Effective financial management requires the ability to understand an organization’s current condition while having visibility into its potential future state. This enables executives to make consistently better-informed decisions sooner. Unfortunately, few small and midsize businesses (SMB) have that ability because they lack the systems that make this information readily available and usable. They may not be aware that technology advances achieved over the past decade have made it possible for SMB organizations to deploy capabilities once available only to large enterprises.
All senior leadership teams need answers to the questions: “What has happened, where are we now and what should we do next?” And they need to have these answers in the context of their operations. They need to know if results were as expected or if there are matters that must be addressed. They need to know if anything about the current financial condition requires attention. They need to understand the impact decisions will have on month-by-month income, cash flow and the balance sheet. Of course, any accounting system, even paper ledgers and adding machines, can provide answers to those questions eventually. The challenge is giving executives and managers access to actionable information quickly and easily so that numbers—not just instincts—drive decisions.
