Develop a relationship with key bank personnel, share information about your business, keep the bank fully updated, and provide credible forecasts taking into account historic debt and cash flow history.

Identify future risk areas across the business, include significant risk areas in the business plan, evaluate alternative scenarios and approaches which may lead to improved outcomes, consider contingency plans, provide forecasts based on risk analysis, and liaise with funders when circumstances change.

Key part of the fabric of the business, requiring a systematic approach to provide long-term stability. Important considerations include a review of the scope of cash flow challenges, creation of internal and external communication plans, ensure that the bank is reconciled and accounts are up to date, limit and consolidate payments to simplify cash flow management, prepare a short term cash flow visibility plan to allow decision makers to see the impact of their spending decisions in advance, review payments owed, and devise strategies to accelerate cash receipts.

On time review, completion and required filings of statutory accounts, annual returns, payroll and employee related, bank/invoice finance covenants and insurance.

Implement in a measured and methodical manner including delegation of duties and responsibilities, creation of systems across the business for managing various procedures, systems for monthly control accounts, monthly KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), processes for creating monthly management accounts and establish systems for expenditure and associated authorization/sign-off.

An ongoing project as it takes time to establish systems which enable a business to maximize its profitability. Key considerations include analysis of every area of gross profit to understand where the biggest opportunities lie. Analyze profitability by isolating data by customer, product and revenue to gain full visibility and analysis of return on investment on capital and product development expenditure.

Recording all important data in your business and presenting that data in a range of different ways to allow for effective analysis. Key facets include KPI indicators that drive the business, monthly management accounts/reports within a reasonable period of month end, reporting processes for sales and marketing so that there is clear visibility over what’s working and what is not, reporting processes for business “operations” so that activity can be monitored and improvements can be made periodically, create back office systems and processes to operate the business efficiently, introduce budgets and targets by department and allocate responsibilities to managers and analyze trends within the business and market and move to more predictable and considered forecasting to avoid panic and fighting last minute fires.

Key considerations include utilizing the work of tax specialists to solve complex issues as/when required, devise a tax planning strategy to removing the fear of the unknown, implement processes to ensure tax deadlines are met, discuss the most efficient ways for the business owner and employees to be remunerated and establish systems to record data in an effective manner for tax purposes.