Managing Your Business Finances: Top 5 Tips to Follow

Managing the finances of a business is no easy feat. As a business owner, you must manage your cashflows, debt repayments, funding, and income meticulously and effectively. You must balance the ever-increasing expenses of your business with the need to manage your revenues for future reinvestments and business expansion.

At the same time, you must ensure that all your periodic debt repayments are being made within the set deadlines. Additionally, to further catalyze your business growth, you must maintain an excellent credit rating for future investments in the eyes of investors and debtors and build a strong reputation in the market.

Effective financial management is the road to gaining credibility in financial markets and achieving perpetual growth. This article will share valuable tips and strategies for managing your business finances to achieve sustainable growth. So, let’s dive in and discover how you can take control of your finances and set your business up for success in the long run.

1. Leverage Available Tax Deductions

As a business owner or entrepreneur, you know all too well the impact taxes can have on the overall financial health of your business. Without effective management, careful planning, and a long-term strategy, taxes can quickly take a toll on your net income and affect your profitability. This is why looking for legitimate and ethical ways to minimize your tax payments is essential.

One option is the employee retention credit (ERC) introduced by the government in 2022 as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. When you follow the Employee Retention Credit GAAP and accounting best practices alongside meeting certain criteria, such as business closure or significant income decline, you become eligible for ERC.

This tax credit provides businesses with a financial incentive to retain employees. It can reduce the amount of payroll taxes or result in a refund if payroll taxes have already been paid. If you want to reap the benefit of ERC tax deductions, we recommend hiring financial experts like ERC Today® to successfully apply for ERC as early as possible and file for tax credits.

But legal and ethical tax deductions aren’t just limited to ERC tax credits. You can legally minimize your tax payment by:

• Showing an accurate record of business expenses, home office expenses, depreciation, health insurance premiums, travel expenses, and charitable donations.
• Deferring your current income to the next tax year.
• Maximizing retirement contributions to 401(k), IRA, or SEP.
• Working with a tax professional to identify possible tax-saving opportunities and ensure compliance with tax regulations.

2. Separate Business and Personal Accounts

As a new business owner, using the same bank account for personal and business expenses may seem tempting or rather convenient. However, using a shared bank account may cause significant complications in the long run, especially when it comes to managing your finances and filing your taxes. When there’s no distinction between business and personal transactions, it may become difficult to identify which expenses are eligible for tax deductions. This could lead to missed opportunities, over-expenditure, and inaccurate financial reports. 

Sometimes, even a single credit card transaction may include equipment for business and personal use, making it difficult to mark that transaction as either business or private. This approach can also create a disapproving image of your business in the eyes of potential investors and creditors, who cannot distinguish whether you are running a legitimate business.

With a separate business bank account, you can effectively restructure your finances and avoid miscalculations. A dedicated bank account helps you keep accurate records of your business expenses and revenues, making it more convenient to compare your cash inflows and outflows and file taxes. It will also enable strict compliance with government regulations and increase your business’s credibility in the financial markets. 

3. Track Your Expenses

When it comes to effective financial management, every penny counts! You need to track each expense to stay on top of your expenses and maintain a healthy financial status. This means you should be mindful of your cash inflows and outflows to gain insight into which areas of your business are costing you the most money.

Financial statements, such as income statements, cash flow statements, and balance sheets, are useful tools for tracking expenses periodically. However, it’s also essential to have an up-to-date record of your daily transactions; this is where technology comes in. Using advanced software to automate your financial operations is, by far, the best way to keep a record of financial transactions and track all your expenses, particularly if you have multiple bank accounts.

When you regularly monitor your expenses, you can easily compare them to your total income and identify areas where you can minimize expenses or increase the input-output ratio. This could help you save big long-term and ensure your business secures target profits.

4. Create an Operating Budget

To stay on top of your business finances, it’s important to have an in-depth understanding of your monthly income and expenses. While an annual budget provides a financial roadmap for an entire year, an operating budget empowers you to track down each expense and income source more frequently.

An operating budget provides valuable insights into your monthly income and helps you trace all your operating and overhead expenses. This helps you in making information-driven decisions and keeping a check on your overall financial status.

When you compare your monthly expenses to your monthly income, you can adjust your budget to keep your business on track to meet annual financial goals. This level of organization and focus will help you take control of your finances and achieve both your short-term and long-term financial objectives.

5. Reinvest Revenues in Business

Achieving or surpassing your annual or monthly revenue goals may give you a sense of achievement. However, to succeed in your business, you must use these revenues wisely to fuel your business growth. This is especially important for startups and SMBs.

Remember that your business is like a plant that needs care and attention to thrive. The more you reinvest your revenue into your business, the more it expands, flourishes, and grows. Reinvesting your revenue can take many forms, such as:

• Hiring highly-talented employees,
• Upscaling your operations
• Upgrading equipment
• Investing in marketing campaigns
• Increasing the level of customer service
• Introducing new products or services, or
• Expanding into new markets

Final Thoughts

In the face of an increasingly competitive corporate landscape, effective financial management is crucial for businesses to survive, thrive, and attain sustainable growth. We hope the practical and effective tips outlined in this article will help you establish a solid financial foundation for your business. Proper money management is vital for any business’s growth and success. With these valuable insights, you can minimize costs, increase profits, and pave the way for long-term prosperity.