The Game Board: Weekly Tool for Transformation
Running a business is an adventure! No two days are the same, there are ups and downs, forks in the road, unexpected detours. It’s hard work–but it should also be fun! Facing new challenges, finding creative solutions to move your business forward–it’s constantly changing, and what we live for as entrepreneurs.
Because every business is unique, it’s vitally important to have a financial professional on your team to manage your bookkeeping and explain how to use that information to your advantage.
In our last newsletter, we offered tips for interviewing a fractional accounting partner and integrating them into your team. Today we’ll dive deeper into what you should expect each week when working with a fractional accountant.
While your working relationship will have many parts depending on your needs, on a basic level your fractional partner should have a plan for providing updates about your finances in a way that you can understand, use, and get excited about.
For us, this comes in the form of the weekly report–also known at Breakaway as “The Game Board” because it features pieces we can move around as necessary to reach your goal. The game board has three important aspects:
The frequency will vary for each client, but in general we like to provide a report each week that tallies the following into one easy to read summary:
Cash Balance - how much cash do we have in the bank
Automatic payments - what’s coming out this week
Accounts payable - deciding what gets paid
Accounts receivable - Is AR up or down
Target revenue - Target vs actual, how are we trending through the month
We highlight sections to pay extra attention to:
Green for a “win” - Did our operating cash and AR increase? Are we on trend for our revenue target?
Red for things that may need addressed - If not, we need to make a plan.
The Game Board grows with you: We can expand or contract the report depending on what is important to each client. Some business owners want more information, some less. Some have a few specific numbers they want to track closely, so we make sure to include those. This is all about helping the client understand what’s happening within their own business, so we tailor it as much as possible.
Since a good accountant does more than just record numbers, this is the most important part. Your fractional partner should discuss with you how all those pieces fit together, and how they recommend adjusting things to get those little colored boxes to adjust the way you want.
To do this, ideally you’ve already had some important conversations with your accountant about things like your budget, your tolerance toward risk, your short and long term goals, and what keeps you up at night. Ultimately, the goal of the Game Board is not just to understand the present, but to drive the transformation you want to see in your business.
However you, the business owner, prefer to receive and digest information about your weekly reports is the way your accountant should present it. Again, just like the Game Board itself, the name of the game here is to customize, customize, customize. Here are some ways our clients like to receive the weekly report, but hey, you do you.
Email - Detailed or summarized explanation with a link to the Game Board
Video - Short, asynchronous analysis of the Game Board
Text - Summary of the Game Board
Voice message - Short, asynchronous analysis of the Game Board
Or any combination of the above
At the end of the day, each accountant will have their own unique way of working with clients. No way is more right or wrong than another, but we think it helps to have a general idea of the kind of working relationship that is possible between a business owner and their fractional accounting team.
Is there something your accountant does that you love? Hit reply and let us know!
And if you’re looking for more information about how a Breakaway advisor could come alongside you to meet your business goals, reach out. We’d love to meet you!
