You sit down on the couch or at your desk, you’ve got pen and paper ready or you have a spreadsheet ready to start your budget for the new year. And then it hits you…. where do you start? We know exactly how you feel.
Even if you get started and complete your budget, you don’t revisit it and compare your actual income and expenses against your budget. We know that making changes to figures that are written down on paper is daunting, even accountants like us would dread that! Even if you’re savvy with spreadsheets, it’s still no small feat. What’s the point of doing budgets if you’re not going to monitor it right?
The simplest plan I’m referring to here is a financial plan, simply called a budget!
How to put a budget together
- You owe it yourself to decide that you’re going to be disciplined in 2022 to manage your personal and business finances.
- Put together a 12-month and 24-month plan for your life. You depend on your business for your income and your business depends on you for direction. You must plan for your business and personal life.
- Your plans will have two aspects; one is the monthly ongoing income and expenses…the day-to-day stuff and the other will include those once-off or longer-term events and projects.
- Put figures to your plan. Have a monthly budget and one for those long-term projects or one-off events.
- Commit by sticking to your spending budgets and working diligently to ensure the revenue targets are met.
- If unexpected things come up, as they always do in life, review your budgets, and adjust.
- Incentivize yourself and your staff for meeting budgets! Where’s the fun in achieving something if you can’t give yourself a pat on the back or celebrate with your staff in the end, right?
Using technology to help you budget
Now for the fun bit…using technology to do the heavy lifting for you. There are so many online tools out there that can help you prepare, review and monitor your budget that you don’t have an excuse to put it off for another new year! Take control today.
We’ve put together recommended tools for budgeting below just for you.
(Disclaimer – we are not affiliated in any way to these products, neither do we take responsibility for the functioning of these tools.)
Personal budgeting tools (not in order of preference)
- Pastel My Money ()
- 22seven (Signup – 22seven)
- Smart Money ()
- Wonga () ? For the spreadsheet fundi in you ?
Most accounting software whether desktop versions or online come with some form of budgeting tool. If you’re using it yourself, play around with the budgeting section to see what you can conjure up on your own and then talk to your accountant who can help you set up your business plan and budgets. Make sure you meet with your accountant regularly to review the business performance against the budgets you set.
Accounting software with budgeting tools
- Xero (Accounting Software – Do Beautiful Business | Xero ZA)
- Sage Business Cloud ()
- QuickBooks Online (https://intuit.me/KaXlYr)
We recommend that you find what works for you, learn it and then use it. There’s no right answer, use what works for you!
2022 can be your best year yet when it comes to finances, but it won’t happen without planning and regular monitoring. We help our business owners formulate plans for their business and develop personal goals. This makes them feel in control and has a clear direction on where they need to focus their efforts. They cannot afford to waste their time and effort on things that will not help them move their businesses forward and improve the quality of their lives.
Let us help you too.
