In the modern information age, knowledge truly is power. When it comes to business, understanding your cash flow is king. Especially at a time like this.
Just like any business owner, for those in the property services sector that power comes from having a deep insight into how well your business is running.
Perhaps the most important indicator for a small business is your cash flow. Managing cash flow is key to the long-term success and viability of every small business. It can be the difference between a business thriving and being overwhelmed with debt.
Like the fuel gauge in your car, having a report that gives you an accurate and up-to-the-minute view of cash flow will let you know how far you are going to get before you next top up.
A simple cash flow report will help you answer those questions that keep business owners awake at night. For example: Do you have enough money to pay your bills? Can you cover your next GST bill?
And – importantly for today’s economic environment – how will you maximise and track your spending of the government’s financial support for sole traders and employing businesses impacted by COVID-19?
Business planning with confidence
Being aware of your situation means you can plan in advance with confidence. You can smooth out the cash flow bumps in your finances, putting money aside for the lean times or arranging temporary finance with your bank.
It’s also important to get a deep, real-time insight into your cash flow situation because it enables you to see what levers you need to push and pull to keep your business healthy/help it grow. This vital information can help identify new opportunities to improve business operations, leverage new revenue streams, tap into new markets, increase cost-efficiency, etc.
Cash flow friendly software
Cash flow can easily be monitored using cloud-based accounting software like MYOB or Xero. Here, financial data can be organised electronically and you quickly pinpoint positive and negative trends plus generate other reports on your business activity.
Unfortunately, many Australian businesses don’t regularly monitor their cash flow. This not only puts them at risk when times become challenging, it reduces their ability to invest in growth or take a return.
Advantages of managing cash flow via accounting solutions
There are a number of benefits to using one of today’s latest cloud accounting solutions. These include:
- Viewing cash flow in real-time: track your expenses, payroll, estimate of GST owing and more
- Understanding your business’s overall financial situation at the press of a button
- Potentially saving yourself money in tax, repayments and expenses by ensuring you have the correct financial information
- Reducing time wasted on manual data entry through accurate, secure and reliable bank feeds (business bank transactions are automatically fed into your accounting system and coded for you)
- Knowing what funds you have to invest back into your business.
If you’re not already using an online accounting system you should at least be checking out the advantages. Make sure you’re not missing out on something that will benefit your business.
You might be able to save time on your book keeping and accounting – giving you more time to focus on keeping your business running smoothly.
You might even find ways to save yourself some money.
