Episode 4: Closing out the Year
“We are all looking ahead at closing out this year and determining what our goals are going to be for the following year.
And so, it’s a great time to take stock of what’s happened in your business. What were some of the successes? What were some of the misses from a financial perspective that you had? Did you reach your quarterly goals? Did you reach your annual goals, or are you going to? Once you look at where you’ve been, it’s easier to determine where you want to go forward.”
- Andrea Jenson
Welcome to a brand new episode of the Cash Flow CFO Podcast. As we bid farewell to this year (yeah, we all know that it’s been quite a year, with all its fair share of ups and downs) and say hello to the year ahead with the promise of a bright future, isn’t it nice to look back and see what happened in our business from a financial perspective? What were some of the achievements? Misses? Did you accomplish the company’s yearly objectives? Today, join me as I discuss the significance of reviewing the year that was to decide how you want to move forward. In this episode, I shared our techniques on how to identify what you want to set as your financial goals for the upcoming year and how this part of the year is the perfect time to do some planning and some brainstorming and really look at what is it that you would like for your business to achieve. Join me to discover more information!
One of the first steps to doing that is to really understand all of your metrics in your business for where these last 11 months have put your business. So, one of the first things you can start to do is look at some of the ratios; we always talk to our clients about having Four Big Buckets of Expenses.”
- Andrea Jenson
Finishing the year strong with end-of-year goal setting
So, what exactly is a company budget? By making a budget, you can better comprehend how much money you have, how much you’ve spent, and how much you’ll need in the future. A budget plan can impact crucial business decisions like cutting back on wasteful expenditures, recruiting more staff, or buying new equipment. Andrea reaffirms the value of budgeting as a component of your company’s financial objectives. She suggests having your bookkeeper perform a budget vs. actual analysis and deliver it to you so that you can use it to assist you and make decisions about managing your business most effectively.
“I keep selling more, but there’s nothing left over.” That’s because you don’t have a plan for your money, and you don’t have a budget in place.
Once you have a budget in place, it’s so helpful to every month, once your books are closed by the 5th, by the 10th, at the very latest, sit down, have your bookkeeper do a budget vs. actual, have your financial team really present it to you in a way that it’s actionable, right? So that you, the business owner, can use it as a tool to guide you and to make decisions on how to run your business best.”
- Andrea Jenson
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