Every Sunday, Paul reads The Sunday Times to keep up to date with current affairs and to read the great reports in the business & money section.
In his column, Julian Richer of Richer sounds talks about the importance of knowing your numbers and taking an interest in the bookkeeping and accounting side of your business as well as the selling.
On a recent team meeting, facilitated by Heather Townsend of the Accountants Growth Club, it dawned on us that very few clients actually go into their accounting software, study the reports, and ask questions on a regular basis. We are now spending extra time explaining things like profits and balance sheets.
One of our long-established clients used to regularly ask us questions regarding overdrawn director’s accounts, why they didn’t have any cash in the bank, and if they were really making a loss. They joined our successful business growth plan and we explained how a balance sheet works and the impact of stock on the profit and loss account. We discovered that a lot of time was spent on R&D and a lot of stock had never been counted, especially if it was fully assembled. By understanding how it all worked fully and how to run off the reports this business owner will have a much better understanding of their business.
The article in the Sunday Times by Julian Richer does a great job of illustrating just how important it is to know the broader financial details of your business and not just your turnover. It is also important to understand your profit, KPIs, and your balance sheet!
We are committed to trying to help our clients have a better understanding of their numbers as it can really help with making decisions to do with their business and improve cashflow. We offer all new clients training on their accounting software so that they have a basic understanding of how it works, and we regularly publish blogs on a huge variety of topics so that our clients are able to educate themselves even when we are not available.
