Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
IF SMALL-BUSINESS OWNERS make only one change to their operations, it should be to set their work browser’s homepage to their bank’s website.
That way, according to Keith Harford, the brains behind cloud-based financial tool Cashflo Plan, small and medium enterprise (SME) bosses would constantly be reminded that nothing was more important to their business than keeping an eye on the money.
“As a business advisor, one of the first things I would recommend to any customer I deal with is to look at their homepage,” he said.
Quite often it’s their favourite sports page or news site. In my opinion, it should always be the bank – to remind them that every day when they go in they should be checking the balance in their account.”
Harford, a veteran of the small-business scene, set up the online planning tool in 2011 after witnessing SMEs that were profitable on paper still going under because they ran out of cash.
“What we are trying to get people focussed on is their trading balance; it’s a complicated term for a simple thing – really it is just the difference between what is coming in and what is going out,” he said.
Why does all this cashflow matter?
Harford said the idea behind Cashflo was to make planning future business income and outgoings “very, very easy” for time-stretched small-business managers.
They can feed in their recurring costs like wages, rent and utility bills to work out the income they will need in the future and compare those figures against what is actually coming in.
“Then, if that figure’s not big enough or positive enough then they have time to do something about it,” Harford added.
“It is something that will only take two or three minutes every day at most.”
All this month as part of TheJournal.ie’s ongoing focus on the SME sector, we are looking at key money matters and tools to help these businesses balance their budgets.
SMEs account for about half Ireland’s business output and employ nearly 70% of private-sector workers.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Should set their browser to the f€€kin revenues homepage
I don’t know what a tracker mortgage is
Congrats to Keith! He has managed to get publicity for what sounds to me like it does little if anything more than a well set up spreadsheet on the back of a somewhat ridiculous statement. Can’t knock that.
But….
… surely the concept of a home page doesn’t even make sense any more?
In the course of a day (sometime in the course of an hour) I can use a desktop, a lap top, a phone or a pad of some kind to access the internet. When I sit down the desktop, several tabs will be open (ok maybe more than several!) and since I rarely turn either browser or off, they will be whatever I had open the last time I sat at it. Ditto the laptop, where the browser remembers where I was before I powered down. I don’t see the home page (Google search) very often at all – certainly less than weekly. On the phone/pad a home screen is not a home page.
The only thing this ridiculous statement says to me is that someone who still uses the internet in quite a quaint old fashioned way.
Katie
FYI, we offer a range of fully-integrated (P&L, CF & BS) cashflow plannner based on Excel called Cashflow Plan. Full details at http://www.planware.org/cashplan.htm Users in over a hundred countries.
I took a look at your site Brian.
It’s…
Actually I’ll just say nothing.
Hi Katie Does,
Thanks for the comments which we’ll take as constructive. If you’d like to get in touch directly, we’d be delighted to show how Cashflo Plan is very different to a basic spreadsheet.
Keith & The Cashflo Plan Team
Good luck Kieth Hope it is going well for you.
Just visited the site, if he is using a SAAS model he should ideally have the price and preferably a comparison clearly displayed. I spent 4 minutes on the site and still failed to find it. Hope the insight helps.
Hi Stephen,
Many thanks for the critique. A 12 month license for Cashflo Plan is €149. We’ll get the site sorted and thanks again for pointing out this very basic omission.
Keith & The Cashflo Plan Team
Keith,
My pleasure, hope it helps.
Cheers,
Stephen
I avoid looking at my online banking unless I absolutely have to.
Great article….looks like a good product. I’m a sole trader and need to get my house in order (accounts wise) to keep afloat. Worth considering.
Hi Jason,
Why not try the 30 DAY FREE TRIAL at http://www.cashfloplan.com?
We’d love to hear your feedback.
Best wishes,
Keith & The Cashflo Plan Team
have your say