Craig Alexander Rattray is a Growth Strategist and Cash Flow Expert based in Glasgow, Scotland. He is the author of Mastering Cash Flow for Business Owners. The UK government has announced a consultation into the future of auditing, in an attempt to avoid major collapses like BHS, Carillion, Thomas Cook and Patisserie Valerie. There are various proposals that Business…
Profit is the difference between the total of all sales less the total of all costs and expenses for a particular period. Many business owners may realise at some stage that that the profit they make in the business does not equal their cash flow, unless they are dealing solely in cash, which is unlikely…
CASH FLOW TIPS: Craig Alexander Rattray offers advice on showing your bank that you are a good risk Remember, banks only make money when lending to companies, so they are always keen to do so, but only to companies that are a good risk. To secure bank lending, it is important to show that you and…
Credit terms and cash collection processes are a key part of good cash management. Intuit QuickBooks report stated that one in seven companies have been unable to pay employees because of late receipts from customers. Late payments not only damage the companies involved, they can take their toll on the business owners personally with respect…
Process invoices faster Do everything every day. When invoices are received, they should be posted into the accounting system immediately and formally approved in some way depending upon the system you have in place. Ideally, the invoice should be matched to an already approved Purchase Order, but if not, there should be a procedure in…
CASH FLOW TIPS: Craig Alexander Rattray says it is important to understand the timings of cash flow There are three key components of a cash forecast: Cash receipts or inflows – principally receipts from sales to customers. As a business owner and having reached this section, you already know that you should use historic data to…
Without a financial map your business will struggle for direction, says CRAIG ALEXANDER RATTRAY “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.” A phrase attributed to Lewis Carroll. It didn’t actually appear that way in the Alice in Wonderland Books, although that sentiment was precisely what the discussion between…
CASH FLOW TIPS: Craig Alexander Rattray says key performance indicators (KPIs) and ratios give a guide to liquidity The most important key performance indicator (KPI) is the cash balance and, clearly, the higher this is the better. Similarly, the KPI which calculates the level of cash headroom available is also important. This KPI can be used…
If you’re having problems getting payments from customers you could try some of these methods to improve cash inflows: Automatic payments from customers who pay for an ongoing service or product. This “recurring revenue” is of huge value to any business and means the month always starts with some guaranteed sales and cash in the bank. …
The popular saying goes “another year older, another year wiser”. We are all certainly a year older, but are we any wiser? The twelve-month anniversary of lockdown was last week. When Boris Johnson gave us a very simple instruction to stay at home and said that the restrictions would be reviewed in three weeks, did…
