Managing Cashflow for Small Business

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Managing Cashflow for Small Business
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• Any business owner will tell you that managing
  business cashflow can be a real juggling act.
  Cashflow is one of the most common problems that
  cause business owners to lose sleep. Gaining
  control of your small business cashflow will go
  a long way to improving your peace of mind and
  reducing stress.
• So how Can a Business Improve its Cashflow?

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• Identify
• Identifying certain triggers in particular sales
  and payments will make a significant difference
  to cashflow management. Analysing outgoing
  payments and noting when they regularly occur
  will go a long way to ensure strong cashflow.
  Some of the key areas to consider are

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• Payroll for staff
• Supplier payment terms and conditions
• Australian Tax Office
• Utilities
• Finance including bank fees and loans
• Rent
• Payment to suppliers
• Customer payments including refund policies
• There are number of business costs that must be
  accounted for to help create better cashflow
  management for your small business. Becoming
  aware of business costs and when they are due
  takes us to the next step

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• Awareness
• Being aware of every cost to the business goes a
  long way to helping solve cashflow issues.
  Knowing the impact of these costs and outgoings
  will further help understand and improve cashflow
  management for your business over the course of a
  month or quarter.

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• Outgoings that need to be paid weekly,
  fortnightly, monthly or quarterly can be
  prioritised or delayed according to payment terms
  and conditions to improve cashflow. Minimising
  the incurrence of late fees or interest costs is
  a priority. Obviously, not meeting terms or
  paying suppliers late will result in interest
  payments or penalties being applied all of
  which are detrimental to positive cashflow. Being
  aware of suppliers terms and conditions and
  ensuring your organisations terms and conditions
  are robust is critical to business continuity.

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• Along with these cashflow areas, there are other
  key triggers including
• Staff payments, especially with casual and full
  time workers or during busy trading periods
• Finance costs especially with large payments for
  equipment
• Outstanding debtors and overdue invoices Coming
  to terms with debtors to create agreements can
  make paying off invoices quicker and easier
• Running accounts receivable reports

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• Chasing customers for payments adds to the stress
  when you have expenses to pay. Implementing
  invoicing systems that are fast, on-time, and
  automatically follow-up outstanding invoices
  helps keeps cash flowing.

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• Tailored systems
• Cloud Accounting and applications can assist
  businesses large and small with their cashflow
  management. Cloud-based accounting solutions
  forecast business income and costs better and
  create a system to trigger key information that
  helps assess major business decisions such as
  major purchases or use of finance that impact on
  cashflow.

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• New cloud accounting software options such
  as Xero and QuickBooks Online are powerful
  applications that automate many business tasks
  and generate reports quickly, helping you
  understand your position better. Being securely
  cloud-based, these cutting-edge systems allow you
  to access information from anywhere on any
  device. Accessing real-time financial data gives
  businesses greater control and allows better
  business decisions to be made.
• If your looking for more information on how to
  best manage your cashflow check out our blog
  around 5 tips to improve your cashflow or speak
  to one of our experts today.