Pick our brains - Knowledgebase
Question 25 of 32 View all 32 questions
- Q.How do you deal with financial control within your business? How important is having someone whose role it is to look after this for you?
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- Jamie Greenwood
- NJL Yorkline
A.Financial control is essential so you can see clearly what's going on with the business. Employ an excellent finance manager.
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- Michael Bates
- Walton Bates Associates
A.After finding an inspirational entrepreneur and leader, the next most critical appointment for the business is a financial controller—this could be a qualified accountant, or book-keeper, or it could be a highly competent administrator. The point is there must be someone staying awake each night worrying about the finances and ensuring that financial considerations are at the heart of business decision making.
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- Ian Baggett
- Adderstone Group
A.Very important. Especially in a property business where there are telephone numbers involved.
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A.We all share in it so we know what to look out for.
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A.Key role - good cash flow control is critical.
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A.This is absolutely essential; Good businesses have good financial control. Businesses that fail do so most often because they don’t know the numbers. Lots of entrepreneurs say they cannot afford to employ an accountant. A good finance manager will justify their cost over and over again. If anyone takes a look at the history of Reg Vardy plc, it was characterised by outstanding financial control instigated by a great Finance Director.
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A.We have accountants working within the business. We have rules and dozens of procedures and everything else but they manage it. It’s extremely important to show exactly where all the money is going to and where it’s coming from and if you don’t know that, it comes back to one of your KPIs. You can’t possibly use your KPIs to measure performance if you’re not measuring where the cash is going to or coming from.
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A.Well we have a financial controller which is absolutely paramount and from things like cash flow, cash is always king, through to very detailed management reports on a weekly basis, we know exactly where we are, who’s spending what, how close we are to budget, how far we are off budget and we can take action fairly rapidly rather than having to wait a month or two months to get management information.
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- David Stonehouse
- TSG
A.Good processes; very strong Financial Director and quality management information (financial & other).
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- Tony Whelan
- Whelan Construction
A.I have a Financial Director and accounts department. It is very important as I have little interest in daily finance.
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A.Well I look after it all personally, I do all the things for the six shops. No-one ever is 100% trustworthy with financial matters other than their own
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A.FD - Very
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A.Not having someone whose role is to look after financial control is a fantastic way to make sure your business fails because if you’re not aware of the money then you’re in trouble. It depends on the cycle of the business though, because if you’re really in it then you should be that person. It’s very difficult, in my experience, to find the right people to do the financial control and in my first business I went through a cycle of I think it was four book-keepers, all of whom turned out to be worse than useless before I finally found someone who actually I could trust to tell me what was really going on. And actually having those people who failed to do that properly was a material contributor to the failure of that business. The main reason was the landlord but it was what I was being told didn’t turn out to be exactly true, not for reasons of malice but more about incompetence. That was a disaster. So when you find somebody who you can really trust and who can tell you like it is then cling on for dear life.
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- David Gillam
- Spinnaka Ltd
A.We appointed, fairly early on, an accountant who looks after all of our finances and we monitor them very closely. I’m happy for people to spend what they need to spend to do the job properly so if somebody comes back and they’ve been out with a client and they’ve spent quite a lot of money, as long as they are comfortable that that will repay what they spent and a bit more then I’m reasonably relaxed about it.
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- Paul Callaghan
- Leighton Ltd
A.Absolutely crucial. Financial control is one of the key parts of the business. I always say, when people say to me when should I get a finance director I say as soon as you can afford it. It’ll save you more money than anything else. You get a good finance director who actually will take a lot of the pressure off the entrepreneur. What I want is I want somebody who can recognise what the business is trying to do and at times say no because people will always come and ask for more money. I want a finance director and a financial controller who will actually make sure that the money is looked after. I don’t want to have to worry about every penny every day, I want them to be doing that for me but if you don’t watch the money then, before you know it, you’ve lost it so it is really, really important. Financial control is without a doubt one of the key levers in any business and without it I think that you’re lost.
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- Martin McTague
- Pical CIC
A.I employ someone who is very competent to run that side of the business and I think it is vital. I know it’s a bit of a worn out phrase but cash is king.
