The main purpose of cash flow is to organize the company’s financial. That is, to know everything that comes and goes.
For optimal cash flow management, some management tools are essential for both saving time and achieving greater security over financial data kept on the company’s network.
That is, regardless of the size of the corporation – and especially in medium and large businesses – it is essential to be attentive to modernizations and adhere to the use of more practical systems to say goodbye to paper spreadsheets.
And knowing the important measures and implementations for the growth of your company in all areas – with emphasis on the financial one – iFood Empresas has prepared a guide with excellent information and management tools that will make your cash flow work smoothly. even safer, more efficient and faster.
After all, what is cash flow?
Cash flow has as main objective to organize the company’s financial. That is, to know everything that comes and goes. And that includes control of the employees’ payment, the discharge of invoices and the expenses with eventual expenses, in order to know what is available or not available for investment and to avoid debts and bankruptcy.
According to data from SEBRAE (Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service), 1 in 4 companies close in less than 2 years in Brazil, and this is precisely because they are unaware of tools for managing an operational cash flow, in addition to other primary errors that involve the lack of investment in marketing and the sale of their products, the lack of training of employees and, mainly, the lack of financial control.
Larger companies are able to follow this up using systems such as ERPs – acronym for Enterprise Resource Planning, which in Portuguese means “Planning for Company Resources”.
These platforms have several functions for this purpose, however, an employee who knows how to assemble spreadsheets in management software will already help in organizing the numbers and analyzing data with graphs and statistics.
What is the difference between control and cash flow?
The cash flow analyzes what happens to the company in general, looking at past expenses that can vary over time, future payments and a series of factors that compromise the business, so that the manager knows what it is possible to be saved or added monthly without generating losses.
In addition to being aware of these data, the cash flow assists in making decisions, because if in an annual analysis the company has a negative balance, for example, the person in charge may take steps to reverse the situation, making investments and loans in more effective ways to directly solve the problem.
On the contrary, cash control does only the daily job of listing what has left and entered the company. The payment of customers as an entry and the employee’s salary as an exit is part of this simple management procedure, which, although important for the organizational routine, does not reflect the real financial situation of the business.
Discover the 5 types of cash flow
As this guide aims to present more modern management tools for your company, first of all it is important to know the types of cash flow and understand the purpose of each one, so that the automation and updating of these processes are done based on their structures and uses. So, look at this:
Direct cash flow
It is the most used and needs attention from employees due to the wealth of information that is inserted daily. It is possible to ignore discounts and separate each expense by sector, thus allowing to organize the entire flow in a simple and complete way.
Indirect cash flow
Unlike the previous option, this type of flow is widely used by accountants and companies with more effective knowledge of the financial sector, since it uses the balance sheet, depreciation and amortization to finally reach the Income Statement (Income Statement for the Year) and whether the company is making a profit or loss.
Projected cash flow
The projected cash flow does not include what was in the past, that is, amounts that have already been paid or withdrawn will not be present in the tool. Thus, it has the function of forecasting future expenses and thereby organizing and meeting payment deadlines.
It is worth noting that before making a large purchase the corporation must always check the projected cash flow so as not to be caught off guard and have losses in the following months.
Operating cash flow
Operating cash flow serves to account for and manage costs related to the operation of the corporation, such as employee payments. This process ignores investments made for improvements and does not calculate interest either, which is why it is widely used in start-up companies – since they are the businesses that most need a financial return to start growing.
Free cash flow
It aims to analyze the profit available to be spent in the short, medium and long term. That is, it is necessary to have several aspects, such as a cash flow for 30 days, one for 6 months and one with a forecast of 2 to 5 years. And this breath allows the company to know what can be done and / or prevented during these periods, avoiding instabilities, declines in growth and crises.
Management tools: 4 ways to automate cash flow
One of the biggest difficulties for professionals who manage cash flow is to find mechanisms that streamline processes and keep them equally safe.
An example of this is the reimbursement policy, which demands trust in an employee and overloads the function of the financial team – since this reimbursement needs to be entered into the system manually through invoices, where they are at risk of having their information wrong in the time to go to the spreadsheet.
And thinking of helping to facilitate your company’s workflow, below we list some management tools that will make a difference in these responsibilities and make your business day to day more efficient:
1. Use a management system
Multinational companies have an ERP or software management system to control all departments in a unique way, and this tool cannot be missing from your business.
It is possible to vary the level of access according to the position of the employee, where an operator, for example, has access to the insertion of invoices, while a director is able to check the complete cash flow and analyze the NFs, the expenses with the advertising area, overdue accounts, receiving customers and others.
That way it is much easier to know what happens within each sector and to charge for evolutions based on the responsible. In addition, as it is an intelligent digital program, it is unlikely to have errors if all the information is added correctly.
And to find the best ERP software for your company – considering the organization’s profile and needs – the SELECT tool can help you, as the service allows you to choose the correct management system and less losses with technological costs.
2. Have an internal audit
Even if you have the best team of professionals and offer the appropriate training, for security reasons it is necessary to monitor the work of each one, especially within the financial areas of the organization.
And this is the work of the internal audit, which must have at least one trained employee – and who understands all the bureaucracies – to present reports that allow the monitoring of results or the analysis of gaps that need clarification and possible improvements in the flow Of box.
3. Bring iFood Office to your business
Reimbursement is always an issue dreaded by managers, as it involves several bureaucracies as it is a value taken from the cash flow and which needs to be rewarded to the employee after proof of receipts and notes.
In order to facilitate these processes and modernize the management of extra expenses with food – such as that lunch with the client, cafes with partners and happy hours -, iFood Empresas launched iFood Office, a product that in addition to eliminating administrative procedures, has a easy access panel that centralizes spending so that the finance and HR team have no worries.
In addition, iFood Office allows corporate payment in the application, where the company is able to establish consumption rules according to its policies and centralized payment through monthly invoice.
Perfect for a business lunch, happy hours and trips.
4. Bet on financial management software
Unlike the full management program, such as ERP, there are other platforms designed to do flow control only. And having automated tools like these is also important, as they have joint management with the company’s bank account, allowing you to know if the input and output values are really correct.
In addition, these mechanisms make it possible to store data in a cloud with restricted access to accountants and responsible managers. That way, if password thefts occur, the company does not have to be stagnant while security measures are in place.
As you can learn from this guide, cash flow management involves more than money and everyday functions. After all, a well-invested profit will only be possible if there is control and responsibility over the data and numbers of the corporation – since it is essential that the values are correct to be applied in new franchises, in advertising, in the payment of debts and in the growth of the organization in general.
Therefore, insert modernizations into your company’s day-to-day and trust technologies that have emerged especially to streamline and facilitate the essential tasks of the financial area and all departments.
And remember: the less bureaucracy, the more time for the team to devote to new products and projects!
