Consult Your CFO Blog
Preparing for an Audit or Review
The audit/review annual report is a report card on how well your company’s financial department is performing. The goal of the audit/review process is to have no documented audit issues or comments. Having audit issues may have an adverse affect on obtaining bank...
Cash Flow Management Techniques
The old mantra that Cash is King is even more important in today’s economy than ever before. The access to loans and private equity has never been tougher to obtain. While it seems that the credit market has at least stabilized, obtaining cash to grow your business...
The 10 Key Financial Reports Every Company Should Use
There are thousands of financial reports that your company can write and use, but the following 10 key reports are a must to run your company successfully. (1) Income Statement Trend Report An income statement report that shows consecutive monthly results...
Documenting Company Business Processes
There are 6 reasons to document company processes. Understand the steps required to complete a certain process Understand the time necessary to complete the entire process and each step Understand the complexity of the process, by determining which department produces...
Financial Stability: How to Measure Your Company’s Success
Wondering how to measure financial stability of a company? Start by reviewing four KPI categories: Liquidity, Safety, Profitability, and Efficiency. Together, liquidity and safety ratios show whether a company can meet its short-term and long-term debt obligations,...
Creating an Accounting Policies and Procedures Manual
An accounting manual is an important tool that all companies should create and maintain. An accounting manual describes in detail accounting procedures and policies that are currently in affect at your company. The accounting manual is like an owner’s manual you...
Independent Contractor or Employee
Small and medium sized businesses have been put on notice by the state governments. Most States have budget shortfalls and need to obtain additional tax revenue. States are hiring new investigators in order to assess more small and medium sized company’s...
The Importance of Reviewing Internal Controls
Due to the severe economic downturn businesses are required to reduce staff and cut operating costs in order to maintain profitability. The normal place to reduce staff is in the administrative areas. However, as you will read from the article below, maintaining...
Deciding on a New Accounting Software System
An accounting software system should not be simply used for recording and storing company transactional data. The main purpose of an accounting system is to allow the user the capability to extract and analyze the transactional information in order to make informed...
Market Share at the Expense of Profitability
A new company is highly motivated to obtain clients, thereby, bringing in cash to support the new company's initial employee and administrative costs. However, it is important to understand that obtaining new clients at any price is not a strong financial decision....
Change the Old Saying “Let the Customer Beware” To “Let the Service Provider Beware”
If a company offers credit terms, sooner or later it will encounter a customer or client who refuses to pay for the products and services it received. In the four years that I’ve been in business as an outsourced CFO, I’ve helped many companies deal with the hassles...
Construction Blog Series w/Joan Watkins
"How to Choose an Architect" is the first in a series of blogs discussing construction projects. Consult Your CFO and Joan Watkins, Owner of JSW Residential Design are collaborating to bring you this information. We hope you find this information helpful.
How to Choose an Architect: Questions to Ask Before You Hire
The feeling is overwhelming. The walls are closing in, nothing else fits through the door, and it finally hits you: you have outgrown your home. Whether you are planning an addition, a renovation, or starting fresh with a new build, you know what you want, more or...
How to Choose a Builder for Your New Construction Project
You have designed your new building to your specifications and now comes one of the most important decisions in the entire process: choosing a contractor or builder to make it a reality. Start with Reputation When Choosing a Builder Hiring a builder both you and your...
Obtaining Legal Representation / Choosing a lawyer
Establishing a solid construction building agreement is extremely critical to the success of the project. You need to make sure your needs and priorities are completely documented and not open to interpretation. This makes obtaining a strong legal advocate throughout...