Spring Cleaning: Your Mid-Year Budget Review Checklist

If you’ve noticed that prices at the grocery store are higher than usual these days, then you’re not alone. However, the current economic crisis isn’t just affecting families shopping for groceries and other goods. It’s also impacting businesses, with companies of all sizes struggling to achieve their goals without breaking the bank. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to keep your business moving forward regardless of market changes.

By assessing your financial circumstances at various points in the year, you can anticipate future problems, heading off issues before they appear. In particular, we recommend you engage in mid-year fiscal spring cleaning. As we approach the halfway point of 2023, it’s a good time to take a close look at your budget and determine where you and your team are succeeding versus falling short. The goal is to examine your objectives for the year and see if and where changes should be made. Keep reading to learn more about the importance of a mid-year budget review and discover our expert tips for financial success.

Mid-Year Budget Review: Look at Your Goals

The first step in an effective mid year budget review checklist is examining and evaluating your goals for the year. Read over your objectives and consider how the business is doing in light of the targets set by you and your team. If your company has been underperforming the last few months, try to determine why sales are lagging or projects taking longer than expected to complete. In some cases, you may need to remove a product or service from your list of offerings or find a new way of connecting with your customer base. 

Assess Your Workforce

Of course, failing to meet your financial goals doesn’t automatically mean something is wrong with your product line. Instead, your business may be struggling because of issues related to its workforce. For example, maybe your company has failed to find team members for key roles. Then again, it’s possible the business allocated labor incorrectly, and they need to move people to different teams or departments for better balance. The middle of the year is a great time to review workforce planning and determine what changes need to be made to achieve your goals in the coming months. Additionally, investing in a cloud-based financial platform can help team members communicate virtually. The end result is that experts can view data and weigh in on key decisions no matter where in the world they’re located.

Count Cash Flow

Cash is king for a reason. Regardless of the type of business you operate, healthy cash flow is crucial for paying employee salaries, operational costs, and taxes as well as investing in any new opportunities that come your way. To that end, the mid-year budget review is a great time to examine your cash flow. We recommend looking at not only the amount of money coming in and out but also the timing of the financial flow. After all, cash flow is indicative of business health, and companies with slow monetary collections may have a hard time paying the bills in a timely fashion. 

Consider Budgetary Changes

Just because your financial plans made sense when you first made them doesn’t mean they’re still meeting your needs today. From market changes to economic slowdowns, there are various reasons that your well-laid plans could require a revamp. If your mid-year budget review reveals missteps, look for ways to reign in your budget. Doing this ensures you have the money you need to take your company in a more profitable direction. For best results, talk to multiple employees about ways to reduce costs and ensure a majority of the team is on board before making big changes. You can even challenge workers to submit ideas for improving productivity and efficiency. 

You can’t correct your company’s missteps if you don’t know about them. By conducting a thorough mid-year budget review this spring, you can see what’s working as intended and what needs adjustment. Additionally, you can set updated goals for the next two quarters and determine whether your current workforce and resources are sufficient for achieving them. Fortunately, Centage can help you keep your business on solid financial footing. Our cloud planning and analytics tool, Centage provides businesses with year-round financial intelligence. Not only can you integrate budgeting, forecasting, and deep data analysis, but you can also identify and present opportunities to your team. Using this unique platform, you can achieve an exciting new level of speed, efficiency, and flexibility.