Big or small, startup or established, profit or nonprofit, financial management is an inevitable part of running a business.
Financial Management does not end up with keeping records of the accounts. It includes more activities and benefits too. It’ll let you understand not only how your business is doing financially, but why as well.
To put it in a nutshell, good financial management is essential for success as well as the survival of any business. However, most business owners have little or no knowledge about financial management, and hence chances of failing miserably stand higher.
Few points among the best practices in financial management:
Make your budget realistic
Never consider your financial budget as just numbers put on paper and move ahead. A proper financial budget is essential to guide you in your business. It is a clear indication of whether the projected income levels will be enough to run and expand the business in the coming years.
Actually, you can make informed decisions on your marketing, sales, expansion plans etc. when you have a realistic budget in place.
Also Read: What Are the Most Popular Careers in Financial Management?
Make it accountable
Talking about the key concepts of the financial management system, financial management should be made transparent. Never try to make the process complicated.
Accountability and transparency is much essential to make the process smoother and efficient in financial management. Make sure you move in the right way!
It’s not your personal account!
This is another big pitfall that small business owner falls into using a personal account for business transactions. Even financial experts always advise against it.
Keep your personal account and business account separate. Once you register the company, make sure you start a business account for the firm. Get a different credit card as well for the business. This can be largely helpful in the long run.
Do not delay your taxes
You may be busy with operations and management. But never delay paying your taxes. You will have to pay fines when you cross payment dates. Hire a professional to do the task for you, if you are unsure about the taxation procedure.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. The best practices in financial management do not end here. Explore more, and put it into practice for a brighter future.
Every organization is interested in one central thing: managing financial transactions. Running a business requires making a lot of important financial decisions.
Here are 4 best practices that can help you manage your startup finance.
Manage Your Expenses:
First and foremost, learn the timeless principle of managing your expenses. You can start by reading the financial statements, this can give you a fair view of your money, income, and expenditure. If your expenses are higher than your profit ratio, your startup will collapse sooner or later. Managing financial stability requires understanding the following essentials:-
● Income Statement: Reflects the revenue of your organization made within a specified period of time.
● Cash flow statement: Analyzes your financial inflow and outflow, investment and operating activities
● Statement of shareholders’ equity: Represents the funds your organization gets through preference and equity shares
● Balance sheet: Reflects shareholders’ equity, liabilities, and assets of the company
Maintain Financial Stability
As a startup business entrepreneur, you should keep your personal and corporate accounts separate; there ought to be a wall of separation between the two so that you can save some money for yourself. Also, this will protect you from unlimited liability in cases of legal and corporate debts.
Define your role in the startup, and pay yourself for that role. Create an effective financial plan and learn how to execute it. You can do this by taking up financial management online training, or you can contact a professional accountant, auditor, or economist. Many startup entrepreneurs don’t do this, and that is why their business goes down unexpectedly. Maintaining your financial stability is essential, it helps protect you from liability and severe tax burden.
Also Read: How to Make a Career in Financial Risk Management?
Monitor & Measure Performance
As a startup entrepreneur, you need to keep a track of how you spend your money. Your accounting department should possess the capacity to record every financial transaction that occurs in your startup. Have a detailed account of your past financial position to securely protect and manage your future cash flows, expenses, and revenue.
Common financial ratios can help you assess whether your business is underperforming or performing at an optimal level. Monitoring financial figures help minimize waste and maximize efficiency. But, again, you need par excellence in this domain to understand how these financial ratios work, for that you need the guidance of financial management online programs or you can take the help of an expert accountant.
Use A Cloud Accounting System
As a startup business, you can make your task of managing the finances easy by taking advantage of cloud accounting software. This software can help your business to work faster and smarter. Working in the cloud enhances your collaboration among team members, saves a lot of time, and gives you a comprehensive overview of your financial transactions. With cloud accounting software, you can get a detailed view of your financial transactions on time and with utmost accuracy.
Summing Up
Remember to take note of the aforementioned tips to stay on top of your startup finances. Give your startup a bright future and don’t allow it to suffer due to poor financial management. And, to do that, it is recommended to take guidance from financial management online training. These financial management online programs help you gain a new perspective into managing your finances effectively and also enables you to learn all the fun tools and techniques along with it.
More Information:
Lucrative Job Options In The Financial Sector
How to start a career in Financial Analytics in India?
Advanced Skills Required to Become a Financial Manager
The AZ of Building a Career in Financial Risk Management
