Finding it hard to manage your business’s finances? Unsure of how to price your products or services? Don’t know how much you can afford to spend on wages and expenses? Want to gain an accurate value of your business? Sounds like you need a financial model.

All business operators are concerned with the profitability of their business, but it is difficult to gain an accurate grasp of its real financial position purely from monitoring bank balances and receipts. So often is the case that business owners in successful times lose incentive to monitor their financial position. This can come back to haunt management once times start to become gloomy as they ponder “How did this happen?” “What were we doing right before?”. As silly as it sounds, sometimes an Excel spreadsheet can answer all of these questions (and more!).

Financial models are a key element in most major business decisions. A financial model is prepared whenever any organisation is considering project finance, bidding for a project, evaluating acquisition targets, carrying out monthly financial planning and budgeting, conducting capital structure studies, or just to monitor the business’s profitability.  Accurate financial models are also a staple requirement if you are trying to source financing from investors or lending entities.

They are useful tools that allow business options and risks to be evaluated in a cost-effective manner against a range of assumptions, identify optimal solutions in evaluating financial returns and understand the impact of resource constraints to make the most effective business decisions. A truly effective financial model is one that dynamically updates as the economic and business climate changes.

Our Consulting team has extensive experience in developing financial models which draw from historical performance and management’s expectations for the future. Once a tailored financial model has been created, sensitivity tests are run to generate accurate forecasts and budgets to allow management to determine how they should operate in the future. From here, we can provide recommendations on other business functions.

Businesses from agriculture, engineering, finance, heavy machinery and retail industries have approached us to construct conservative financial models that enable business owners to “hope for the best, but plan for the worst”. In 2016 we had the pleasure of constructing a dynamic model for a grain and oilseed farm in NSW. The original need for the model was to gain a value of the enterprise for the purpose negotiations and restructuring. However, as new problems were encountered, such as restricted access to financing, falling crop prices and even flooding, management quickly realised the true power of a financial model: it’s a tool that provides insight into how to develop clear contingency plans. Similarly, a sports store facing a severe cash flow crisis was able to trade their way out and re-finance through using our no-nonsense approach and financial modelling.

If you or anyone you know owns a business that needs to review their financials to take their business to the next level or faces increasing uncertainty, then now is the time to deal with it. Contact us today, toll free on 1800 679 000 for our Rockhampton office and 1800 804 431 for our Melbourne office to have a free initial consultation.

The information provided in this article is general advice only. It is prepared without taking into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on the advice in this article, please consider the appropriateness of the advice, whether the advice is appropriate to you, your objectives, financial situation and/or needs, before following this advice.