pay those first, in full, even if it means stretching someone easier to substitute. Losing a relationship you actually depend on costs far more than the interest on a late payment ever will.
Triage without shame
Cash trouble in hospitality is common enough that most suppliers have seen it many times before — the panic that keeps owners from calling is worse than the conversation itself usually turns out to be. The operators who recover are the ones who communicate early and honestly, not the ones who avoid the phone until a delivery gets held at the door.
This week's triage buys time. It doesn't fix the cause — that's a separate, slower piece of work, usually food cost, labor, or pricing that drifted for months before the cash ran out. The restaurant-in-trouble guide covers both: the express diagnosis for finding the real leak, and the relief options that exist in France and Switzerland when a structured plan is genuinely needed.
