Did you know that committing just 15–30 minutes per week to reviewing five key accounting reports could help you improve your business’s profitability?
Now, I know what you’re thinking. That’s my accountant’s job!
As a business owner, spending some quality time with your accounting records is probably the last thing you’re interested in doing. After all, you’ve got bigger fish to fry—you’re consumed with making your products, selling your products, delivering your products, and collecting from your customers. Do you really have time to comb through accounting records each week?
Here’s the thing. Successful business owners acknowledge that accounting is the language of their business. They know that reviewing their accounting records frequently is critical to improving profits, sales, and cash flow.
Business is not a game of numbers, however. It’s a game of behavior, and accounting records simply provide a scorecard for that behavior so that you can analyze and adjust accordingly.
As a business owner, there are the five, 15-minute accounting records you must review each week if you hope to take your business’s profits to the next level.
The 5 Reports Every Business Owner Should Review Each Week
1. Daily Profit and Loss Report
Take a look at your weekly income statement and identify the things that are working, as well as those that aren’t working. You will find that there are clear areas where you should be focusing your time and resources, because let’s face it—as a small business owner, you don’t have much of it.
In reviewing this data from week to week and month to month, you will begin to identify trends and react accordingly. As a small business, that’s another advantage you have—the ability to pivot quickly.
Finally, you should compare your business’s results to the industry average. In fact, at our CPA firm, we have a program that allows us to do this for our clients.
2. Sales Reports by Customer and Product
By sorting your sales data by customer and product—with all related costs and profits— it will be easy to identify your most profitable customers and products.
Once you know who those customers are, you will be able to focus on providing them with your best service. What’s more, you should find opportunities to sell to them again. Because your best customers are those who already know, love, and trust you, they are perhaps the easiest customers to reach with more products and services.
One of my clients recently asked for sales reports from the last two years, sorted by customer. He used this information to reconnect with customers who had made a purchase last year but not this year. Similarly, he contacted those who had bought this year but not in the year prior—simply to see if he could sell more.
3. Accounts Receivable Report
Not keeping collections under control is a recipe for poor cash flow. It’s important that you commit to a weekly review of your account receivables report, as invoices become more and more difficult to collect as they become more and more past due.
If you spend a little time reviewing these reports each week, you will save a wealth of time in the long run.
4. Accounts Payable Report
Business owners often make the mistake of purchasing a new car or a piece of equipment based on the amount of cash they see in the bank. What they fail to consider is that they still need to pay their vendors.
By reviewing your accounts payable report weekly, you’ll be able to budget accordingly and prevent spending money you don’t have.
5. Cash
Profit is subjective, but cash is fact. Business owners should know exactly how much money they have in the bank at all times. This simple step will help you grow that number over time.
The best and most profitable business owners know their numbers. Because they understand the immense value of their accounting records, they will often hire an experienced CPA to help out.
4 Steps for Reviewing Your Weekly Reports:
- Decide which reports you should review to effectively reduce costs, increase sales, and grow profits.
- In your accounting program, design the reports you wish to review each week.
- Be intentional about reviewing your reports weekly.
- Get in touch with an experienced CPA who can help you sort and review your data!