This is the third part in our series on budgeting and beyond.

In the first part I wrote about a long journey you were about to embark on in “Don’t Tell Me, You’re Still Doing Budgets?” and I gave you this warning: “…when you think all the moving parts are accounted for, something comes up that makes it all obsolete.” The world always develops differently than your assumptions. However, you still decide to produce a budget every year despite wishing you were already beyond your budget. So, let’s discuss how to make the best of your budget situation.

Read More…

This is the second part in our series on budgeting and beyond.

Let’s play part one of our budget series forward a few months. It’s a new year and we have just started comparing actuals to our brand-new budget. However, we are already finding the world hasn’t developed exactly the way we predicted when we were compiling our budget “back in October”.

Read More…

This is the first part in our series on budgeting and beyond.

Today you may be in the midst of a long journey that will take months of hard work, long hours, and heated discussions. Alliances will be broken, and new ones will be formed. At the end of it all, when you have your goal in sight, you suddenly see a storm coming out of nowhere which moves the goal in a completely different direction. What do you do now? Continue towards the original goal or change your course to follow the moving target?

Read More…

Financial directors within small and medium-sized businesses often say that profit and loss reports prepared for the monthly Board meeting get little or no reaction. In some instances, this could be because the data is not being interpreted fully or accurately enough, or else it lacks the layer of interpretation needed to make it meaningful.

Read More…

Enjoy this series of shorts on Metrics from Jim.

KPIs may be the most quoted lousy leadership tool in the book. They are lousy because they’re used the wrong way. The concept is powerful, both for redirecting company effort and to test new initiatives, among many benefits.

Stand this checklist alongside your KPIs and see how you score. Answer yes or no.

Read More…