As a business owner, you need to know what's happening with the business finances. It's easy to get carried away with big sales one month, then make a plan to invest, but then see that in reality it's just advanced income, which might leave you short in future months if things slow down. Own Your Numbers helped me understand what was happening in our cash flow, realise when I need to focus on converting sales, and when to adjust our monthly costs. It's a good, no-fluff tool that helps make managing business finance easier.

We all know it’s cash that can make or break the business. As a bookkeeper working with portfolio of clients, I have had many discussions with directors/partners about the risks involved in investing or drawing dividends – too much, too soon, or at all! Pretty much always the same comment comes back to me – “yes, but the sales are coming through soon.” With Own Your Numbers you can see black and white (or red and green) just how far your current cash position will take you, regardless of the profitability or pipeline. An eye opener for me. And also helps me make this point to directors/partners. It could be the nudge to take the action or a simple pat on the back – we are doing well. A regular health check off the books. So, this really helps me show my clients just how fluffy their cash cushion is!

I work as a fractional CFO across many businesses and visibility on cash, particularly at the early stage is THE number one cause of stress and sleepless nights for founders/CEO. The only thing worse than knowing you're running out of cash is NOT knowing that you're running out of cash. Giving yourself or your clients this regular pulse check, gives founders the ability to take action from a position of strength rather than fear. What Ciaran has produced here is the distillation of many years of experience of delivering unbelievable FD service and wise council. Check out his socials to see what I mean. What's the price of piece of mind on cash? I'd argue considerably more than a small monthly fee for your average founder. Businesses need an FD eventually but before they do I can see this being used either by the founder themselves or by bookkeepers to augment their service and deliver much higher value month after month.