Should You Hire a Part-Time CFO or Controller?

Posted by Dave Dunn on December 13, 2007 | 0 Comments

Tags: Bookkeeping, CFO services, Small business

Many small businesses suffer from the lack of strategic financial input.�The questions below will help you determine if your company�would benefit from CFO Services.� If you answer �No� to any of these questions, then it�s likely that you are missing out on valuable and easy to obtain information that could help you make better business decisions, and/or that your business is suffering from inefficient financial and administrative processes.

• Strategic
  • Is the information you need to make business decisions readily available?
  • If you wish to look at information in a new way, is it easy to generate reports to do so?
  • Do your year-end numbers closely resemble your projected year-end numbers?
  • Do you know what the most and least profitable aspects of your business are?
• Revenue
  • Can you list your biggest customers?
  • Do you know what percent of your revenue your biggest customers account for?
  • Do you know who your most profitable customers are?
  • Do you know who your least profitable customers are?
• Expenses
  • Can you list your top five expenses?
  • Do you know how much your major expenses have changed in the last year?
  • Are you able to accurately budget for your major expenses?
  • Do you have a firm grasp of how your expenses relate to your revenue?
• Cash Flow
  • Do you know how much cash you have in the bank?
  • Do you know how much cash you are likely to have in three months, six months, one year?
  • Do you know what percent of your receivables you will collect and when you will collect them?
  • Do you have a good system for managing your debt?
  • Do you know exactly what your debt is costing you?
• Organization/Administration
  • Is your bill paying process smooth and efficient (you should be able to process 20 to 30 bills in an hour)?
  • Is your invoicing and collections process smooth and efficient?
  • Do most of your customers pay on time?
  • Do you use accounting software to manage your business and not just to provide data to your accountant?