This is a commonly asked question; is it enough for me to review my financial information, income statement, and other business metrics quarterly, or do I need to do it on a monthly basis?
This question gets asked even more so, when you're paying an outside Virtual CFO and trying to limit the number of meetings to save money.
We strongly encourage business owners to review the reports every month rather than waiting for the end of the quarter. Here is the reason;
- If you're waiting until the end of the quarter, you will be operating for three months in the dark. By the time you realize that you messed up, you are already three months into your mistake.
- Assuming you are doing quarterly reviews, you find some issues that need to be addressed, and plan to implement these changes. When will you follow up next, in three months? What's the likelihood that those changes needed will actually get executed? Very slim. People get stuck in the day-to-day routine work, leaving those tasks on the back burner. However, doing your review monthly will ensure that the changes will indeed get implemented.