Better financial control

Business people will recognise the importance of financial control in sustaining and improving profitability. Sometimes, as your business matures it can be easy to lose some of the control you originally had. In other cases, businesses have not had sufficient control from the beginning. Good financial control and stability involves:

• Identifying and frequently monitoring key area of your finances
• Generating numbers quickly and accurately
• Sharing the results with any employees or others who need to know
• Interpreting the numbers correctly
• Taking appropriate and timely action based on your interpretation

To be fully in control, you need the information you interpret to be about what is happening to your company now. Sales, debtors, cash position, trade creditors and employment figures will not be useful a month late. Make sure you and any key managers are receiving weekly or even daily updates.

Comparing your projections and results is instrumental to financial control. Not only will it keep you up-to-date, but by doing so you will better understand how realistic your expectations are.

Consider how effective your business’s system of financial control is. The key to good financial control is to have an effective system for collecting data and generating accurate and timely reports tailored to your needs.