Tumelo Tsotetsi
How many small business owners and entrepreneurs use their financial reports to adequately analyse their business performance so that they can identify issues to address?
Not enough, says Tumelo Tsotetsi, IBASA Chairperson and founder of Pele Ea Pele Accounting Practice. “Too many small business owners view financial reporting as a necessary evil that is needed to comply with regulations, which limits their ability to understand the inside working of their businesses,” he says. “Instead, businesses who keep accurate accounts and use key performance indicators are much more likely to grow and show financial results.”
He says that many small businesses update their record-keeping too late, with the result that the reports are outdated by the time they see the information and not of much use to help them in making plans to address any issues they may have resolved. “Up-to-date management accounts will give information that is more recent and that can be prepared on an ongoing basis every month. Business advisors may help their small business clients not to wait for the annual returns to be submitted to use their financial information,” he says.
“Part of the role of the advisor is to help their clients to read reports in a way that is not intimidating, so advisors can direct them and help them to interpret the information so that they can understand where their business is and where it could be,” he says.
In the upcoming episode of the IBASA & EPI Webinar Series, Tumelo Tsotetsi will, along with co-panellist Precious Mvulane, explore how business support practitioners may help their clients to firstly collect and record accurate financial information; and then to use this information for ongoing assessment of performance and identification of problem areas in need of attention.
CPD WEBINAR
“Practical considerations in conducting financial analysis of small business client performance”The two panellists, who are both Chartered Accountants with decades of experience in working with small businesses and entrepreneurs, are Precious Mvulane, owner of GAD Consulting Services, and Tumelo Tsotetsi, Chairperson of the IBASA Board.
Thursday 15 October 2020 from 11h30 to 12h45<< CLICK HERE >> to book your place
Precious Mvulane
Mvulane is the owner of GAD Consulting Services and publisher of several books covering how entrepreneurs can improve their accounting systems, is the second panellist on the webinar. She agrees that business advisors have a key role to play in helping their clients to create accurate accounts.
“All sizes of businesses have challenges,” she says, “and business advisors must simplify the financial reports and try to help them to focus on what matters the most.
She identifies five key areas for attention…
- Income: Up-to-date reports allow for comparisons to understand why sales may have fluctuated and how the focus on high-yielding products or clients.
- Expenditure: Good practice is to understand the top five expenditure items and to keep working at reducing costs through for instance tweaking suppliers.
- Assets: Assets must create revenue, but often equipment is standing still, not producing income, which is to be prevented by helping clients to understand the impact of idle assets on their business.
- Debt: Accurate financial accounts will enable a business to leverage debt for growth, which may help accelerated god results, that would otherwise not have been possible if the business owners were trying to finance expansion themselves.
- Cashflow: Businesses often suffer from leaks in cashflow, such as when buying stock with cash but selling on credit, or buying too much stock so that cash sits on the shelves, which may be prevented by reducing slow-moving stock for better cash flow management.
Mvulane will share these insights during the webinar with business advisors and other business support practitioners working with clients that may have resisted taking more care with recording and analysing their financial information.
- To join the CPD webinar, you can << REGISTER HERE >>.
- Christoff Oosthuysen is the webinar host and Founding CEO of the Entrepreneurial Planning Institute (EPI).
