Budgeting services for businesses

A budget is an estimate of your income and expenditure over a set period of time which takes into consideration your long-term financial goals and future predicted transactions to allow you to create a plan to spend your money.

The best budgets are both simple and flexible. Things change, that is a certainty. If your budget isn’t simple and flexible, then when change inevitably happens, your budget won’t be able to flex to give you a clear picture of where you now stand. We suggest aligning your budget to your accounting software and/or year end financial statements. This helps to keep things simple and smooth the process of tracking your budget against actual results.

• Provides you visibility on how your business is performing 
• Make sound, thought out business decisions
• Helps shed light on bad spending habits
• Identifies areas for growth and improvement
• Helps you to achieve your financial goals

Not at all! The best budgets are simple and flexible, and they therefore come in all shapes and sizes.

The key is on focusing the budget to your business as this allows you to channel in on what is important to you and what actionable changes you need to make to achieve your financial goals. 

Budgeting is tricky for start-ups - you rarely have an existing model to work from. Do your due diligence by researching industry benchmarks for salaries, rent and marketing costs.

Ask your network what you can expect to pay for professional fees, benefits, and equipment. Set aside a portion of your budget for advisors – that’s accountants, solicitors, that kind of thing. 

Since you don’t have any historic financial data to review, make sure to use projected costs. For example, if you have signed a lease for office space, use the monthly rent you will pay moving forward. 

Putting in the work to create your budget may seem like a hassle, but whilst it will take a bit of time and energy at first, it is worth the extra effort in the long run.

Thorough business budgeting gives you the financial insights you need to make the right decisions for your business to grow, scale, and prosper in the future. 

Your budget is your planned revenue and spending. It allows you to plan for the future and review your excess spending. Consider preparing a budget monthly, quarterly, or annually.

Cashflow forecasts are typically more frequent, often monthly, and focus on the cash ins and outs for your business. A cashflow forecast predicts future trends and gives a realistic idea of when your business is going to require a cash injection to avoid problems. 

Both budgeting and cashflow forecasting are important forecasting tools for business. They can help you keep on top of your bills and can also prove useful if you are trying to get finance (it shows lenders you can pay them back).