Your company is growing. So why are your finances still fatal?

Brings more revenues. You hired. You have expanded. But every time you ask for a margin report or a runway forecast, the answers are unclear. It seems that everybody has their very own version of those numbers.

Sounds familiar?

I work as a fractional financial director with developing firms around the world, normally from $ 2 million to $ 25 million. Here’s what I saw again and again: Business scaling. But finances got stuck.

Books are late. The indicators are unclear. Budgets are more guessing than a plan. And by some means, even with all success, the founder is afraid of money every month.

Here are 7 things that every developing company must fix it before your financial function becomes a bottleneck for all the pieces else.

1. Accounting is not a selection field. It’s a foundation

One of the first things I often ask about is that “How long do you close books after a month?”

If the answer lasts over 15 days, we are late.

You cannot afford delay on a scale. You need accurate, complete and timely finance – every month. And it is also on time! This means:

• Revenues and costs are registered in the relevant periods
• Clear account chart
• Proper treatment of calculation, taxes and corrections

If your numbers are not valid, you run in the dark. This is not a system. This is a survival mode.

2. Revenues mean nothing if you do not collect it

I saw firms with strong sales pipelines that still have difficulty setting wages on time. Why? Weak collections. The invoices come out late. The continuations are inconsistent. Credit conditions are unclear. And the balloon receivables quiet in the background. The worst thing is that finances and operations are disconnected. You still serve the customer, though you know that they have not paid for 180 days.

If you do not transform revenues into money, you do not scale – you simply accumulate receivables. Every developing business needs:

• Defined settlement and debt collection cycles
• Weekly tracking of money collection
• Credit limits at the account level and aging reports

The financial moment is treated as a reflection for sale, the money is squeezed. The scale only increases this pain. One day you’ll get up pondering: “Why don’t I have enough money at the bank?”

3. Your budget cannot simply be approximate respect

Budgeting is not only controlling expenses – it is about providing the company with a plan.

I help the founders go beyond the goals of the pitch, installing three key tools:

• AND 13-week money flow forecast which updates every week
• AND 12-month budget with functional responsibility
• AND 3-year Directional Forecast Attached to milestone

Companies that feel under control are not all the time people who have the best money.

They are with the purest view of the way it is used – and why.

4. Not all revenues are equal – focus on what he earns, not only what he sells

It’s amazing how many founders increase the highest revenues, while subsidizing low margin customers.

I cooperated with service firms, in which 60% of revenues got here from customers who, after taking into account the delivery costs, barely broke.

A big scale margin discipline is more essential than volume. You should know:

• Which products or services have the highest contribution
• Which customers or segments consistently increase profit
• Where discounting them on the margins

How often I say: “You don’t scale by selling more. You scale, selling more what actually works.”

5. General costs are not a strategy. These are investments with ROI

As firms develop, the overall costs expand without much control. You employ faster. Update tools. Expand the office space. Add layers. Social media has worsened because you must be seen as the next Google!

But more employees, more software and more structures do not all the time mean more output.

In my role I often ask:

• Does it “have to have” or “nice to have”?
• Can we associate this cost with the result: efficiency, revenues or scalability?
• Is the costs of applying layers without liability?

Growth without discipline results in burns without a return.

6. If you’ll be able to’t measure it, you’ll be able to’t fix it

When on board a recent customer I rarely look at P&L. I look at Reporting structure.

Are you:

• Do you review the burn indicator every month?
• Tracking real counters with the budget?
• Watching the margin compression in time?
• CAC, LTV and departure measurement (if concerned)?

Most financial reports are either too late, too basic or too disgusted.

You need reporting that helps you act. Not only admire the problem. Good reporting turns finances into a decision -making engine. Bad reports just let you know what has already gone mistaken.

7. Finance is not facilities. This is the basis for making decisions.

The founders often tell me that “they will reach finances later.”

But here is the reality: finance is all the time catching up with you. In diligence. At investor meetings. In money crises. It stumbles in expansion.

The founders who are in advance are those that:

• Employ finance specialists not only for recording, but for planning
• Build internal monthly rhythms
• Composing finance with a strategy (not only compatibility!)
• Require ROI from every dollar implemented

These firms do not grow with fear. They grow with clarity.

And when there is one other great decision – collecting funds, a large rental, a recent market – they already know what is possible, what costs and what returns.

Final thought

Your revenues can grow. But if your financial function does not evolve next to it, you do not scale – you guess.

Decution becomes expensive: bad prices, delayed collections, detached teams or omitted decisions.

But it may possibly even be prevented. You don’t need a financial department to begin. You need financial visibility, financial rhythm and financial discipline. Because when you stop guessing and begin to see, all the pieces changes.