The CFO'S Perspective

The current economic climate, combined with the fact that September is National Preparedness Month, has many of us thinking about how we can prepare for possible threats and business disruptions. This kind of strategic planning allows a business to approach a worst-case scenario with a growth mindset instead of fear – increasing the likelihood that your business will come out of a crisis stronger for having gone through it.

During a worst-case scenario, leadership must decide whether the organization will make the necessary adjustments needed to continue with business as usual or change how the company will operate. And while the conversation will undoubtedly include operational and capacity considerations, it is primarily a discussion about financial capabilities.

Accounts receivables are a hot topic for business owners because they are the primary driver of cash flowing into the company. Unfortunately, in the US 39% of invoices are paid late and 52% of businesses have been asked by clients to extend their payment terms. This creates a difficult situation for business owners because late payments not only hurt cash flow management but may also serve as an early warning sign that payment is not coming.

Typically, the longer invoices remain outstanding the less likely they are to be paid. When invoices cannot be collected on, they become bad debt and are written off, erasing the revenue they would have generated for the hardworking businesses that earned them. Bad debt hurts short-term cash flow and long-term profitability. In fact, every year an average of 4% of accounts receivable are written off as bad debt, which equates to $400,000 in lost revenue for a company with $10M in sales annually.

So, what can you do to reduce your accounts receivables problems?

We are now seven months into the Covid-19 pandemic, and it is clear we are far from returning to “normal”; however, that may be defined. What is clear is the pandemic pushed the concept of work-from-home (WFH) from being a motivational tool and employee benefit to a way of life. Work-from-home will undoubtedly remain an essential part of company operations well after the pandemic is under control. REI, Zillow, Twitter, Square, and other companies announced a plan to work remotely indefinitely.

Moving to a remote work environment in March with little or no notice was extraordinarily disruptive and often haphazard at best. We did what we needed to operate in the so-called “new normal.” By now, most of us have settled into a regular work cadence and adapted to working apart from the rest of our teams.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly one-third of the U.S. workforce and half of all “information workers” can work from home. Though the number of people working partially or fully remote has been on the rise for years now, the COVID-19 pandemic may have pressed the fast-forward button on this trend.

With millions of people taking part in this work-from-home experiment, now is the perfect time for companies to take a fresh look at their internal control environments, especially as they relate to their WFH team members. What once worked with everyone in the same place may not be effective with a distributed workforce.

A critical self-examination of your company’s internal control environment begins with an assessment of the segregation of duties.

It might seem like a matter of semantics in a small to mid-sized company to use the Controller and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) job titles interchangeably. After all, don’t they essentially do the same thing?

The fact is there is a difference between the two. A CFO is not simply a more experienced and higher paid controller – the roles are different and require a different level of experience and a different way of operating.

In the case of a Small Business Administration Payroll Protection Program (“PPP”) loan, businesses have been presented with an opportunity to maintain their current employment levels and pay certain expenses with assistance from Uncle Sam, in the form of a loan. These loans carry a low-interest rate and up to five-year maturity.

Businesses can apply to have the loan treated as a grant; in which case the loan is forgiven.

This seems like an easy decision for the Chief Financial Officer. Ask for loan forgiveness and accept the gift. But would it ever make sense not to ask for forgiveness? Could the underlying economics of a long-term loan be almost as good as or even better than an immediate grant? The short answer is yes, but only under very specific circumstances. For most businesses, under most circumstances, and for most loan types, loan forgiveness is best.

Financial projections are a critical component of a sound business plan. These projections (or “financial forecasts”) are used externally to obtain funding as well as internally to create a strategic growth roadmap with key milestones.

At the core of these projections are logical assumptions for revenue, COGS (cost of goods sold), SG&A (sales, general, and administrative) expenses, capital investments, and cash flow that serve as building blocks for the final figures that result. Because your financial projections rely on these pillars, it is crucial to find a balance with these inputs. Being too conservative or too aggressive with your assumptions will skew the resulting projections, damaging their overall credibility. The goal is to inspire confidence externally as well as internally while maintaining high ethical standards, which requires a balanced approach toward creating assumptions for financial projections.

Use existing financial information, even if it is limited by the newness of your business, to justify these assumptions and inform your financial forecasting process. Your resulting financial projections should include a P&L statement, cash flow statement, balance sheet, capitalization table, and strategic investment plan.

Effective cash flow management requires careful control of both money coming in and going out. While practices like shortening payment terms, offering variable pricing, and pursuing collections can increase the timeliness and amount of money coming in, delaying payments to vendors can slow cash outflows, providing the float needed to sustain operations during difficult times.

In an article about re-opening your business, Jeff Dunn explains succinctly, “Determine which vendors are critical to your day-to-day operations and pay them as timely as possible; which are important but can be paid slowly; and which are not important going forward that will be paid when able.”

How do you decide who to pay now and who to pay later, and how do you abide by vendor management best practices while doing both? This quick guide will help you answer those questions to improve your cash flow position right away.

Lenders and investors will always ask for financial statements as part of the application process. When applying for funding, you will be required to provide both historical financial data and projected financial figures. Banks and investors will then analyze where the company has been and where it appears to be going to determine if its trajectory fits within acceptable risk parameters.