SEARCH, INDEX, UPDATES, CONTENTS, SERVICES, BUDGETING
Let us help with your business plan and avoid unpleasant surprises.
A Budget and Cash Flow Forecast forms part of your Business Plan. We can help with the preparation, binding and presentation of your business plan but it must be your plan.
In principle running the Budget and Cash Flow Forecast of a business is just the same as keeping your private finances in order, but with a business there are a lot more things to take into account and the figures are much larger.
At home, when you take on a new hire purchase commitment, you probably know without thinking too deeply how you are going to meet the monthly payments, and you know you need to keep some money in reserve in case the washing machine suddenly breaks down.
At home you probably have a fairly good idea of the income you can expect each month, but you have to be aware that the unexpected does sometimes happen.
A business Budget starts by trying to predict a level of (sales) activity. In a new business there may be no sales at first, so you will need to predict when sales will start.
Any new project has to have some market research. Small businesses do not normally do this in a formal way, but asking the public is possible, questionnaires to friends, talking in the pub, are ways of improving your decision on the size of the a market, and what price the market will stand.
On a given level of activity, we can discuss with you your costs and prepare a Budget in the form of a Profit and Loss Account.
Having a Budget in this form allows you to compare your actual performance each month with that predicted. It can identify problems quickly and allow you to take corrective action.
You can have a series of Budgets based upon different levels of (sales) activity.
Your Budget(s) will show your projected Profit (after maybe a Loss in the initial period), but that needs to be interpreted into a Cash Flow Forecast in order to determine the cash facilities you require.
We can discuss with you the timing of your transactions and prepare a Cash Flow Forecast which you can use to decide whether you need and to help obtain outside borrowing facilities.
Having us involved in preparing your Budget and Cash Flow Forecast can strengthen your case and help interested parties assess the viability of your proposals.
See also Good Record Keeping
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