We all know, that when you run your own business, unexpected events can, and often do, happen. For example, you may lose a good member of your team and have to spend time and money recruiting again, your biggest client may run into financial difficulties and have to cut your services so there’s an unexpected hole in your income, or you may have a large tax bill coming up just when you you’re dealing with the above two issues.
These events are not uncommon but are unplanned and so that is why it is important that you understand your financial future. You need to run a cash-flow forecasting system, so that you can build a buffer against these unplanned happenings.
Let us explain; back in the 80’s we were running our first business and right from the outset we wanted to be sure that we were running the business within its means. So we developed a simple spread-sheet system of income and expenses so that we could monitor the cash coming in and going out.
However, we discovered, the hard way, that a monthly retrospective system didn’t provide us with knowledge for a safe financial passage through the next few weeks.
So, we developed a system that not only showed us what had happened but what was likely to happen in the future taking into account forecast business as well as our known running costs.
This worked well until we ran into an embarrassing cash-flow issue in the middle of a month. We knew that our cash-flow was going to be all right at the end of the month, if we got the money, we were owed but we had a shortfall in the middle of the month.
So, we realised that the forecasting system needed to be by week as well as by month.
Then we had the next lesson when we were told by our accountant that whilst we had a good cash flow we had made a loss. It was then that we discovered two things; Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet and that the secret of financial security is to make sure you manage your cash-flow, make a profit and have a positive Balance sheet.
This isn’t as complicated as it sounds, and we adapted our cash-flow forecasting system to show our version of Profit and Loss and an estimate of what would be the bottom line of the Balance Sheet – the all-important number. (We call it Retained Profit which is what’s left after Directors Dividends have been taken)
So now you know that this is how we developed the BHT Business Cash Management system to keep us safe. We we are now offering to provide this as a service to any micro/small enterprise that wants to ensure their future financial security.
If business life is tough right now, having this support will allow you the confidence to concentrate on what you do best and drive your business back to what it was before Covid-19. It won’t protect you from financial crises but it will allow you to plan financial cover for one!
The service starts at £60/month for the bank reconciliation and cash-flow forecast. There are several bolt-on modules, which you can add and they are :
- Updating Quickbooks if you already use Quickbooks
- Following year’s cash-flow
- “At-a-glance” cash flow summaries
- Raising Invoices on Quickbooks
- Credit control including tele-following of late invoice payments
- Business advice based on experience
However, the first 3 clients to sign a rolling annual contract will only pay £40/mth for the basic service for as long as they remain clients.
If you would like to know a little more just call 0808-172 1900 for an informal chat with no obligation.