What I learned about Cash
Nicolas Boucher
I teach Finance Teams how to use AI - Keynote speaker on AI for Finance (Email me if you need help)
Cash is King but do you know your King?
In this article I will explain you what I learned about Cash this year and what you can use to improve your cash management.
Like most of the Finance Managers, I bring a specific focus on reaching our targets and report on how well (or bad) we do in comparison with these targets.
Most of the financial KPIs are P&L oriented. Therefore Balance Sheet items like Inventory, Receivables and Payables are not the first priority… but play a significant role in the evolution of your cash balance!
This year I learned how to monitor a cash balance, how to plan the cash flows and which action plan can you implement to obtain results.
How to monitor your cash balance?
You need to understand your cash flow. From a theory point of view, you have two methods: the direct and the indirect methods
The direct method uses actual cash inflows and outflows from the company's operations (think about looking about your bank statement).
The indirect method requires more accounting knowledge as it starts from the net income and involves different adjustment from P&L non cash items and balance sheet movement with cash items.
As a financial manager you need to understand and be comfortable with both methods. Most probably the indirect method will be used for reporting as this is the one which has more consistency and can be mapped with the other types of reporting (P&L and Balance Sheet). Here is a link to help you improve your understanding about the indirect method for cash flow statement.
https://www.myaccountingcourse.com/financial-statements/cash-flow-statement-indirect-method
Understanding the impact of the different components of your cash flow statement should be your priority to monitor your cash balance and as finance manager it should also be your responsibility.
How to plan your cash flows?
In theory it is easy: plan your cash in and your cash out.
In reality this is more complex.
For your cash in, you need to use your revenue forecast combined with the payment conditions in place with your clients. If your are in an industry where there are advance and milestones payments not related to revenue, this brings another layer of complexity but can not be forgotten. I recommend using the 80/20 rule and focusing on the main projects/clients to get a quick estimation of your cash in.
Planning your Cash out can be easier thanks to the recurring costs having a monthly frequency with short payment terms (personal costs, utilities, recurring raw material). For non recurring expenses, you need to focus on the biggest item and use the information from your procurement team to plan when a purchase order will be fullfilled and with which payment terms.
Finally you need to be aware of exceptional events like Financing or Investing which have significant impacts on your cash balance. Considering your role as finance manager, you should already be involved in these transactions or at least the significant ones.
Which action plan can you implement to improve your cash?
- Communicate, explain, repeat
- Put it at the top of the management agenda
- Breakdown the action plans specific to each department:
- Sales: improve payment terms with clients (negotiate down payments and short payment terms), accelerate the closing of deals
- Procurement: avoid down payment and push the payment terms as far as possible
- Project: compute and monitor the cash balance of each project
- Collection of overdues: automate the dunning process and escalate significant issues to management and key accounts/project managers
- Inventory: monitor level of inventory against forecasted sales, reduce lead time, optimise stock buffer, reduce delays
- Finance: automate reporting, improve understanding of cash flow statements, bring transparency to management and key business partners, escalate collection issues, use factoring to accelerate cash payment from receivables
- Management: translate cash objectives in team and individual objectives, put cash in the management reviews agenda, follow up cash as KPI, delay investments, optimise the process between a cash milestone achievement and the issuance of the debit note to your client
Let me know in the comments what do you do in your company to improve your cash flows and how do you monitor it.
Thank you for reading.
Nicolas
Note: my contribution is written in a personal capacity
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Accountant and Tax expert | Crypto Tax Specialist | Board Member | Co-founder of The Kapuhala Longevity Retreats
10 个月Of course! ?? The development and stability of one's financial life depend heavily on cash management. Having cash on hand is important, but so is knowing how to use it to its fullest. ?? Which tactics have you found to be most effective in keeping an eye on and enhancing cash flow inside your company ?
Managing Director at Merchant Factors
1 年Increasing the rate at which your receivables arrive is just one of several strategies for improving cash flow. More customer care efforts may be necessary in this case, or you may offer customers a discount for making on-time payments.
Finance Manager at MARINA GULF TRADING CO. (L.L.C.) MARINA HOME
4 年It's worth reading
Chief Finance Officer - Jotun Paints India, transforming business one neuron at a time
5 年Very lucidly explained Nicolas Boucher. This exercise requires multiple stakeholders owning interdependent touch points. More the details, better is the accuracy of the projection. While the CEO or the CFO may be the sponsor, depending on the organisational model, it however becomes very difficult to hold the stakeholders responsible for the accuracy of protections many a times. Businesses are dynamic and can derail your forecasts. Seldom would anyone want to deliver bad news! Happy to know your thoughts on this.
Internal Control Manager | Process Improvement | Operational Risk Management | Finance Transformation
5 年One of the biggest challenges I see with the organizations I work with, is finding quality management reports that give a clear picture to support decision making. Without knowing where you are it’s difficult to make a decision on where to go. This is a great example of a practical approach to gain powerful insight into a key position.