Articles

Implementing Benchmark Analysis Improvements to your Client’s Business

Sometimes you’ll need to set a few progressive targets, to get a client from a ‘poor’ position, to a ‘best practice’ standard. Here is an example. Suppose you have a client who is a real ‘basket case’ of a business: too much stock; debtors don’t pay on time; the company doesn’t charge enough for their […]

Why Advisors Should Benchmark Their Clients Against Competitors

As a business owner, competition can be intimidating. However, it can also drive to achieve impressive results. The important factor is knowing how to beat the competition. With this sentiment in mind, for business owners and advisors, gathering intelligence on a business’s competitors in a systematic and rigorous format is critical to success. What are [...]

Employee Productivity – Business Benchmark

In the Australian business environment, particularly for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)..Read More

‘Businesses within a business’ – Applying different ‘models’ to the same business

Many businesses are ‘mixes’ of basic revenue models – and in particular, are a mix of ‘retail’ and ‘labour-based’ models. So to analyse it effectively, you might need to think differently about each part of the business, using a different ‘model’ in the process. Here are a few examples to prove the point: [...]

How Do I ‘Benchmark’ a Business? Three Mindsets for Advisors

At different stages during the process of Benchmarking a firm, your mindset needs to change. Here are the key stages that you’ll need work through as you help a client to devise concrete plans for a better, stronger business: 1. At first, your role is essentially a clerical one: converting the financial data about the [...]

The Silent Disruption of the Accounting Industry

As Featured in the Australian Financial Review on 19/6/19. Amidst the protest of taxi drivers against ride-sharing, the headlines of more manufacturing companies closing and uproar over telecommunications jobs moving overseas, the mature accounting industry is quietly undergoing a dramatic innovation transition. And, the $1Billion Australian FinTech Industry is not the only one to blame. [...]

Interest Cover Benchmark Calculation

How it’s Calculated Total Net Profit (before owners’ salaries & remuneration) = _____________________________________ Total Interest expense How it’s Used Higher results show that the business is highly capable of servicing its interest expenses. Interest cost is often not reported on its own – it also includes Bank and Credit Card charges. As a result, [...]

Instant asset write-off for small businesses

In case you didn’t know there’s a $30,000 instant asset write-off for small businesses If businesses are wanting to purchase assets, now may be the time given recent changes to the instant asset write-off (IAWO) thresholds. The IAWO was first introduced in 2015 as a means to help small businesses through a period of economic […]

Growth Capacity Benchmark Calculation

How it’s Calculated Growth Capacity calculation: $ of Net Profit – ($ of Current assets - $ of Current liabilities) = ______________________________________ x 100 Turnover How it’s Used This ratio shows whether [...]