It is a new financial year! Budgets have been spent, targets have (hopefully) been met and it’s time to start the process all over again! Planning for a new financial year is just as important for your long-term and short-term success as setting your personal goals at the beginning of a new calendar year. This will help you focus your energy in the right direction and help you take control of your financial future.
Here or some of the aspects to consider when setting your New Financial Year goals.
- Review your finances
A good place to start is to review your financial statements from the last year and consider where you have spent the most money, how much was the interest you paid, and have a look at your recurring subscriptions. If there are any changes you can make to lessen these costs, then get the ball rolling.
- Do a cash flow forecast
You can do a cash flow forecast over a monthly and yearly period. It is important to update your cash flow projections to plan for any potential shortages. It might be, for instance, necessary to shorten your payment terms to improve your cash flow. Highlight any differences between estimated and actual cash flow so you can see why your cash flow didn’t meet your expectations.
- Make sure you have a budget
The best way to create financial stability is through having personal and business budgets. This way you can pay your bills on time, save for major expenses, or set aside funds for unplanned expenses. Overall, a budget puts a person on a stronger financial footing for both the day-to-day and the long term. You can download our budget templates to assist you with this process.
- See where you can save time
If you free up some of your time, you can better focus on expanding and managing your business. There are a few simple strategies you can implement to help you achieve this, such as –
- Creating templates for emails and letters you frequently use.
- Automating tasks as it can help you manage stuff like accounting, payroll, marketing, and everything else.
- Delegating tasks, outsourcing some duties, or collaborating where possible.
- Avoiding multitasking – it is proven not to be an effective way of getting things done quicker.
- Organise your records
Having your records well organised can save you a lot of time! Records management streamlines the filing and retrieval process and limits unnecessary duplication of records. By having a proper system in place, you will be able to meet your tax obligations, can easily apply for loans as you have everything at hand, and be able to at any time get a real-time overview of your business performance.
- Introduce technology where possible
In the last 2 years, the use of technology has come in handy. It helped us schedule online meetings, study online, and manage business performance through existing or new software developed to run repeatable managerial tasks, such as scheduling, approving expense reports, and monitoring direct reports’ completion of tasks. If you continue to make use of this technology or introduce it if you haven’t yet, it can save you a lot of time and effort!
When planning your new financial year goals, be sure to consider the implications of the global pandemic and the current unrest between Russia and Ukraine when doing your planning. There might be unexpected changes, positive and negative, that can impact your goals and have a lasting effect on your business or personal finances.
If you need assistance with any of these time-saving aspects, you are more than welcome to contact us on 012 347 0561/2 or email info@iqaccounting.co.za.