Cash flow Reporting (Mgt Account)

[MissRibena]

Hi everyone

I'm not sure if this would be better in the Work, Careers forum so sorry if I've got it wrong.

Keeping on top of our cashflow at work is a bit of a nightmare. We have letters of credit, FX deals, invoice discounting and the usual receivables and payables. I've messed about with lots of different spreadsheets myself to give a weekly snapshot/report to management but none of them have been that satisfactory and if I try to give a forecast for the next couple of weeks/months, it all gets very complicated and difficult to analyse. So it ends up just for being the immediate week/month which isn't really enough.

I just wondered if someone has a spreadsheet they use themselves or can recommend a website for this or maybe even a procedure/routine they follow in producing this kind of information. I just feel as though I'm on a constant threadmill compiling this info which is not as good as it should be.

Any ideas?
Thanks
Rebecca

By the way, apart from a P&L/BS, cashflow (and say, liquidity info) are there any other reports/details that are 'standard' for management reports. I know it's a bit of a piece-of-string question.

There isn't much point in asking management here as they are not really that interested but I think if they had the info they would really start to use it. I've only ever really worked in small companies so haven't got somebody else's lead to follow

 

[Brendan Burgess]

Hi Miss Ribena

All these reports must really be designed for the particular company.

You might hire a management accountant for a few weeks to look at the cash flow reports and come up with a suggestion for doing it better.

The main guideline I would use is to concentrate on the few big things which really matter. Some reports go into extraordinary detail but if the biggest factors are wrong, then the whole report is meaningless.

Brendan

 

[aidan119]

Standard info such as profitability by customer/product/service/region is essential. But you and the management need to discuss and agree your meaning of profitability first. - ie profitability derived from fully allocated overheads etc versus marginal profitability/contribution which is what needs to be known for decision making such as pricing etc.

But really, if you are a qualified Mgt Acct then this plus the cashflow should be second nature. Sorry to sound harsh but you may want to consider taking a role with a company where there is an experienced accountant and learn off him/her for a few years before taking on this responsibility.
Both you and your employer are suffering at the moment. You will benefit in the long run.

 

[MissRibena]

Thanks guys

Aidan - thanks for the advice but I'm no 'qualified management accountant' - mind you I've asked a couple of financial accounting friends about this stuff (all qualified btw) and as far as I could tell, I knew as much if not more. Nobody here at work has asked for the info but I'd like to push things on - it's generally me who drives these kinds of improvements here. This is a small company - I'm everything from Quality to IT to Sales to Accounts to Purchasing to Technical Service to Administrator - depends on the day.

It's not that I don't know the information that's required or even that I don't already provide it, I was just after a bit of help in collating it/presenting it (given that there's nobody here to ask). The costing system that's used for pricing is mine and is based on absorbed overheads, revised each year to take account of the annual budget but we don't absorb overheads day-to-day. We tend to look at gross profit on one hand (across various dimensions) and then analyse each of the overheads against their budgets. However, it's the cash/working capital management reporting that I'd most like to improve.

I like Brendan's idea of getting someone more qualified in to help but given that it's all my bright idea and that generally the benefit won't be appreciated until after I sort it, I don't think I'll get that past them. It did get me thinking about maybe a course or a book might have a better chance. Maybe something like ratio analysis / report writing for the real world/small company where the recipients will need something succinct and digestable for a lay person (as opposed to a plc-type analysis) . Would be delighted if anyone had any recommendation.

Thanks again
Rebecca