As Chief Financial Officer, you spend your day overseeing financial forecasts and budgets, advising your company’s management team on short and long-term investments and partnerships and managing relationships with stakeholders. Crown Bank offers services to ensure your limited time is well spent.

With Crown Bank’s tips to improve budgeting 2021, CFOs can deliver more financial planning and analysis to business partners, without extending their working hours:

1. Follow the Money

Financial planning is impossible without first understanding your company funds. Start at the beginning to ensure you fully understand the company’s financial portfolio. Crown Bank offers e-statements, online banking and business bill pay so you can readily access all the company’s income and expense statements. Easy access to these statements allows for informed decision-making when it comes to creating a detailed budget to share with business partners and stakeholders.

2. Take a Modular Approach to Budgeting

2021 is the year of the flexible budget. By taking a modular approach to budgeting, you can include contingencies in your budget that allow for increased agility in decisions depending on industry changes.

Take the time to meet more frequently with your team to assess the company budget and re-allocate funds if necessary. Crown bankers are always available to meet and help manage the company portfolio, as needed. 

3. Shorten your Budget Cycle

While budget cycles vary by company size, we know the budgeting process can require a great deal of time. In 2020, we learned that budgets need to be able to fluctuate with industry uncertainties. Rather than attempting to look too far into the future and predict outcomes, shorten your budget cycle to a more realistic timeline that allows you to adapt to timely circumstances.

A shorter budget cycle also allows for frequent budget analysis to share with stakeholders who may be seeking reassurances more often in trying times. 

4. Consider Loans

What-if and stress-tested scenarios come with the CFO title, especially after a year of financial uncertainty and political turnover. When things don’t go quite according to plan, Crown Bank offers long and short-term loans and corporate lines of credit that can help your business continue operations in the most financially trying times.

Business planning requires a strategic approach, one where a financial backup plan can provide additional security for your business and your business partners. 

5. Diversify

If your company is investing, be sure to diversify your investment portfolio. Stock market fluctuations can make investments daunting, especially if you’ve over-invested in one sector.

Crown Banks’ money market savings account is for businesses with funds for investment purposes. This account has a tiered interest rate structure where accounts with higher balances earn more interest. When investing these balances, be sure to consider long-term investments that generally have a higher return rate or consider investing in various sectors to feel more secure when market fluctuations occur.

With the start of a new fiscal year comes the opportunity to pivot your financial methods to enhance time efficiency and adjust to economic shifts. If you’re interested in further discussing how you can implement any or all of these tips, make an appointment to meet with a Crown Bank banker today.