Optimizing Your Team for Bottom-Line Growth

Today’s business leaders are more aware than ever of operational inefficiencies. That’s why finance is a crucial department to monitor regularly and optimize when possible. Financial Reporting and Financial Planning and Analysis are important parts of Finance, but Accounting Operations is the engine. Here we’ll discuss the finance management processes that could help your company save money and increase profits by simplifying procedures on a daily basis.

 

Monitor Company Cash Flow

The flow of cash is a crucial indicator of your company’s health. Cash flow is the rate at which your company is spending and/or generating money. This number is important because it reveals the amount of time it will take to generate new revenue after expenses are deducted. By monitoring your company’s cash flow, you can see where money is going—and where it’s coming from. This will help you stay ahead of your expenses, monitor profitability, and identify areas for improvement.

Automate Processes

Each Finance teams has hundreds of repetitive processes. Let’s face it: your employees do not like the tediousness of all of those processes. You may not like the ones that are less value-additive. So automation is an easy solution. There are many tools software salespeople are willing to sell you, but we find there are usually some simpler automations with Excel or existing tools. In fact, in many cases, we have been brought in and were able to create optimized processes using under-utilized ERPs and Excel  without any tech investments.

Standardize

Within larger clients we believe that standardization is the first step before optimization. Lack of standardization is an impediment to any optimization. Even with smaller clients, if you’re using Excel to track projects, you may want to incorporate standardized templates based on your company’s needs. This will help you keep track of projects, increase efficiency, and identify potential issues before they become serious problems.

Implement a Culture of Continuous Improvement

No business is perfect, and no operations are flawless. With that said, every company should strive for continuous improvement. This doesn’t just apply to the finance department. You should encourage all departments to identify inefficiencies, brainstorm ways to improve them, and then put those solutions into action. You may also want to hold periodic meetings where employees can discuss best practices for improving their workflows. Outside of the initial few, these meetings should be peer-level meetings, excluding executives, but a session report should be shared with executives.  You can also encourage employees to reach out to each other for advice. 

Summing Up

The finance department is a crucial part of any company. The finance team plays a major role in determining whether a company will be successful or fail. Therefore, it is crucial that you keep the finance department streamlined and efficient.

GrowthXel is Growth X.el.erated. We help CEOs and CFOs accelerate Growth, Optimization and Execution.

 

 

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