Program. People. Process. All You Need To Make More Money

How turning your finance function from a cost to an asset is closer than you think.

In providing SMEs with in-house based, outsourced bookkeeping and CFO services, we’ve found that over 80% of SMEs are paying too much for their finance function. What’s more, most time people spend in finance roles are heavily entrenched in history – what’s been – rather than using their time to get things done efficiently and then using what they know to drive future decisions.

Make no mistake, old legacy software, finance staff that need training or have been in the job for a long time and manual data processes, are costing you money. In over 80% of cases, your investment in your financial process is not working hard enough for you.

The key questions to ask yourself?  Here’s our top 5:

1. Do you have the right accounting program for you? Accounting software has developed so much since the days of the desktop dinosaur. Cloud provides every business, no matter your size or industry, with an agile, productive solution that will give you exactly what you need, on a pay-by-the-month basis
2. Do your other systems talk to each other? Most SMEs have between 2-4 software systems operating at any one time – CRM, Inventory, Project Management software, as well as their accounting system. Many contain duplicate data that is manually entered into each every time a new client, product of staff member comes on board
3. Who is your finance gatekeeper? If you think about how important your financials are to you then you need to know who’s looking after them. Are they qualified? At the cutting edge of new developments? Do they take leave regularly? Is their role documented? Is what they do measurable? What’s your back-up plan?
4. Are you an Excel junkie? Don’t get me wrong, we love Excel, but look closely at inefficient finance departments and you’ll see a swarm of spreadsheets. as back-up, just-in-case, I just want to make sure it balances! If your system works, it doesn’t need verification. Time to ditch the security blanket
5. How much of your finance process is manual-process-centric? These are easy to spot – anything that will take exponentially more time the greater your growth. Manual processes aren’t scalable. Worse than that, anything heavily reliant on manual entry is open to error

Making changes in any of these five key areas will reduce your costs that drop straight to the bottom line, unlocking the knowledge gold in your numbers as a bonus.

Why Being Finalists In The Telstra Business Awards Makes Us Insanely Proud

I make no apologies for this blog post – it is an intensely personal one. And yet, being recognised by the 2014 Telstra Business Awards goes to the heart of what we, as an organisation and the SMEs we work with, are are all about.

‘Building a business’, Steve Jobs would say, ‘was not for the mentally sane. But it was for the passionate and the persistent’.

We all know that nobody seriously goes into SME business with the sole objective of making money. That makes us completely bonkers – most of the great businesses we work with are mad too. The really mad ones are also the most successful.

Like anyone who is mad knows, you spend a lot of time talking to yourself (you’re always right) – convincing yourself that the path you are on and the path that you are asking people to follow you on is better than that path ‘over there’. It can also be really lonely. Sometimes it takes something or someone from the outside, giving you a nudge with the message that ‘we think what you have all built is great’, for you to stand back and realise that it really is. That’s what Telstra has done for us.

For those who have completed the application process (and I can only encourage you to do so), you’ll know that the task is not for the faint-hearted. It leaves no stone unturned as you work through each key area of your business. It can only be done with everyone facing forward, looking at the same vista, pulling in the same direction, believing that the route ahead is the right one.

So to our wonderful staff (past and present), clients, suppliers, advisors and all those who said it couldn’t be done (yes, you too!). Thank you. We are only who we are because of you. And we’re insanely thrilled!

Why Focussing On What You Do Best, Is Best

Outsourcing has a horrible reputation yet its principles unlock the true potential of productivity in any business if you get it right.

Outsourcing, the process of handing over business functions to a third party to complete on your behalf, has been around for a while. Up until recently, it’s had RISK stamped all over it. Work being sent overseas (sometimes unbeknownst to the business owner), the use of cheap unqualified labour here at home and lack of control and transparency, are all cited as reasons not to do it. These reasons, along with peer-to-peer examples of negative experiences between business owners all amplify the risk factor, or what we call the X factor.

With the development of professional services organisations, so much of that has changed. There are a number of fantastic options that allow SME owners to work with professional companies that become your legal, HR and finance department, and let you concentrate on what you do best.

The benefits of working with leaders in the outsourced space are numerous:

1. Targeted – these companies are specialists. This is all they do, day in, day out. They are qualified, up to date with the latest legislation and it is their job to ensure that you operate within state and federal guidelines in their chosen field. You gain access to high-level expertise, as and when you need it

2. Measurable – they have qualified staff, strong reputations built from having worked with organisations such as yours and guard this reputation like a lioness. The best service providers view their service as a product and quality-control it on this basis

3. Value-based – on first glance their services seem expensive, but look further and they offer terrific value for money. Firstly, they release you to do what you do best. Assuming you aren’t in business to run your business, this makes financial sense. Secondly, their speciality leads to efficiency that neither you nor your very out-dated internal process you currently have can match. Lastly, if you take the true cost of a non-revenue generating area of your organisation into account, you would be including gross wages, on-costs (that’s super, workers compensation, payroll tax, personal and annual leave), staff training, as well as fines, interest and legal fees if it turns out that you are not compliant

Once you make the decision to switch, it’s time to select the right service. Next time, we’ll be outlining a fool-proof guide to making the right choice.

Remember, knowing where you were yesterday is not enough. It’s about knowing how what’s happening today will dictate where you are tomorrow.