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E-Myth – “Why most small businesses don’t work & what to do about it”

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Virtual CFO | What Information Is In A Balance Sheet

Entrepreneurs need to make important financial decisions in the business, best practice is always for businesses to consult their financial statement says virtual CFO. While thereís various statements that can help business owners, the best business owners should always look at first is the balance sheet. The reason this is the most important statement to look at, is because there is the most important information on the balance sheet, and itís the work thatís going to be able to help business owners catch and remove errors that may be on the statements. Since have all entrepreneurs close their business within five years, and 29% of these failed businesses say that the reason why they failed is because they ran out of money, helping business owners understand their finances better, can help them make better decisions which in turn help them avoid running out of money.

Business owners should understand what exactly is on their balance sheet. Virtual CFO says that balance sheets are going to have the overall financial health of the business in them including much cash the business owner has, and what the overall liquidity of the business is. Penalties going to be able to show the business owner what is coming into business business owners are reviewing their financial statements, not only should look at the balance sheet first, they should look at a six month comparative balance sheet in order to see any trends that are happening in the business, or if there is any anomalies that may indicate errors.

Business owners should understand that their cash is going to look differently on their balance sheet the bank statement, that doesnít necessarily mean that there has been a mistake. I was on the balance sheet are going to include payments that may not have been applied to the bank balance yet. Such as uncleared checks, deposits that have yet to such as credit card machines. Virtual CFO says that if business owners base their financial decisions only on the bank balance at the time, they may end up spending far more money than they actually have to spend. If they donít wait for payments to clear, they could cause certain payments to balance by spending more money than they have.

Business owners should also understand their corporate tax accounts are going to look on their interim financial statements because it looks different than it will look on their year end. Virtuals CFO says that when liabilities being prepaid, it ends up looking like a negative number that grows larger each month. Business owners should be aware of this, so that when they see a negative number next to their corporate taxes, even though theyíve been making regular tax instalments, this is not because it has been an error. When they get there tax bill in the 12th month of their fiscal year, they can apply it to their balance sheet which will then turn that negative number into a zero. Business owners understand what their balance sheet looks like, you will be able to catch errors, as well as see when things looking correctly.

Itís extremely important that entrepreneurs should understand their balance sheet says virtual CFO. The reason for this is because the most important financial information exists on the balance sheet. Therefore, if business owners are going to use financial information in order to make business decisions, the balance sheet is the most important financial statement they should look at. Since 50% of all entrepreneurs close their business within five years, and 29% of them will say that the reason their business failed was because they ran out of money, itís extremely important that anytime business owners have to make a decision in their business, they are consulting their balance sheet to ensure that the decision wonít negatively impact their bottom line.

Owners should also understand that looking at a six month comparative balance sheet going to allow them to look at six months of their business at a time, which will allow them to compare months to each other and be able to see if they have been any deviances in a certain month that donít make sense. If there is, they can look into the balance sheet of that month, and see if there have been any errors whether itís incorrect amounts being added to the wrong location, missing amounts, or any other errors. Virtual CFO says that business owners can also see the trend of the business, see if itís going up, or going down. This can help them make decisions on whether they should look at hiring people in the future, or laying people off get a good sense of if there marketing efforts are working. If they are, business owners may want to keep them up, or add to them, and if theyíre not, business owners can figure out a new marketing angle to work.

Business owners should also be able to use balance sheets to catch errors, by looking at the various balances. As business owners make payments, and receive bills, most balances should not stay the same from month to month. If they do, business owners should realize that that may be due to an error in entering amounts. Virtual CFO says credit card balances for example are a good example of this. If a credit card balance is unchanged from one month to another, itís most likely because the credit card charges have been missed being added to the balance sheet. Business owners are only thing to be able to catch this when they look at a six month comparative statement, and only if they look at their balance sheet. If they find the error, they can fix it, and review the balance sheet for any other amounts that may have been added to the balance sheet incorrectly.

Learning how to read balance sheets, business owners can ensure that their accounting stays up to date, and error-free which can help them significantly in their making business decisions, want to ensure that whatever decision they make, is less likely to negatively impact the finances in their business.