Brent Treloar, Business Development Manager for the Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Investment Fund, shares his 5 key metrics for monitoring your cashflow and observing trends.
In business there are plenty of articles and accountants that will tell you that you need to ‘know your numbers’, and if you don’t know your numbers it can be incredibly difficult to turn a profit and succeed. The key and single most important fact of business is “money comes in, money goes out”! Earnings can shift on a daily basis, so if you only glance at your business bank account every other week, you might not see the whole story.
So what are the key metrics that busy small businesses should be looking at frequently:
- Cash at bank
- Money owed to you
- Money you owe to others
- Profit margin (s) trend
- Revenue trend
If cash is king then knowing what you have in your bank accountant (daily) is perhaps the most important consideration.
However, what about debtors – a cash balance is only worth knowing if you can quickly assess how much money is outstanding to you from your unpaid invoices…
And of course, cash + debtors – creditors ( i.e. what you actually owe suppliers, rent, wages, etc) will give you a much more accurate feel for the outlook of your short-term cash position.
What about profits? Well knowing that you are profitable is very useful, but super-useful would be to understand the trend (by month, quarter and yearly). Declining profit margins is the No.1 indicator of trouble ahead!
Finally, business revenue (by month, quarterly and yearly as above), again the trends are key to understanding your true business performance.
So there we have 5 of the key business metrics to have at your finger tips:
Make a habit of watching these five areas to keep track of your cash flow and look out for downward trends. Your business will thank you for it. You’ll sleep better at night too!