Money Monday – the monthly P&L and KPI's

This is the really basic stuff – and some of you may want to skip over this post with a rosy glow of “we are already doing that.” If so – well done. Question 1: “does either your internal financial manager or your external book-keeper/accountant produce a full profit and loss statement on a monthly basis (within 14 days of the month end) – including last month’s figures and year to date?” Question 2: “do you read and analyse the key performance indicators (KPI’s)?” There is no excuse for not having the data available. Whether it is Quickbooks, Sage or the new cloud-based Xero (and many look-a-likes), we live in an age of real-time financial reporting. But it’s not enough to print off a P&L, take a look at sales and bottom line profit and then file away. You have to analyse your KPI’s and, here at 7connections, we have even created an info-graphic to help you measure yourself against industry benchmarks. If your lab, material, implant component, staff and marketing costs are straying away from the benchmarks – then questions must be asked. Although we published the info graphic back in October – I’m repeating the link to the post here so that you can remind yourself. These Money Monday blog posts will, I hope, build into a mini-series that will cover all the basics and more advanced tips on financial management.