How Today’s Accounting Numbers Help You Make Better Business Decisions
Last updated:
19 Oct, 2023
By Ashish Rana |
6 Minutes Read
Financial insights into the previous year’s cash flow are essential for business owners to create an accurate accounting for decision making and forecast for 2021. Are you ready to make your company thrive financially in 2021?
If your last year’s revenue was lower than what you had anticipated, you are not the only one. However, on the contrary, if you are one of those whose business continued and experienced minimal disruption amid the COVID-19 outbreak, you have a bigger opportunity to prepare better for this year.
The Importance of Understanding the Accounting Numbers for Decision Making
A business must have enough cash in hand to pay for salaries, bank loans, taxes, and equipment and inventory necessary for smooth and effective functioning. This is the reason cash flow disruptions that many businesses suffered are still not settling. In fact, many business owners are yet unable to pay their bills.
In such a situation, there’s no need to panic as it is never the right approach. It is time to bring a sense of urgency and find ways to perform financially better in today’s new economic reality.
Like many other business owners, are you also unable to understand cash flow? Read further and get enough help for decision making with the right accounting books.
Cash flow is basically record of the amount of money (income) coming into your business accounts and money going out (overhead expenses) within a specific period (usually a month). Now, if you are recording cash flow each month and it is just enough to pay for the minimum amount due on your credit cards, you are likely to face difficulties in running your business in the long run.
This is the reason you may consider professional and reliable accounting outsourcing services that can provide you with accurate cash flow statements and assist you with cash-flow forecasts, essential to meet your financial obligations in the future.
How a reliable accounting service provider can help you with cash flow management and decision making
Quarterly Cash Flow Projections
Regardless of the circumstances, the quarterly cash-flow forecast is essential for every business. It is an effective practice to monitor the cash coming into and going out of your business. However, making a quarterly projection for cash flow is not enough because accounting helps in decision-making. You need to compare the projected figures with the actual numbers recorded. In general, it would be good to compare the two during the month-end accounting close. But, in uncertain times like the current, you may need to update projections each week according to the changes brought by market and economic uncertainties.
Since you might not have enough time to do all of this on your own, you may take help from external accounting service providers.
Half-Yearly to Nine-Month Cashflow Projection
The quarterly forecasts will help you project cash flow for the following months in the future, ensuring you don’t rely on guesswork. The ultimate purpose of any cash flow projection is to determine trends, enabling you to create a roadmap about how you will utilize your business finances. If it shows you can get back to or exceed your business’s pre-COVID financial situation in the coming months, that’s great.
On the contrary, in case it indicates a slow recovery, you will need to make sound business decisions in 2021, which can include cost-cutting by not purchasing what is not necessary, laying off employees, availing business loans, etc. It is essential to make sound and informed business decisions, and a long-term cash flow projection is the best practice to start with, where professional accountants can assist you in getting all the work done accurately and effectively.
There are several other benefits of collaborating with a reliable accounting services provider for your business as they have a deep understanding of what financial statements represent and what issues they indicate. Since they can see beyond the numbers described on financial statements, they can enhance your decision-making capabilities.
Following are some other benefits of having an expert accounting firm on your side:
Improved Accounting Operations
Your partner accounting firm can help you clear bookkeeping and accounting backlog and streamline other processes; this can have a positive impact on financial management. They can also prepare and analyze your financial statements and help management make effective decisions with updated and accurate data in hand. Besides these, you can get optimum support for payroll management and tax preparation.
Reduced Accounting Mistakes
Skilled and experienced accountants with an eye for detail ensure your financial information is entirely error-free. While working on your accounting reports, they can prevent minor to major mistakes and errors that might otherwise lead to costly penalties.
Regulatory & Reporting Compliance
With a deep understanding of GAAP and other accounting standards for decision-making, they help your business meet both state and federal regulatory and compliance guidelines. For example, they will help you meet financial reporting requirements and tax deadlines. Besides this, you may also ask for auditing services, ensuring your company gets absolutely accurate data you can rely upon.
When such accounting firms offer various valuable services and benefits, why not choose a responsible and globally trusted firm for your business?
Join Hands With an Accounting Firm for Better Business Accounting
Handling finances and financial information while managing core operations often becomes challenging for most business owners. If you are also dealing with similar challenges, delegating accounting functions to an excellent and trusted accounting firm will enable you to have more time to focus on value-generating operations and business growth, expansion.
As your business starts to recover, do not hesitate to look for bookkeepers, accountants, CPAs, and other experts who can help you handle your finances productively. Moreover, it would be necessary to have expert accountants who can help you prepare for the unexpected.
Cogneesol provides top-quality, technology-led accounting services to businesses across the globe. We can provide expert accountants on an hourly, part-time, project basis, and full-time equivalents as per your unique requirements. To learn more about how Cogneesol can benefit your business with accounting services, call us at +1 833-313-3143 or email at [email protected].