How to Manage Small Business Finances

Your top online tools to track business expenses, create a business budget, and track your profit with Google spreadsheet templates and recommended Xero tools.

Whether you’re just starting out or a seasoned business owner, business cash clarity isn’t something you should only review once a year. Regularly checking in on your finances helps you stay ahead, make confident decisions, and actually reach your financial goals.

Here’s how to take control of your money, without the overwhelm…

1) Know what you’re actually making

To hit your financial business goals this year, first you need to understand what you’re currently making for each service you offer, after taxes and expenses.

This is more than the once-a-year chat with the accountant. Instead of looking at what you made last year as a whole, what is each service actually making you? There, you can truly see which service is making the highest net profit, which can help you decide which services to promote that year or if you need to adjust your prices.

This is done with a profit and loss calculator.

If you use Xero, you can see your previous years’ profit and loss in the reporting menu, which shows your overall business profit after expenses (net profit). If you want to see your specific services’ profit and loss, you can add Xero tracking to invoices and bills.

Doing this in advance with a profit and loss template calculator can help you plan for the year ahead, instead of being reactive your being proactive.

2) Create a Budget That Works

Next, look at what you can spend each month to be able to hit your financial goals at the end of the year. Having a clear monthly budget stops guesswork and gives you real direction. This is calculated through our business budget template.

If you use Xero, you can use there built-in budget template. This is especially helpful if you are already established, as it shows your actual income and expenses.

3) Keeping Track of Your Spending

Lastly, track your spending (at least monthly) to ensure you are on track to achieve your end of year financial goals. This isn’t about seeing where your money goes, it’s about staying accountable to your budget so that you can hit your end of year target.

When you:

• Understand what you’re making

• Budget what you can spend

• Check in regularly

You turn messy finances in-to something you can use to grow your business.

And that’s what we’re all about here at Mettley, planning for long-term success with simple, actionable steps to get there, and that’s why we have created the Business Cash Clarity Templates that help you plan for financial success and seamlessly check in each month to make sure you’re on track.

Grab your FREE templates by clicking the link below.

Want to see how we can help you with our bookkeeping services?

Check out our Bookkeeping service page here.