5 signs your business needs a finance lead
Clean bookkeeping is the start, not the finish. Five signs your business also needs someone looking ahead.
The Bulb Holdings team ·
Most businesses start with a bookkeeper and an accountant, and that’s exactly right. But at some point a business also needs someone looking ahead, not just recording what already happened. Here are five signs you’ve reached that point.
1. You don’t know how much cash you’ll have in two months
If the answer is “we’ll see”, the business is being run on today’s balance. A cash-flow forecast turns that question into a number and lets you prepare in advance.
2. Reports arrive late, or not at all
A P&L that arrives six months after the period ends is history, not a management tool. Monthly reports closed on time let you correct course while you still can.
3. You’re not sure which customers or products are really profitable
Your largest customer is often not your most profitable one. Profitability by customer and product shows where the business makes money and where it’s just busy.
4. You’re about to make a big move
Raising capital, taking a loan, hiring, opening a branch or buying equipment. Each one calls for a financial model, scenarios, and conversations with banks or investors in their language.
5. The owner spends evenings in spreadsheets
If the CEO’s time goes on reconciliations instead of customers, people and strategy, the business pays a high price, even if it never appears in a report.
Why it doesn’t have to be full time
Small and mid-sized businesses rarely need a full-time CFO. Outsourced financial management delivers the same management perspective at the scale the business needs: budgets, cash-flow forecasts, management reports and decision support, at a cost that fits your stage.
This article is general information and not accounting, tax or legal advice. Review your specific circumstances before making decisions.