We are now a month and a half into the new financial year. Tough times lie ahead. Sound financial planning and management is essential at all times for business success and in tough times, can make the difference between business survival and failure.

Cash flow planning and management is vital and should be undertaken both on the operating and the strategic level. Click here to find out more about Cash Flow. 

Some things to think about:

• Does your annual budget include Profit and Loss, Cash Flow and Balance Sheet? Or did you just do a Profit and Loss and guessed the rest?
• Do you treat the Annual Budgeting process as a strategic planning process or do you just rustle up a set of numbers based on previous year's figures to satisfy your bank's reporting requirements?
• Do you use your Budget as a management tool during the year or do you just shove it into the bottom drawer because your actual results never bear any relationship to your budget? If you have a properly considered and constructed budget, your actual results should not vary much more than  5% - 10% from your budget unless a major change in circumstances that could not have been reasonably forseen happens. 

The Budget is a key aspect of sound financial management. In these tough times, a disciplined approach to budgeting (and cash flow management) is not just essential but critical. Contact us for a review of your financial management processes.