How does your Quarterly Scorecard look?
It's hard to believe the 1st Quarter of the 2011 Financial Year is almost over. Time seems to be flying this year. A few months back I wrote about Planning for 2011 - Your target numbers. What better time to review those targets than the 1st quarter results.
So time to dig out those targets and ensure they are in front of you. Here are some tips for reviewing your numbers:
- Profit - is this on target to reach your profit aim for the 2011 Financial Year? If not where are you out?
- Sales - have you reached your Sales Targets for the Quarter? If not how far are you out by? Was it one big sale that did not happen? Are you behind on your new customer targets? If you are ahead what are you doing thats different than your target numbers? Do you need to increase these targets? What else can you do to ensure you reach your targets for the next quarter?
- Costs of Goods Sold - have you reached your % targets in relation to your sales? If not where are you out? Is it in one product line? Have your costs increased from your suppliers? If so have you increased your Price? Are you taking advantage of payment discounts? Are your team performing in line with their targets? What else can you do to decrease this percentage?
- Overheads - are these in line with your targets? If not where are you out? Is it one particular expense or a number of expenses? What can you do to decrease these costs? Are you getting the required return on your overhead expenses? Ie is your Marketing expense generating the sales you expected?
- Bank Covenants - are your figures in line with the covenants set by the bank? Do you have enough profit to pay your Interest costs? Do you have enough in cash and debtors to pay your creditors, ATO and loan repayments?
As you can see reviewing your numbers vs targets on a quarterly basis allows you to make the necessary changes next quarter to ensure you are still on track. It forces you to review your business. The next step is to perform the what if analysis on the last quarters figures to see what the changes can mean at the end of the year.
But you can't do any of the above without up to date numbers.......that's the most important part. With updates in technology now there is no excuse for having out of date figures.
If you want some help to review your numbers contact Growthwise
