What is financial visibility?

Overseeing and building a small business requires the owner to wear many hats. Have you heard the saying, “jack of all trades master of none?” We hear that phrase from many SMB owners trying to juggle sales, service, human resources, and most importantly- finance. Accurate and comprehensive accounting practices are critical, but don’t often equate to financial visibility.

SMB’s and financial visibility

Knowledge is the key for the small business owner but how do they acquire the financial knowledge they need to operate day to day? There are several systems that provide dashboards and reporting on all aspects of financial performance. But is that helpful for small and medium size companies? Middle market and large businesses run very differently than SMB’s as they are concerned with performance on a monthly and/or quarterly basis. But SMBs need to understand what’s happening daily or weekly. The need is quite different.

For SMB’s, visibility is not so much a deep dive into their performance and metrics but understanding where they stand from a cash flow and payments perspective. Knowing that they have a cash crunch coming in 3-4 weeks (or sooner) is critical. Or knowing that their credit card balance is higher than they might want it to be mid-month.

Business owners must be fluid in thinking when cash is concerned. Cash management is critical when answering questions regarding operations and growth:

• I like to run with 30-45 days cash, what does it look like if I add future transactions?
• Can I afford to add a new employee to manage our growth?
• Can I upgrade my office equipment and be ok carrying a bit more debt?
• I would love to save a little interest expense. Can I make a principle payment this month?

Visibility to the SMB is more about knowing what is happening now in real time than what will occur in future monthly or quarterly reviews.

3 things you can do to enhance your financial visibility

Your business is important to you yet do you do enough cash flow to own it, support it, and help it become strong and healthy?

1. Set a calendar of accounting to do items. Gather expense reports from your sales team. Check and see if anyone has invoices on their desk that have not been submitted. Get your staff into the habit of timely accounting practices.
2. Ok so your calendar is set, things are going better, time for a check and balance. Is everything entered properly, and nothing slipped through the cracks?
3. Monthly financials tell the true tale, yet 35-40% of SMB business owners do not prepare or fully read, digest, and understand the monthly financials.

At Expex, we’ve created Carly to give SMB’s visibility in real time so they can better manage their cash flow, unanticipated spends or large swings in their bank accounts. And Carly doesn’t bug you every day…only when there is something you need to know.

Try Expex for 60-days with no fee, no obligation.

We want to ease the burden and stress of one of the most critical functions in a business. Contact us for a demo and 60-day free trial. So, where is your bookkeeper? Right where she should be. Carly is the last bookkeeper you will ever hire.

If you want to automate your bookkeeping and performing financial tasks while trying to grow your business, turn to Expex in Schenectady, NY. Our accounting technology will help you track your expenses and revenue, perform bank reconciliations, and keep your financial accounting up to date. Contact us for more information about our services or call today at (518) 389-2305 to discuss your needs.