Closing the Year | How to Successfully Manage Your Finance Team

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article |Closing the Fiscal Year|Closing the Year | How to Successfully Manage Your Finance TeamIf the month-end close is like game day for the finance and accounting department, closing out the fiscal year is the World Series. There’s so much to do in a limited time and, in most companies, this is done with a smaller team than you’d like. There’s a lot of pressure and that can lead to a lot of stress.

A successful close isn’t just about managing the process but about managing your team and your time to make the best use of resources. Anything you can do to become more efficient will reduce the workload on your finance team, and make the close less stressful.

The Benefits of a Great Close

The perfect year-end close is a win/win for your organization. By wrapping up quickly and accurately, you’re able to move on to reporting and generate high-quality financial statements. This helps management plan and strategize and benefit stakeholders.

Closing efficiently also benefits your finance and accounting team, because they’ll avoid long, stressful days and get back to their day-to-day process sooner. A well-documented close also makes both internal and external audits easier and less disruptive.

Here are some steps you can take to successfully manage your team for a great close with less stress:

Automate As Much as Possible

Technology really is a beautiful thing. When it comes to closing the books, there are some powerful tech tools to help automate the process. The more manual entry work you’re doing, the longer the close will take and the higher the risk of mistakes.

Of course, not everything can be automated, but you can leverage technology to give you more time for key tasks. Automate as much of the close as possible so your team is fresh and focused on the strategic pieces that require them to be at their best. This can also greatly reduce the emotional toll of the close by allowing people to go home on time and shortening the total length of the close.

Front Load Your Workload

Reconciliations are an important part of the close, and they can also be a very time-consuming part. In keeping with our last tip, leverage technology to automate your reconciliations if possible.

Try to locate steps in the close that can be done early. You don’t have to be in full “close mode” ahead of time, but if one or two people on the team can get some steps out of the way, you’ll be able to cut time off the big project once you ramp up for the close.

Stop, Collaborate, and Listen

Teamwork is crucial during a challenge like the year-end close. And this year brings extra challenges to many teams who are working remotely due to the pandemic. This makes collaboration and communication more important than ever before.

Hopefully, you’re reading this while you still have a little time before the close. Take that time to stop, look at your current communications and collaboration tools and methods, and make sure they’re working for you. The middle of the year-end close is no time to find out that your team is out of sync.

Get feedback from your team and make sure everyone knows his or her role, who to reach out to for the inputs they need, and who is waiting and depending on their outputs to move forward. Smooth out any wrinkled now, before it’s too late.

While it’s very possible to spend too much time in meetings, make sure everyone on the team feels heard and has the chance to voice concerns or ask questions. You may want to take a few minutes for a virtual “stand up” each morning just to check in and ensure everyone on the team has a direction for the day and has the information they need to move the close forward.

Check the Checklist Off Your List

If you aren’t already working with a close checklist, now is the time to start. Put together a list that shows every step of the close process, which steps are dependent on others, and the order of the workflow.

Ideally, your team can view and edit the checklist in real-time so they’ll always know the progress of the close. Cloud-based close software can be a huge help here.

The close checklist isn’t just a way to track what’s been done, it’s also a powerful accountability tool. By signing off on the list, team members take ownership of each step in the close.

At first, accountability may not sound like a stress-reduction strategy, but it is. When each step in the close is owned by a specific person, you always know who to clarify with if there’s any confusion. This helps your team avoid wasted time and duplicated efforts, which can seriously reduce anxiety.

Practice Makes Perfect

Going back to our Superbowl analogy, the year-end close has a lot in common with the monthly close. That makes the month-end a great time to dial in your process, identify any bottlenecks, and prepare for a successful year-end close. By improving your monthly close, you’re also going into the end of the year with fewer surprises and fewer loose ends.

Conclusion

By following a plan, documenting your efforts, and improving your close process each and every period, you can help your finance team close successfully without unnecessary stress.

How to Make Your Money Grow in Business

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article |Growing Your Business|How to Make Your Money Grow in Business Making money as an entrepreneur has so much to do with your ability to identify opportunities and make the most of them. If you’ve started a business in the first place, then this means you’ve found a gap in the market that you can fill. In light of this, you should always be thinking about how you can grow beyond where you are and ultimately increase your reach and income further. There are several ways to achieve this, and all require you to get out of your comfort zone. If you consider that being uncomfortable is typically where all of the magic happens, then you’ll be more enthusiastic about exploring new territory. Below are practical ways to make your money grow in business.

Be Frugal

Just because you’re making money as a business, it doesn’t mean that you have to spend it at the same pace. It is crucial that you learn to manage your money and be frugal if you want to see your money experience steady growth financially. To be a frugal CEO, here are three approaches you could take.

Budget on Office Set Up: When setting up your office, it can be tempting to go all out. However, spending exorbitant amounts on furnishing isn’t necessarily going to give you the best return on your investment. Instead, look for ways to furnish on a budget such as by getting furniture that is slightly used or on clearance. The charity shop often also has fairly used or even new furniture that you can get at an affordable rate. Ask around to see how you can find affordable functional furniture so that you save space and money.

Control Legal Fees: Every business needs a lawyer but be careful not to spend too much on legal fees. These fees can eat out of your finances if they aren’t carefully managed. Focus on setting clear expectations with your lawyer before meetings, especially when their cost per hour is high. In some cases, you may even find that it’s better to pay on a per project instead of an hourly basis.

Monitor Cash Flow: As above use a fixed monthly fee accountant to keep your cash flow up to date on a monthly basis. 3 in 4 startups who do not monitor cash flow fail whilst 3 in 4 who do monitor their cash flow succeed. Be sure to shop around to find an accountant at the right cost.

DIY Marketing and PR: Aside from the mentioned, you should also make the most of the cost-effectiveness of digital marketing. Instead of hiring a PR firm in the early stages, try doing the pitching yourself to begin with. Doing this could also help build both trust and a good rapport which are tools that will get your business far. Social platforms are also ideal ways to get your brand out there without spending thousands on advertising too.

Consider Mixed Use Development

Mixed-use development is a way to grow your money as an entrepreneur. In case you’ve never heard about it before, in summary, it refers to buildings that have multiple units that are used for different purposes which are usually residential as well as commercial. You may be wondering how exactly this could benefit you as an entrepreneur. How it would work is that you could buy one or more mixed-use buildings and run your business in the commercial area while you live in, lease out or sell the other units. This could serve as a great business opportunity so read more here to find out how you could go about doing it.

Offer New Products and Services

Another straightforward way to make your money grow when running a business is to offer new products and services. Learn from the performance of your current range meaning you should do more of what’s working and improve on what isn’t. If, for instance, your customers seem to love a certain product, take the feedback and see how you can create something even better. Here are a few tips to consider when you want to launch a new product or service.

Ensure it Solves a Problem

Whether you’re launching your second or tenth product or service, you want to be certain that it solves a problem. If you look at some of the most successful ones you know, you’ll notice that they make people’s lives easier in one way or another. Creating a product that sells is about making something that’s simple, interesting, meaningful, entertaining, and long-lasting. The more value that it adds, the more likely it will do well in the market.

Build Buzz

Before launching a new product, it’s so essential that you first take the time out to build buzz. This is key as you want to build excitement and get people to anticipate this product and the value it could add to their lives. By doing this, you’re more likely to get the kind of response you want form customers and prospects.

Devise a Strong Strategy

A product launch strategy will help you map out how to launch your product from start to finish. Start by doing this as it will work as a guiding force to help you execute your plan. When you have an effective strategy in place, you’re less likely to miss out on important elements of a product launch and also more likely to prevent major mistakes. With that being said, there are several templates you can use online to help you flesh out your strategy.

Have a Growth Strategy

Earlier on, it was mentioned that you should have a strategy for launching a product, but you should note that you also need one if you want to grow. When you have a growth strategy in place, you’ve got a better idea of where you’re going as a business and how you’re going to get there. You may decide that you’re going to start with one product for the first year and then diversify your income as a business in the second year of operating, for instance. It’s essential that you think through what direction you want to grow in, so you put measures in place to ensure that you get there.

Every business has to steadily grow if they want to remain in business and expand on to do bigger and better things. However, in order to see the growth you want, you’ve got to commit to learning and trying new strategies.

Guarantor Loans: Can You Be Guaranteed A Safe Loan?

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article |Guarantor Loans|Guarantor Loans: Can You Be Guaranteed A Safe Loan?When struggling with your finances, it can seem like an impossible task to get hold of the finances that you need when faced with a financial emergency. However, this is not the case. To help you get started on finding a safe loan, we will be providing you with some insight into the several different loan options that are available to you even with poor credit.

Understanding Your Credit Score

Before applying for a loan of any kind, you must understand your credit score and the impact that it can have on your loan application. By following the Fico scale used by the three main reporting bodies, you can determine whether the line of credit that you currently have is a positive one or not. From there, you can begin to assess the loan types that are available to you.

Understanding Secured And Unsecured Loans

When looking at the different loans available, you should first consider the differences in both secured and unsecured loans. A secured loan requires valuables such as a car or a home to be put up as security to act as security should you be unable to meet these repayments. The most common forms of secured loans are home mortgages.

An unsecured loan is a loan amount you can borrow directly from a lender without any need for security. The most common form of an unsecured loan is a payday or short-term loan. These are short loans that can be paid off either by next payday or in general to make it stand out. In the long run.

What Are Guarantor Loans?

A guarantor loan is a loan that is used by those suffering from poor credit and provides an extra level of protection as a result. These guarantor loans are different from payday loans as there is an extra level of protection. With guarantor loans, you have someone else sign for the loan along with you to make sure that all repayments are met should the original borrower be unable to pay back the loan amount. This is commonly used by those that have an extremely poor line of credit as it provides additional protection to the lender should they default on payments.

How Can They Provide You With Secure Finance Options?

When struggling with poor credit, you want to make sure that your lender is as secure as possible. For this to be achieved, it is important to look at the FCA registry and ensure that they are a part of this. If they have been registered with the FCA, you are then protected under regulation and can make sure you are getting the funds you need from a reliable source at this time.

With this in mind, there are several ways that you can guarantee a safe loan with an affordable APR that will have a minimal effect on your credit score when paid back in full. Where will you be starting when finding your chosen lender.

Are You Eligible for a Bad Credit Car Loan?

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article |Car Loan|Are You Eligible for a Bad Credit Car Loan?When looking to finance a car, it can be a challenging time, especially if you are struggling financially. However, it is possible to get the bad credit car loan you need to drive your perfect car, at a cost that benefits you. In this article, we will be providing you with information on how to know if you are eligible for a bad credit car loan.

Check Your Credit Score

Ensuring your credit score is as stable as possible can aid you in being approved for the credit you need. Often, the greater your credit score is, the better your chances will be of being approved for a loan or car finance. Check your credit report for abnormalities and contact the credit reference agency if any of the information they have on your report is incorrect. Something as seemingly small as the wrong address can negatively impact your credit score. Taking the time to better your credit score can make it easier to drive the car you want in no time.

Look Around for The Best Loan Provider

In addition to checking your credit score, it is important to look at the best loan provider for you. By going either to the dealership or directly to a finance company, you can get the loan types that you need for the car that you want. By getting a quote from multiple suppliers, you can compare deals and find the one that works best for your needs and budget.

Look Into the Car You Want

The type of car that you want can also have a huge impact on your eligibility, particularly if you have poor credit. By choosing the car that you want beforehand and ensuring you know a general estimate of their worth, you can assess how this will fit into your budget. The type of car you choose will impact the monthly repayment amount depending on the loan term and loan provider that you eventually opt for, therefore taking the time to do your research could save you money in the long term.

Improve Your Finances as Much as Possible

To improve your eligibility, you should try to improve your finances as much as possible. By taking the time to pay off your debt and making sure that all the correct information is on your credit report, you can have a better understanding of your eligibility for your chosen loan type. Although it can take time to slowly improve your credit score, this will benefit you in the long term when looking to finance a car.

Whether you are looking to finance a new car or you are looking to finance a slightly older vehicle, there are several poor credit car loans for you to choose from for your dream car.

How To Save Money In Your Business

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article |Save Money In Business|How To Save Money In Your BusinessIt’s crucial to save as much money in your business as you can when you’re a startup. However, it’s just as important to continue to save money even when you are more established. By cutting costs where you can – without cutting corners, of course – you can have a more streamlined business that can cope with anything the world throws at it. Any sudden downturn won’t impact a business that spends as little as possible half as much as it would impact a business that has many different expenses.

It’s easy to over-spend in business, especially when things are going well. However, it’s not a good idea; it’s far better to save and have money put aside for emergencies. Here are some ways to save money in business that will help you greatly.

Buy The Best You Can Afford

Surely saving money isn’t about buying expensive items? Isn’t that the opposite of what we’re meant to be telling you? Well, partly. Of course, we’re not advocating you go and buy many luxury items, spending all the money you have in your business, and then having financial issues later on. However, we are suggesting that, when it comes to elements that are needed for your business, such as tools, machinery, and other equipment, you don’t buy cheap. Always stick to your budget but buy the best you can with the money you have.

This is, strange as it might seem, is a money-saving tip.

Imagine if you bought a lot of cheap equipment, even if you could buy better. The likelihood is that this equipment would start to break down and need to be replaced, or it would have to be serviced more often than something newer that was in better repair. In the end, if you buy cheap at the start, you will probably spend more on that item through repairs and eventually replacement than you would have if you’d pushed your budget a little higher to begin with.

Outsource What You Can

Again, it might seem as though we are telling you to spend money, and again we are, but – again – there is a reason behind this.

Many people think outsourcing is expensive, especially if they could do the work themselves. Yet you must take into account what doing the work yourself would entail. By working on something that someone else could do, you are using up your precious time, time that should be being used to run the business. When you outsource, you can pick the things you’re good at and leave the rest to someone else, ensuring the high quality of the business you’re running.

You can outsource your accounts, your IT management, your marketing, and any other things that don’t appeal or that you don’t have the skills for.

Work From Home

One of the easiest and most popular ways to save money in business is to have everyone work from home rather than have a central office. If you and anyone else who works for you can work from home, you won’t have business premises to maintain. You won’t have to pay rent, nor will you need to spend money on energy bills.

On top of this, studies have shown that people are more productive when they work from home. If you are more productive, more work will get done, and not only will you save money, you’ll make money too.