It’s easy to lose focus in the summer and to feel like end-of-year concerns and tax season are in the very, very distant future. But here’s something you should think about fitting in between vacations and trips to the pool: a thorough mid-year financial review for your small business.
The first thing to establish for your mid-year financial review is whether your books are current through the end of June. (If not, get those straightened out ASAP! We’ll wait.) Ok, where were we? Once you have your books in order, reviewing all of your financials from January to June–including bank and credit card reconciliations–gives you a pretty good picture of how the rest of your year will look for projecting estimated taxes.
Integrating Cash Flow Strategy with Tax Strategy
It’s not quite enough to just meet with your CPA to talk profit and loss and tax estimates. We highly recommend bringing a cash flow consultant into the conversation to offer a different perspective on your financials and incorporate a more proactive strategy focused on how much cash reserves may be needed. For our clients, we help you project the next eight months of cash flow. This means you will have a much better idea of where you stand with tax estimates, you can model and prioritize other business strategies, and other costs through the end of the year.
Mid-Year Financial Review Goals
Your mid-year financial review should give you a comprehensive look at the activity on your balance sheet. Getting a handle on what is posted there (debt servicing, owner’s distributions) and how it affects cash flow is key to financial stability. The goal should be getting to the end of the year with COMPLETE CLARITY on your 2015 taxes. NO SURPRISES! After a final end-of-year review with your CPA in November or December, you’ll be going into 2016 tax season with true peace of mind. For the first time ever, it might even be something to look forward to.