Quarterly Reporting, Are You Ready?

27th September 2016

I have been speaking with my accountant recently about the forthcoming changes to the way tax will be paid i.e. once a quarter instead of once yearly. It still hasn’t been widely published so a lot of people are unaware or at present are giving it no real thought. However, it would be very unwise to stick your head in the sand about this if anything you should embrace this as a chance to improve the way you control and manage your business.

On the whole I find that the majority of business owners I start working with do not keep a very close eye on their numbers. They know that their sales are up or down, and they have a general feel for whether things are going well or not, however, if I challenge them on details, they seldom know the right answer.

The new system of reporting will ensure that you have to have control over your figures, because without that you or your accountant, simply wont have the time to get your numbers in order, and no doubt there will be fines to pay.

So why not start making changes now, before the pressure really starts. To change the way you manage, report and analyse your figures often takes quite some time. For many it is an unsettling and even scary thing to have to do, and in my experience will find any number of reasons for avoiding it. Even when they can see the benefits of reporting the figures immediately after the month end, very often they still let it lapse because it’s just another job, which they don’t feel brings benefit to them or the business.

This is so clearly not the case. When business owners finally start working on their numbers regularly it is amazing what they find. Time spent on this can make and save you huge amounts without even having to find new business.

Don’t leave it too late. If you’re not sure what to do, talk to your accountant, or perhaps better still get a coach to help you.

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