When your business is growing it is all too easy to lose track of important aspects of your finances. Scalable software and a virtual CFO can help keep you on track. While it is common for large and established companies to have a CFO (chief financial officer), a smaller company will not be able to afford a full time CFO: But, the needs of a growing company for sound financial oversight are just as great as for a company that typically has a CFO. Here is where a virtual CFO comes into the picture. You can benefit from the same level of expertise that you would have with an in-house CFO at a fraction of the cost by going virtual.
The short answer is that a virtual CFO does what an in-house CFO does but from a remote location. CFOs are financial experts. They oversee bookkeeping and accounting activities, critical components of a business’s operations. This includes financial statements, reporting requirements, compliance with regulations, and forward-looking business strategies. A virtual CFO will monitor and analyze financial reports, manage compliance issues, help you develop policies to make day by day operations more efficient and cost-effective.
Your CFO in-house or virtual should be an experienced certified public accountant. Analytic and leadership skills are important as well as the ability to build and manage teams. But, the most important skill for your virtual CFO is the ability to help you set both short and long-term objectives. Strategic thinking and creativity mixed with years of accounting experience will help your business as your scale up your financial management to go with your growing business.
At Exigo Business Solutions we commonly suggest QuickBooks Desktop or QuickBooks Online for our small business clients. These are scalable small business solutions for keeping the books, generating custom reports to keep you on top of your business, and providing useful insights as your business grows. As a business grows, operates at more than one location, and acts as an umbrella for multiple businesses, we commonly advise clients to use scalable accounting software like Gravity.
As your business grows you do not only need scalable software but also scalable financial oversight. This comes with an accomplished CFO. And, when you are not yet large enough to afford a full-time CFO, a virtual CFO can give you the same skills, experience, insights, and profitability that you would get with someone in-house.
You know that you need competent financial advice and you are also being careful of expenses so that you do not run into financial trouble. Thus, you need an affordable source of financial help that targets your specific business needs. You need an experienced CFO. And, you need to watch costs. Too many small business owners start looking for help with financial management and planning when troubles arise and for crisis management. The better approach is to get sound advice and management in order to avoid a crisis.
We have often noted that you can outsource your bookkeeping and it will pay for itself. The same advice applies even more so to the expert financial management that a CFO can offer. The fact of the matter is that an experienced CFO can help you manage your small business in a fraction of the time needed to manage a large corporation. Thus, you can get all of the financial management that your business needs for a fraction of what you would pay a full-time CFO by going virtual.
An accomplished virtual CFO can help you get necessary funding for expansion by showing investors that you have an excellent grasp of your goals, forecasting, and budgeting. We touched on the use of QuickBooks or Gravity Software for your accounting operations. When you need intelligent business software to help run your operations, your virtual CFO will help you choose the best ones and integrate them into your business operations. With these tools in place you will have a better idea of where to spend your money, how to manage cash flow, and the most effective budgeting to grow your business while avoiding unnecessary expenses.
Managing the finances of a business requires expertise, experience, tools, and the ability to integrate accounting and business intelligence tools into your business. You may simply need to have your QuickBooks files reconciled. Or you may benefit from outsourcing your bookkeeping to us and instituting the Profit First method for budgeting and cash flow management. Other companies will benefit from these services as well as business planning and forecasting using the Liveplan system. And, some companies will benefit from all of these services as well as weekly virtual CFO meetings to manage special projects.
To help decide what kind of outsourcing or virtual CFO your company may need, please contact us at Exigo Business Solutions in the Kansas City area.
