Reporting

All businesses can benefit from quality management information on which to make the right decisions, but only a few can afford a dedicated finance function.

This is where In the Black comes in. We will visit your business on a one-off basis or come in regularly to help you see exactly where you are and plan where you are going. Find out more about the services we can offer to help you run your business.

Management Accounts

Even if you are unfamiliar with accounting practices, management accounts are vital to help you track how your business is performing and identify strengths and weaknesses in good time.

In the Black can:

• provide detailed management accounts on a quarterly or monthly basis
• help you identify strengths and weaknesses in your business
• design and implement systems so you can produce your own management accounts on an ongoing basis
• help you understand and get the most out of your management accounts.

Forward planning

As your business grows, forward planning becomes more important. This can involve budgeting, forecasting and business plans.

Other organisations with which you deal, such as banks or grant providers, will often want to see how your business is expected to perform before providing finance.

Yet forecasting can be a complex process, and it may be difficult to know where to start.

If you are at the stage where your business would benefit from a structured plan for future performance, In the Black can help. Our services include:

• taking you through the 'pros' and 'cons' of a budget
• helping you prepare and structure a sensible and realistic budget, which will act as a valuable benchmark against which to appraise individual and company performance
• showing you how to forecast revenues, costs, profits and cash-flows
• undertaking the forecasting process with you, or getting processes and systems in place to allow you to produce a regular forecast of where your business is heading
• helping you put together business plans for startups or expansions.

Having one eye on the future affords the possibility of seeing potential problems or opportunities before they arise. Prevention is always better than cure.