As a small business, it can be a challenge to stay on top of your finances and cash flow.
Most businesses hire a bookkeeper to take care of the day to day accounting and then hire a compliance accountant who will complete annual returns and tax returns and they may only see their accountant once a year.
What a small business, especially a new business needs is regular reporting and analysis to help them decide how to grow their business and where to focus their efforts.
A management accountant can help as they are trained to prepare forecasting models and commercial analysis. In addition to preparing a good set of management accounts, a management accountant will provide further analysis on sales and profit margins and is able to model different scenarios to help the business further understand their numbers.
Many management accountants have worked within larger companies and can draw on their experiences of working with these businesses. Working closely with your business on a regular basis to understand how your business works they can provide real insight into what the numbers mean and how different business decisions may affect the bottom line.
Claire Flinders has been a qualified accountant with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants for over 20 years. Having worked with businesses such as GEC, Pirelli, Electrocomponents, and several local authorities she now uses the experience gained to help small businesses through her accountancy practice Blaby Accounting. Visit http://www.blabyaccounting.co.uk
