Capex entered positive

A sign flip is not a soft warning

Capex belongs as a cash outflow. Entered positive, it inflates free cash flow and every multiple that sits on top of it. Row 118 in the live file did not throw an Excel error. It looked industrious. It looked funded. It was wrong in the direction that flatters the deal.

Sign flips survive reviews because the absolute value is often believable. The unit cost matches the bid. The schedule matches the construction tab. Only the sign is inverted, which means the model adds where it should subtract. That is not a formatting issue. That is a cash-flow fiction.

1. Find every capex, tenant improvement, and leasing-commission line that feeds free cash flow.
2. Confirm the sign convention on the assumptions tab before you touch the live column.
3. Compare the live column to the source schedule after a paste, not before.
4. Watch totals: if reinvestment rises while cash available somehow improves, you are looking at a flip.
5. Flag the row, not the whole sheet. Partners need a coordinate, not a vibe.

Row 118 has capex entered positive. Flip the sign before this file is treated as a finished view of cash.

Why positive feels finished

Positive numbers look like progress. Negative outflows look like problems. Under deadline pressure, people paste schedules as absolute values and trust a later step to apply the sign. The later step does not always run. The deck still prints.

• Construction draws that improve rather than consume cash.
• TI and LC lines that rise while NOI looks untouched.
• Maintenance capex that vanishes into a positive "reinvestment" plug.
• Any outflow column whose total moves the wrong way when you stress the case upward.

After you flip the sign

Do not stop at the cell. Recompute free cash flow, debt draws, and any ratio that used the corrupted bridge. Then re-run the read-back. A single flip can clear while a neighbor remains inverted from the same paste.

1. Correct row 118 and any sibling rows from the same paste block.
2. Recompute the cash-flow bridge end to end.
3. Diff the print pack against the pre-fix version for IRR, equity multiple, and peak equity.
4. Document the convention on the assumptions tab so the next paste inherits the rule.
5. Sign the flag. Moraton named the row. You still own the send.

Product posture

Moraton reports a sign flip by row with a plain description. It does not invent market data. It does not certify returns. A person still signs off every output. If you are hunting "capex entered positive" at midnight, flip the sign, recompute the bridge, and only then let the file go upstairs.