BUSINESS OWNERS: The financial audit you need right now

* Transcript created by AI – may contain errors or omissions from original podcast audio

This episode of the podcast is for the business owners out there. We are already one quarter down in this year, and you might be wondering where is the year disappearing to? You probably had big goals that you set for yourself at the start of the year, the revenue targets, and maybe you were kicking goals or maybe you aren’t.

In any case, today I’m gonna share with you how to take some time out and do a financial audit of quarter one so you can see how you are actually tracking for the year and take some learnings so that you can make the rest of 2026 your best year yet.

Just a quick note before we dive in. Everything I share on this podcast is general in nature and does not take your personal circumstances into account. I’m not a licensed financial advisor, and nothing you hear on this podcast should be taken as personalised, financial, business, taxation or investment advice.

Before you make any financial decisions, please seek guidance from your accountant or a qualified licensed financial advisor who understands your specific situation.

So if you’re having a listen, maybe you’re already right across your numbers, but most likely you aren’t. As your resident numbers geek, I wanna encourage you to carve out some time this week and actually review how you’ve been tracking for the year. For a lot of business owners, this is the time of year where things start to drift.

And I want you to treat your business like a business. And where we’re gonna start is with a quarterly financial audit, a really honest look at what’s been going on underneath the hood of your business.

So step number one. What you’re gonna do is review your p and l or your profit and loss report for the last three months. So what you’re gonna do is look at it month by month, not just as a total for the quarter.

What you are doing in this review is really getting into the details of what you are earning. What you are spending and how profitable or otherwise your business actually is. When you are looking at your month by month review, what you’re gonna be looking at is, was revenue consistent? So are you making about the same sales each month or is it up, down, and all over the place?

Similarly with expenses, you’re gonna be having a look. Have they been pretty consistent or are they creeping up? And of  course, you are going to be looking at how much profit or loss did you make each month and for the quarter. So once you’ve done that, now this is important. What you are going to do is compare it quarter on quarter.

And what I mean by that is if you are having a look at January to March, compare it to October, December, and year on year. So have a look at what you did January to March this year versus January to March last year, because if your profit is down, or if your expenses are growing faster than your income, we really need to dive in.

Understand exactly what’s going on. Now, perhaps it was intentional, so maybe you were planning, Hey, this is gonna be a year where I’m gonna lean in, in quarter one. Gonna be spending a bit more on marketing or team, or systems, whatever it might be. Or perhaps your costs have just blown out and therefore your profit is down and it actually wasn’t part of your plan at all.

So that’s step number one. Step number two is to check your balance sheet. Now, I know this is where you might start to mentally check out. You think, oh, balance sheet. That sounds boring, but stay with me because your balance sheet tells you the health of your business. When you are looking at your balance sheet, some key things I really want you to look at.

First of all, your cash at bank. How much money have you actually got? Is there a buffer in there? Have a look at your debts and liabilities. How much do you actually owe? And basically what your balance sheet tells you is the difference between your assets, which is what you own versus your liabilities, what you owe to give you your owner’s equity.

Which is what you are actually worth as a business because you can be really busy and still be in a risky position as a business. So step number three, and this is gonna come as part of your balance sheet review, is having a look at your receivables. Now, as soon as I say that you might want to, Clare, what exactly are receivables?

Here’s how a helpful way to think of it. So think of receive as what you are waiting to receive. So your accounts receivable is money that you are awaiting to receive coming in. So what your accounts receivable are is who owes you money. And this is really important because unpaid invoices are basically money you’ve earned but haven’t been paid yet.

And the reason this is important, and the reason you really wanna be across this is because the longer someone doesn’t pay you an invoice, the less chance you have of ever actually receiving that money back. So with accounts receivable, the trick is you want to be recovering the money as quickly as possible.

So now’s a good reminder. Run your accounts receivable report, and then if there are amounts outstanding, are you actually following them up? Because if your cashflow feels tight right now, this could be where the problem is hiding. All right, step number four in your financial review is to review your tax position now.

As soon as I say tax, a lot of business owners love to glaze over, ignore until it bites them. So here’s what you’re gonna do. Have a conversation with your accountant and ask, how much tax do I owe so far this year? How much should I have set aside, not just for your boss. But also if your company tax and your personal income tax, because you are gonna be accruing tax along the way.

It’s also worth asking your accountant, are there other things I need to allow for? For example, if you’ve sold an asset this year, you might have to pay capital gains tax on it. So sit down, ask the questions. Because I really want you to know when it comes to your tax, am I all good or am I headed for a nasty surprise if I don’t do things differently?

And this is also the time, like if you’re having a meeting with your accountant, also start having a think about your tax planning, because trust me, you hit up your accountant in the last three days of June when everyone else is panicking. They’re probably not gonna be help you. So the time to think about this is now because the best tax strategies only work when you give them time.

Okay? Now, here is the part that most people skip. When you are going through and doing this financial audit, you don’t just wanna look at the numbers and go, oh, that’s depressing, or, oh, yay, I’m doing great. The whole point of this review of this audit, of this exercise is for decision making because your numbers are trying to tell you something.

They might be showing you where you’re leaking money, what is actually profitable in your business. Maybe you’ve got some product lines that are actually losing you money or clients what needs to change. And what do you need to actually do differently to change or improve your profitability as you go forward?

And this my friends, is where the real work begins because when you know your numbers, you stop guessing and start leading your business like a CEO. Now, if you’re listening to this episode and you’re thinking, yeah, look, this all sounds great, but honestly. I hate numbers. I have no idea what I’m actually looking at how to run these reports or even where to begin.

That’s okay because most business owners were never taught how to run their numbers properly, which is exactly why I wanna help you. So listen up. Here’s what I’m offering. I’m opening up 10 financial audits for business owners and get this, it’s free. So here’s how it’ll work. You’ll apply, and if you are one of the 10 who I accept, you’ll then send through your numbers and I’ll actually meet with you and walk you through what your numbers are actually saying, where you are losing money, because there’s almost always something that’s been missed, where the growth opportunities are and what your next steps are.

So you’ll walk away from this financial audit with real clarity and real actions to improve your profit this year. Yes. It’s completely free to have this one-on-one session with me, so you might be listening and thinking, so what’s the catch? It’s not a catch, if you are one of the chosen businesses and you do love this analysis and think, I wanna take this work further.

I’m gonna share with you how we can continue to work together. It’s not gonna be a high pressure sales push or anything like that, but I do know that quite often when people, business owners see the power of actually understanding their numbers, they’re gonna say, I want more. So 10 free financial audits.

If you want one of those positions to really dive in your numbers, get a bit more clarity. You can apply via the link in the show notes for today’s episode because even if you don’t wanna continue working together after that session, you’ll still leave with some insights that could completely change your financial trajectory for the rest of the year.

There’s only 10 free spots. Click on the link in the show notes for today’s episode to apply now for your free business financial audit. Something to sit with. To wrap up today’s episode, the business owners who  win this year aren’t the ones who are working harder. They’re the ones who are paying attention to their numbers and making smarter business decisions, and let’s make sure that you’re one of them.

Thank you so much for tuning in to today’s episode of The Intentional Money Show with Clare Wood. I can’t wait to hear how you get on. Make sure you send me a DM on Instagram and let me know if you actually got in and did your financial audit, or maybe you might be one of the lucky people that get to work one-on-one with me to complete it.

* Transcript created by AI – may contain errors or omissions from original podcast audio