It has been a great experience transitioning to a pearl company. One of the challenges I have had with my CFO duties is Cleaning up the Books. When I first got here, the books, the finances, and the financial control had some real issues. Without going into details, here is a list of some things I have done that solved a lot of our problems:
- Keep the books updated often – this ensures that mistakes are likely to be handled and noticed while things are still fresh on your mind
- Create a file system that reflects what you have in QuickBooks (or visa versa), this is important if you need to find a receipt or a bill
- Be as honest as you can about all the transactions of the company
- Collect all receipts from all transactions in the company – many employees mean well, but you have to stay on top of it and remind them to give you the receipts
- Shred old documents – this should be obvious!
- Keep financial documents in a safe and secure place
If you are ever in charge of Cleaning up the Books, hopefully you will have a good experience like I have. Next I will be working on a dashboard system that reflects the status of important things in our company, including daily sales, turn around time, etc. Does anyone have good advice on setting this up?
