Cash is the lifeblood of every business. It doesn't matter what sector you are in or how profitable you are, if you run out of cash you won't be in business for very much longer.
Financial forecasts are an important tool in the financial control of your business - especially at times of change such as expansion or investment in new equipment. By monitoring cash you can ensure you have sufficient working capital and long term funding to service existing customers and facilitate future growth.
So what constitutes good financial forecasts? You must have a strong understanding of how cash flows through your business. For example, on average how soon are you paid by your customers and how soon do you pay your suppliers? By considering each facet of your business, and the effect that they have on cash, you can start to prepare a forecast. When you've modelled the basics you can then start to overlay key future expenditure or potential changes. You will then be in a strong position to be able to manage these situations and forearmed with the information necessary to identify future funding needs.
At Quiff Accountancy we can help you to develop robust financial forecasts. We used Excel to produce forecasts profit and loss accounts and balance sheets as well as the usual cash flow forecasts. By challenging your assumptions we can help you to prepare fully integrated forecasts that allow you to monitor your future performance against expectation and continue to refine the forecasts on an ongoing basis.