Finance in Arbitrage: 5 Tools for Money Management

Arbitrage business — you drive traffic and collect profit. If only it were that simple. Today, our colleagues from Wild Wild Leads stopped by to share 5 tools that help manage cash flows effectively. No more cash gaps or losses — take control of your finances and run campaigns in the green.

Ukrainian companies Wild Wild Leads and Wild Wild Apps spent 8 wartime months expanding in two directions simultaneously: traffic buying, and developing and renting proprietary apps for arbitrage. The management's approach to financial management became the key to the company's dynamic growth: from 3 to 93 employees. CFO of Wild Wild Leads and Wild Wild Apps, co-owner Alexander Zhuravlyov shares the nuances of managing fast-growing arbitrage projects.

Why is financial control critical in arbitrage?

Traffic arbitrage, as a business vertical, requires constant financial management. A disorganized approach to dozens of cash flows, along with the specifics of revenue and expense formation, will lead to irreversible losses caused by cash gaps. Mistakes like these can cost you the entire business.

Conversations with industry peers show that arbitrage teams with a full-cycle financial management system are the exception rather than the rule. The practice of Wild Wild Leads and Wild Wild Apps has produced five core tools that help structure day-to-day money management — so you can both withdraw profit and forecast losses well in advance.

1. Balance

This type of financial report contains data on the company's assets, liabilities, and equity. The balance sheet is compiled as of a defined date — typically the end of a reporting period, often the end of a quarter.

The balance sheet must reflect all property owned by the company — from work laptops, phones, and furniture down to minor items like SIM cards and accounts — absolutely everything the company has acquired during that period.

In our industry, balances across all payment systems matter: top-up percentages, remaining spend balances. Avoid loading large amounts onto card services in case of force majeure events or changes to the services buyers are running through.

The second part of the balance sheet covers expenses: burned accounts — both purchased and dead ones — should be tracked, including minor items. This helps define the company's financial development vector.

2. Cash Flow Report

A cash flow statement helps build an accurate balance sheet. This report consists of three main sections:

• operating activities — money coming into the company from its core business direction

• investing activities — expenses aimed at future revenue: acquiring other market players or financial instruments, investing in proprietary software or a team that will launch a new vertical

• financing activities — funds that form the company's capital.

In other words, it explains the changes that occurred with money from one balance sheet date to the next. Once this data is filled in, you'll understand each advertiser's payment frequency and will be able to factor in how long any given advertiser might delay payouts — helping you avoid cash gaps.

3. Reserve Fund

From the first day of each month, reserve funds are topped up to cover potential risks and investments. This allows you to build and execute 5-year development plans — and sleep soundly, which is already a luxury in the arbitrage business.

The company's first hired employee came on board after the war had already started, at a time when a significant number of Ukrainian arbitrage teams had fallen apart. Wild Wild Leads and Wild Wild Apps follow the principle of responsible hiring, which is why they introduced a core rule: once a month, build up reserves to ensure payroll can be covered without going into debt.

Another purpose of the reserve fund is to accumulate capital for working with offers where you can go all-in with every buyer and earn big. But if your reserve fund is still small — don't pour all your finances into a single advertiser. Look for affiliate networks that can pay more frequently, and work your contact network to find out who can provide additional working capital and on what terms.

4. PNL

The Profit and Loss report shows the difference between all company revenues and expenses. This type of accounting requires meticulous daily work with financial data — which is often overlooked. 

PNL shows the dynamics of financial health in real time and helps make operational decisions at the earliest stage of a problem, catching drop points as they emerge. Our finance team tracks dynamic metrics daily, which allows them to quickly cut off unnecessary "leaks."

5. Budget Calendar

Building and consistently maintaining a budget calendar is a separate challenge for the finance side of the team — but paired with PNL, the tool enables daily forecasting of the company's financial trajectory. Expenses and revenues are logged and tracked in real time, with formulas pre-highlighting potential cash gaps before they actually occur: advertiser payouts, marketing department investments, payroll, and more are all monitored. This creates a buffer of time (from 1 to 3 weeks) to make and implement immediate decisions and corrective actions.

Together with PNL, this tool moves the company forward every day — enabling growth not only by increasing revenue, but also by keeping expenses within reasonable limits.

What if you just don't bother?

Money doesn't tolerate being ignored. Finance is the energy that drives a business forward in its search for new opportunities. Disorganized reporting makes it harder to anticipate risks and accurately evaluate performance, and blocks long-term planning for company growth. At some point, any arbitrage team that fails to give proper attention to its finances will find itself unable to move forward.

Poor financial management means, at best, leaving money on the table — and at worst, putting the company's very existence at risk.