Padgettyork.ca Blog

Using Accounting Reports to Manage Your Business

February 3, 2017 - 0

You’re a business owner or manager and you may not have a lot of extra time on your hands. The bookkeeping is done by someone else and you have an accountant in place to look after your financial affairs and tax issues. So why should you bother to pay attention to the reports generated by the books? After all, this is what the bookkeeper and accountant do – right?

First of all, you need to be aware that there are a lot of parties with an interest in YOUR numbers. The accountant and Canada Revenue Agency are certainly among them. Others would include co-owners, investors, lending institutions, the provincial government and the WSIB or Workplace Safety and Insurance Board to name a few. If they’re so keenly interested in the numbers, shouldn’t you be as well?

Consider what the numbers can do for you. Assisting with the management of your business is the obvious generic answer. Of course they can. That said, let’s get into some specifics:

• They can help you track cash flow which is crucial to some if not most companies
• They can let you know if you are making or losing money. Further to this, they can tell you the time frame of profit versus loss
• They can give you comparative studies of your finances for different time frames or periods
• They can show you exactly where the money comes from and your star revenue producers
• They can show you where the money has been spent and when. This can be accomplished right down to the penny
• They can help you track Accounts Receivable including the aging of the receivables.
• They can help you track the Accounts Payable including a similar aging structure
• The list goes on and on….

If it has to do with money, the accounting reports can highlight it for you so that you can make intelligent, informed management decisions.

Generating the reports is not all that difficult. If you’re not comfortable doing so yourself, your bookkeeper should be able to do this for you. You just need to let him or her know what information you’re looking for.

Understanding and using the reports can take a bit of getting used to. Regardless, it’s not that difficult – once you get the hang of it. At Padgett Business Services one of our primary functions as your accounting firm is to help you decode the numbers and to use them to best advantage. We would be happy to sit with you and show you the power of the reports. As local business owners ourselves, we pride ourselves on knowing our customers and their businesses.

Give us a call today. It will be well worth your time.