With over 30 years of experience in the HVCR industry, Ruth King has made a name for herself as Profitability Master and president of HVAC Channel TV. In her newest book, The Ugly Truth About Cash, Ruth gives practical advice on how business owners can implement procedures to protect their hard-earned cash and assets
Last week, Ruth led a webinar detailing how contractors can apply the principles of her new book using FieldEdge and ESC. Below are 3 easy ways to monitor your cash that Ruth covered in the webinar:
1. Always Check The Dashboard
Dashboards are a snapshot of how your business is doing and gives you information on all aspects of your business like, technician performance, what your cash flow is, whether you are selling agreements, marketing performance, etc. While it’s easy to hire someone to handle it all for you, it is still important for business owners to keep a close eye on everything that is happening daily. The dashboards are meant to make that task quick and efficient, especially since the FieldEdge dashboard updates in real-time. This way you can see your numbers change throughout the day and you can investigate the moment you notice something is wrong.
2. Confirm Your Field Service Software Is Communicating With Your Accounting Software
One of the easiest ways to lose track of your cash is by not reconciling the financial information in your field service management software with the financial information in your accounting software. To do this efficiently you also need to ensure that your field service software communicates with your accounting software.
For FieldEdge and ESC, they are both integrated with QuickBooks so the information flows directly from the software into QuickBooks. ESC users go through a posting process to send invoices to QuickBooks for reconciliation. FieldEdge users can either review every invoice or set it up to flow automatically, and in real-time, once the technician completes a job.
Regardless of how your field service software communicates with your accounting software the key takeaway is you should always be checking that the numbers are the same in both. If something looks wrong, investigate it now!
Inventory can be a one of the most complex aspects of your business to manage. If you don’t have people constantly monitoring your inventory, there’s a chance that items are being taken and not properly checked out or documented. No matter what size company you are, inventory tracking is something you should invest in early.
FieldEdge and ESC both have warehouse restocking reports which show your warehouse manager how many items have been sold or taken off of a technician’s truck for any time period. Allowing them to restock those items so when the technician comes in the next morning, they have all the items they need to bring them back up to optimum inventory levels. Continually checking your inventory is a great way to make sure you aren’t losing money on lost parts!
6 Other Quick Tips For Preventing Theft
- Send your bank statements home so you can review them before sharing with your bookkeeper
- Double check the amounts on the checks you sign just in case your vendors want to take advantage of your money
- Look at reconciliation reports to see what money has come in and what should’ve been deposited in your bank account
- Know your gross margins and inventory balances so you can spot any irregularities because even the slightest percent off could be a lot of money in the long run
- Have cameras everywhere and monitor those feeds so you’re aware of everything going on in the office
- Put your P&L balances into an Excel spread sheet at least once a quarter to make sure they match because small irregularities can add up to thousands of lost dollars
All of Ruth’s tips have come from real life experiences. To learn how to avoid similar incidences check out her new book, The Ugly Truth About Cash. Your cash is your cash. Take Ruth’s advice and make sure it doesn’t get into anyone else’s hands!
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