The Power of The Numbers

Do you know the Key Financial Drives for your business? If so, do you review them on a monthly basis and compare to best practice? If not, wouldn’t it be useful to have some objective way of checking the health and performance of your business and know where to tweak it for better results?

What you may need is better FINANCIAL control. Financial control is different to the business bookkeeping system. Bookkeeping is about recording the figures while financial control is the management of the money and making the numbers work better for you and your business. However in order to have an effective financial control system you need to have accurate bookkeeping. Computerised systems will help you keep your books in order.

A good financial management system facilitates you in accomplishing your daily financial objectives and future goals and targets. This means that the management system helps you become a better manager by enabling you to:

• Manage in a more proactive manner
• Borrow money more easily due to the possibility of being able to plan ahead for financing needs and set budget which can assist in the loan approval process.
• Provide financial planning information for investors.
• Make your business more profitable and efficient.
• Assist in major decision making processes affecting finances
• Avoid investing too much money in fixed assets.
• Set sales goals
• Improve gross profit margin by pricing your products and/or services more effectively or by reducing supplier prices, direct labour, etc.
• Help with tax planning.
• Plan ahead for employee benefits.
• Perform sensitivity analysis with the different financial variables involved.

In developing a financial management system it is a necessity to have your financial statements. These statements should be printed on a monthly basis and include your income statement, your balance sheet and your cash flow statement. These will help you to be far more proactive and manage your finances better.

For help in identifying your Key Financial Drivers email me at andyburrows@iconbusinesssolutions.com or call 09 912 1901, to book a FREE Net Variable Cash Flow analysis and strategy review report. Check out my website for more offers of assistance and what co-funding is available from NZTE. www.iconbusinesssolutions.co.nz

You can find out more at our website here: Growth for business