Cash flow management is important for business. Learn how to manage it

While managing a business it’s important to manage the flow of cash. If the cash flow is irregular it can adversely affect the company’s growth. By generating enough cash, a business can meet its everyday business needs and avoid taking on debt. That way, the business has more control over its activities. In a situation in which a business has to take on debt to meet its expenses, its debtors will likely have a say in how the business is run. If they have contrary opinions to the management’s, that could be an impediment to the way management executes its vision for the business.

What is cash flow management?

Cash flow is basically the movement of cash in and out of the business. There are two types of cash flows:

• Negative cash flow is when the number of funds going out of the company exceeds their incoming funds.
• Positive cash flow is when the incoming cash exceeds the outgoing funds. This is what companies strive to achieve for a smooth flow of the company.

You can’t get a handle on your cash flow by simply looking at your profit and loss statement (P&L). Many other financial variables, including accounts receivable, inventory, accounts payable, capital expenditures, and taxation, play a role in factoring in your cash flow.

Effective cash-flow management necessitates laser-like attention on each of these cash-flow factors, in addition to your profit or loss. Profit is defined by accounting rules as revenue fewer costs. A wise company owner, on the other hand, understands that knowing whether or not you made a profit is not the same as understanding what happened to your money.

Striking the right balance:

It’s important to have a balance between having too much cash on hand and having inadequate supply. Having an inadequate amount of cash is essentially a threat to the company, but having too much in hand just means that the company is not focusing on many investment opportunities.

If the company expects to earn a higher return on its investments than it pays in interest on its borrowings, it may choose to invest its excess cash and borrow any extra funds needed for its operations. Some ratios, such as a firm’s acid-test ratio or the proportion of its most liquid current assets to its current liabilities, give insight into a company’s cash management when reviewing its balance sheet. While a ratio larger than one indicates a solid current assets condition, a very high ratio may signal that the business has an excessive amount of cash or other liquid assets.

Tips to manage cash flow:

• It is also important to understand the break-even point in cash flow. Calculate the amount of profit required to break even. If the amount goes above the break-even point then it means that you are doing something right. Calculate the time period by which the company can get into profit. It’s not like the profit will help the cash flow, but ending up with a negative cash flow and no profit is a difficult situation to be in.
• Always maintain an emergency cash reserve. This will help you when things go down with the business or if there are some economic downturns.
• Always make sure that any conversation on funds, be it with an existing client or with a new client, put it down in writing. Establish clear timelines and payment terms in writing so there is no confusion on the same as you go forward.
• Encouraging the clients to pay early will help to maintain the cash flow. Offer special discounts or deals if they pay ahead of time.
• To track your financial flow, you had to physically record every transaction beofre. You have the benefit of technology nowadays, so take advantage of it! Spreadsheets should be stored in the cloud for simple access, or better yet, accounting software could be used.
• Promotions are an excellent approach to increase sales quickly and efficiently. You may hold a contest, launch a customer loyalty and referral program, or get exposure through judicious social media posting.

To manage the flood of work, use incentives. If you have more consumers than you can manage, don’t turn them down; instead, give a discount if the client is ready to postpone the service. This not only allows you to handle several projects without depleting your resources but also ensures that you’ll have a consistent flow of income in the future months.

• If you have a payment due soon, consider if you can negotiate an extension. Delay as long as possible, but even a few weeks or days can have a huge influence on your cash flow. If you can’t afford full-time personnel, consider hiring part-time workers to fill in the gaps. If you have unneeded equipment, renting or leasing it out might help you save money on storage. Find additional strategies to boost your profit margins—lower-cost suppliers and higher prices are both smart places to start.

It is important to learn the solutions to cash flow problems.

• Short-term financing: A line of credit, for example, can be used for emergency expenditures or to close the gap between payables. Many banks provide business credit cards that may be used to pay vendors.
• Long-Term Capitalization: Large asset purchases, such as equipment and real estate, should often be financed using long-term loans rather than working capital. This allows you to stretch the payments across the asset’s typical life. You will pay interest, but you will have kept your operating cash for business operations.
• Speed up the recovery of receivables.
• Liquidate cash tied up with assets: Do you have outmoded merchandise or equipment that you no longer use? Consider selling it to get quick money. Idle, old, and non-operational equipment eats up space and ties up cash that may be put to better use. Equipment that has been held for a longer period of time will often have a book value equal to or less than its salvage value, therefore a sale may result in a taxable gain. This profit should be recorded on your tax returns. If you must sell below the book value, you will incur a tax loss that may be used to offset other business gains.

As client situations change and new materials are released, excess inventory can soon become obsolete and useless. Consider selling any inventory that is anticipated to be used in the next 12 months unless the expenses of keeping it are small and the revenues from a sale are insignificant.