5 Tips to Ensure a Smooth Cash Flow Process for a Small Business

How to Maximize Profits, Minimize Confusion & Best Organize Your Finances

Without a proper plan in place, managing the financial future of a small business can get really messy really quick. There’s human error, billing complications and other critical parts of the process that simply get forgotten along the way. All bases must be covered to ensure optimal prosperity with minimal complication. If you build your accounting plan on a sturdy foundation of organization and accountability, success should be easier to achieve.

The professionals at Holbrook & Manter have pinpointed five ways to make your stream of cash flow more smoothly.

1) Keep Payment Options Simple

One of the best ways to make sure you company gets paid, in-full, is to present your customer base with a small variety of easy ways to pay an outstanding bill. When developing your website, make sure the call to action is clearly stated and the bill pay portal is in a instinctive location – typically somewhere in the top right corner. After the first payment, returning customers should remember the quick and simple steps it took to reconcile their balance.

2) Be Swift When Invoicing Customers

When it comes to getting what is owed to you in a timely manner, a lot of the control is already in your hands – or at least at your fingertips. A quick and orderly invoicing process could increase the consistency of your cash flow and help minimize delinquent accounts by promoting organization and payment punctuality.

3) Vary Up Your Bill Pay Schedule

Avoid making all of your payments at one time. Getting it all out of the way at one, consistent time sounds nice, sure, but on paper, it can be quite impractical and potentially dangerous. All it takes is one bad period for business and a spike in a single automatic monthly bill and you could watch payments bounce across the board. We highly suggest paying your routine, most important bills at the beginning of the month. Follow this up each subsequent week with more flexible bill payments and you’ll see your accounts adopt a more consistent look.

4) Incorporate Proper Accounting Software Into the Equation

Not only are computer programs fantastic at organizing payroll, but they can also be great tools for managing incoming and outgoing funds. Cashflow management resources, like QuickBooks and Pulse, offer a structured and intuitive approach to payment tracking and profit forecasting. Not only can you see all your figures and projections in one place, but you also minimize the risk of human error.

5) Keep Human Eyes On the FinancesSmall Business Cashflow Managment

Both digital management software and personal accounting add their own list of great things to the mix. Get the best of both worlds by keeping a dedicated, well-trusted accounting professional on the project. This provides a sense of motivation to the entire process and a critical look at each step along the way. Algorithms can promote growth, but humans make it happen.

For more information about organizing your small business finances or our in-house accounting services, contact Holbrook & Manter’s Business Service & Solutions Team today.