Financial Reports vs. Operational Reports: Do You Know the Difference?

Critical to the success of any small to mid-sized business is financial stability. As a business owner, you should be able to discern which indicators determine financial stability and which indicators warn of financial challenges ahead. All of this information can be gathered from regular reviews of your financial and operational reports. Both contain key data and information that business owners need to know, but these reports serve different purposes.

Financial reports track how much money your business is making and how you are spending that money, as of a specific period in time. As a business owner, you obviously want to know this information. However, there are additional stakeholders or potential stakeholders that may need to know this information as well, such as investors or creditors. Examples of various financial reports are a balance sheet (which summarizes a company's assets and liabilities), an income statement (which indicates how much profit a company generates), and a cash flow statement (which shows a company's sources and uses of cash). Financial reports show historical data, but they provide insight into how a business spends its profits, whether they are reinvested into the business, and whether the company can sustain future growth.

Operational reports provide business intelligence on how efficiently a company performs. These reports allow companies to evaluate its current and future financial situation. With the correct systems and tools in place, operational data can be tracked real-time so that businesses are able to react and adjust their practices effectively. Business owners should review operational reports daily. These reports can vary by industry. Restaurants may need to track average time per table/meal, whereas hotels may need to track occupancy rates. Actions taken by business owners resulting from this garnered business intelligence can have an immediate, dramatic impact on productivity and ultimately profitability.

As a small or mid-sized business owner, keeping tabs on both your financial and operational reports will help you run your business more effectively. We are currently offering a free analysis of your business processes and accounting system, which could help you to better prepare and understand your financial and operational reports. If you would like to learn more on how Analytix Solutions can help move your business forward, please call me directly at 781.503.9004 or email me at sales@aixsol.com.

Satish Patel, CPA
President, Analytix Solutions
Satish Patel, Founder-CEO of Analytix Solutions, has more than two decades of experience as a CPA. He has also advised small and mid-sized businesses on diverse matters such as valuation, accounting, and finance. His experience extends to raising capital and arranging for finance from angel investors.

Bookkeeping Options: In-House, Outsourced and Everything In Between

Accurate record keeping at the most basic level provides the financial foundation for running a thriving business. When your financials are not accurate, even the most successful companies become a house of cards built on a faulty premise. Often times, this is not intentional but a result of someone performing a function in which they have little or no expertise and training. There are various options for managing your bookkeeping, but only you can determine which model works best for your company's needs.

1. Manage Bookkeeping in House - This provides you with the most control over your bookkeeping functions, as they are performed by an employee of the company. This option works best for large companies when there is enough work to keep a full-time bookkeeper busy, 100% of the time.

2. Hire a "Freelance" Bookkeeper - This option involves a temporary bookkeeper visiting your company on a regular basis to perform bookkeeping functions. This is more appropriate for small to mid-sized companies that do not have enough work to fund this position full-time.

3. Outsource Accounting and Bookkeeping to Third Party - Under this model, a company relinquishes all accounting and bookkeeping functions to a third party to fully manage. This model works best for smaller companies that do not require a full-time employee but do require skills and expertise in this area. It is also appropriate for companies that need these skills but can't afford to hire a full-time employee.

4. Hybrid Model of Partnering with an Outsourced Bookkeeping Service Provider - This option is most appropriate for those companies that do not want to relinquish complete control over their books but want to outsource non-core tasks. They partner with a bookkeeping service provider and consider them a remote extension of their team.

We are currently offering a free analysis of your accounting system and other business processes. If you would like to learn more on how outsourcing your bookkeeping and accounting can improve your profitability, please call me directly at 781.503.9004 or email me at sales@aixsol.com.

Satish Patel, CPA
President, Analytix Solutions
Satish Patel, Founder-CEO of Analytix Solutions, has more than two decades of experience as a CPA. He has also advised small and mid-sized businesses on diverse matters such as valuation, accounting, and finance. His experience extends to raising capital and arranging for finance from angel investors.

Bottom Line Benefits to Automating Your Accounting System

Although not always the most exciting aspect of a business, a company's accounting system is its backbone. The accounting system is the engine that drives the machine, providing business owners with key indicators regarding their profitability and the overall state of their business. Companies that have a firm grasp of their financials are positioned to succeed in the market across industries. Essential to that success are timely and accurate accounting figures, as well as the confidence business owners can place in the accuracy of those figures.

More and more frequently, small to mid-sized businesses are recognizing the need to automate their accounting systems given the speed at which they often need to make financial decisions. Manual accounting tasks can be time consuming, mundane, or duplicative tasks, and they can be prone to human error. Fortunately, there are currently numerous dependable accounting programs on the market, such as QuickBooks and Great Plains. Additionally, with the advent of cloud computing, information such as current data and immediate access to financial reports is available online, anytime and anywhere. Business owners can access the data themselves when they need it, without having to work through another department. These programs can greatly assist small to mid-sized companies in automating their systems and tasks such as expense approval and time entry, which in turn increase their profitability.

Benefits to automating your company's accounting system include:

> Eliminating redundancies in manual data entry.
> Reducing risks of errors and duplicate entries.
> Ensuring data integrity through automation.
> Self-service, accessibility to timely financial reports.
> Up-to-date information via cloud computing technology, anytime, anywhere.
> Improved productivity.
> Motivating staff.

Analytix Solutions provides a team of accounting and technology experts with extensive experience in helping companies automate their accounting systems and integrate third party applications with various accounting systems. We can help you to run your business more efficiently by automating key processes and assisting you to select solutions which align with your unique business requirements.

We are currently offering a free analysis of your accounting system and other business processes. If you would like to learn more on how we can increase your bottom line by automating your accounting system or if you know a colleague that can benefit from our services, please call me directly at 781.503.9004 or email me at sales@aixsol.com.

Satish Patel, CPA
President, Analytix Solutions
Satish Patel, Founder-CEO of Analytix Solutions, has more than two decades of experience as a CPA. He has also advised small and mid-sized businesses on diverse matters such as valuation, accounting, and finance. His experience extends to raising capital and arranging for finance from angel investors.