Finance 101

Accounting basics, cash flow, budgets, GST and BAS, profit and loss, reporting, pricing and funding, explained for owners who are not accountants.

Understand, control and improve your business finances.

• Accounting fundamentals – The handful of accounting ideas every owner needs: the accounting equation, cash versus accrual, the chart of accounts, reconciliation, and why clean books are the foundation of every other financial decision.
• Cash flow management – Why profitable businesses run out of money, how the cash conversion cycle works, and the weekly habits that keep enough cash in the bank to pay staff, suppliers and the ATO on time.
• Budgeting and forecasting – How to build an annual budget you will actually use, keep a rolling forecast that reflects what is really happening, and use the gap between the two to make better decisions each month.
• GST, BAS and taxation fundamentals – How GST works, what a Business Activity Statement actually reports, how PAYG withholding and instalments fit in, and the habits that make the ATO a routine supplier rather than a source of dread.
• Profit and loss statements – How to read a profit and loss statement line by line, what gross margin and net margin are telling you, and how to use the P&L each month to find where the business is leaking money.
• Financial reporting – The three core financial statements, the management reports that sit alongside them, and how to build a monthly reporting pack that takes an hour to produce and actually drives decisions.
• Pricing and profit margins – The difference between markup and margin, three ways to set prices, how break-even works, and why a small price increase does more for profit than a large increase in sales.
• Funding and business finance – The main ways Australian small businesses fund themselves, when debt makes more sense than equity, how lenders assess you, and how to prepare so that finance is arranged on your terms rather than in a crisis.