Cashflow clarity is our way of exploring where your money is going, and whether it’s in alignment with your goals and aspirations. It’s the money coming in, and going out, of your business or even your household budgets. You can have a positive cashflow - which means your income is more than your expenses, or a negative cashflow.  

We talk about Cashflow Clarity a lot here at Northwest Accountancy, because it’s the cornerstone of solid financial management. If you don’t know if you’re turning a profit or not, then you can’t plan for the future. Ignoring your cash flow means any issues or problems will continue, or even compound and grow from being a small problem into a big emergency. 

Our first step to taking control of your money is to look at where it’s going and where it’s coming from. Tracking, or sorting through your transactions for the last few months is an important step.  

What is Cashflow Clarity in Business?

A business can be a single person consulting, or it can be a huge enterprise with hundreds of employees. Yet we all face the same problems with finances. How do we know we’re positive or negative?  

We use a series of reports to get our data organised so it makes sense. You may have heard us talking about P&L statements, balance sheets and more. Each of these reports are a snapshot. If you imagine an airplane, taking a slice across the wings will give a different shape than a slice across the nose, or the tail.  

Our businesses have their own unique shape and so regular reporting will help you to find out what that shape is.  

Regular reporting helps you to create benchmarks on how your business is performing. Over a year you will see strong, lucrative times, and weaker, negative cash flow periods. Setting aside time each month or week to look over these reports and fully understanding the relationship between them will lead to better financial forecasting and success. 

How do we get Cashflow Clarity?  

Here at Northwest Accountancy we work with businesses using a model called Profit First. Regardless of the size of your business, Profit First is a great way to ensure that you’re getting paid appropriately, and that the business is structured in a way that supports the owner.  

We’ve found it so useful for our own business and our clients that we have completed extensive training and are now Certified Profit First Professionals. 

We bundle the Profit First ideologies with our extensive experience with Xero, to create a system that simply works. It works for large businesses and small businesses and help to stop burnout, relieve stress and help financial forecasting.  

You built your business to support your goals, aims and create income. If you’re not getting paid at the rate you desire, it’s time to look for ways to change that.  

Profit First builds in the important payments from the ground up - you first! 

How does Cash Flow Clarity lead to less taxes?  

Once you know what your money is doing, and you know what you want the future to look like, it’s time to take the next step. 

Talk to an accountant! (If you haven’t already.)  

When you have the paperwork ready, it’s time for an expert to look for legal ways to pay less tax. This can be a detailed review looking at your expenses and income, the nature of your business, work, and industry, and more. It can be an in depth process.  

Change takes time. Your accountant may be able to spot some easy changes immediately, but will also create a list of other things you can do. Office furniture, internet, travel, conferences, networking, all of these items and more should be reviewed. 

Financial planning can be for the short-term future or the long-term future. After all, you’re intending to retire at some point, whatever that might look like, so building that into your financial plan is a great way to get your desired outcome.  

What next?  

We’re here to help! We help our clients through coaching, courses and more to help set YOU up for success. If you're ready for cash flow clarity in your business, give us a call on 08 9185 9400 or drop us an email to Helen at [email protected]