Before the end of the year, take some time to do some simple administrative housekeeping, says Sarah Daly.
January is a good time to tidy up your bookkeeping and look for opportunities to streamline processes and save costs in the coming year. Here are five suggestions for areas to include in an end of year review.
- Run an eye over your 2019 purchases and make sure that everything is correctly coded. This will definitely save time when you come to do your accounts next year. If you are in doubt about any times, now is the time to ask questions and fix errors so that everything will be in order for your accountant.
- Now that we are in January, you will have a good idea of what you spent in 2019 so you should be able to forecast fairly accurately what you need to have in your 2020 budgets. If budgets are not already prepared, they should be drafted now so as to be ready to hit the ground running next year.
- Check your debtors and assess whether any action is needed to follow up on money you are owed. This is an area that can sometimes slip in growing businesses where there are many other demands on people’s time. If you are struggling to collect what you are owed, managing debtors might be a process to consider outsourcing.
- Look for opportunities to streamline processes and be open to outsourcing non-core functions like payroll, HR, IT support and accounts if this could free up staff time for higher value activities.
- Consider whether your existing systems are providing you with the information that you need to manage your business. Are you happy with the information you have to hand or could access to more relevant, timely data help you to improve your bottom line? Many of GroForth’s clients find that their profitability improves with our regular monthly management reports and data analytics. This is because today’s cloud-based accounting systems, time tracking software and external resources such as credit checking systems provide access to real-time information that can speed up and enhance decision-making once you have the skills to analyse and utilise the relevant data.
Time invested in reviewing your business is never wasted and will often highlight opportunities to enhance value. If you need advice, GroForth specialises in assisting growing businesses, technology companies and accounting firms to maximise efficiency and control costs. Contact us for a no-obligation chat about our services and how we can help.
