Colfax

Feeling overwhelmed by data? You’re not alone, but it’s time to take control. As a CEO, board member, or business owner, you're no stranger to being bombarded with data—charts, reports, spreadsheets—enough to make your head spin. More information doesn't always mean better decisions. In fact, it often leads to "data puking," where you're drowning in details but starved for clarity, resulting in decision paralysis. The truth is, effective leadership isn’t about having endless data; it's about having the right data—clear, concise, and actionable. When you cut through the clutter to focus on what truly matters, you empower yourself to make decisions that drive real progress. If you're tired of information overload and want to regain control of your decision-making process, let’s connect. Together, we can streamline your data strategy and turn insights into impactful actions. #Leadership #DecisionMaking #BusinessStrategy #DataDriven #CEO #BoardLeadership #BusinessGrowth

It can be challenging to foster productive Boardroom discussions without clear visibility into a business's finances. Accurate and transparent reporting is crucial for meaningful financial conversations. Business owners and Directors must recognise the cost of poor financial transparency. Fortunately, for most SMEs, improving reporting standards is achievable, ensuring leaders have the insights needed to drive better financial results. #Finance #Transparency #Leadership #SMEs #BusinessGrowth #FinancialReporting #Boardroom

When I first meet with SMEs, a common thread of issues often presents itself. It often looks something like this: • Month-end closes drag on for weeks • Inconsistent processes mean key details—like accruals or intercompany transactions—are missed entirely. • Disparate data sets in various systems (spreadsheets!) require significant time to reconcile. Business owners and their advisors rely on timely, accurate financials to guide decision making. But when the foundation is chaos it just doesn’t work. At Colfax, we help businesses eliminate this chaos by focusing on three critical areas: 1️⃣ Processes: Streamlining the month-end close so it’s fast and accurate. 2️⃣ Technology: Helping get the right technology in place and then automating processes where possible.  3️⃣ People: Ensuring everyone in the financial processes is trained with the skills need for their part in the process. When these elements are in place, the transformation happens quickly. Reports are ready in days—not weeks – and the outputs from the process provide complete transparency to financial performance. Ultimately, business owners and their advisors can focus on building the business, not firefighting. If you’re constantly chasing financial transparency for your business that you should have had yesterday, let’s talk. At Colfax, we specialise in helping businesses break this cycle. #FinancialClarity #Business #SMEFinance #DataDrivenDecisions #CFO #BusinessAdvisory

In SME boardroom discussions, it's not uncommon for board members to hesitate when it comes to asking questions during finance discussions. They can worry about appearing uninformed about topics they feel they should understand. This reticence can hinder effective communication and decision-making. That's why it's crucial for the person presenting the finances, whether it's the CFO or Head of Finance, to proactively engage with board members. By ensuring they understand the reports and offering additional clarification outside the boardroom, we can foster a more open and robust discussion in the boardroom. #FinanceLeadership #SME #NFP #BoardMembers #FinancialClarity #Leadership #Transparency

In their support of SMEs, I see finance professionals normally gravitate towards prioritising one of two areas of support. In my experience, a third priority (call it a mindset) is often more helpful for bringing value to the SME. First, the two focus areas that I see most finance professionals prioritise are: 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲: Some professionals orientate almost entirely towards compliance matters, unfortunately giving little attention to insights that could help drive financial performance. 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲: In this situation, the finance professional believes their primary role is to tell the business 'how to make more profit.' Often without the experience in the SME's business to be helpful. Both compliance and advice are obviously critical roles for the finance professional. However, many SMEs are best served when their finance professional (CFO, finance manager, accountant) acts as a 𝗴𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲 to help the SME leadership team understand the business' finances. 𝙇𝙚𝙩 𝙢𝙚 𝙚𝙭𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙞𝙣.... When acting as a guide, the finance professional first seeks to help the SME’s leadership to: • Understand the finances – profitability, cash flow, balance sheet ratios, etc. • Highlight areas where the numbers suggest the business is getting off track • Present items of interest in the finances that the leadership team may not be aware of  • Provide updates on whether strategic initiatives are translating into improved results • Understand the anticipated future financial position of the business based on business plans (ie forecasting) Along with presenting the above, the finance professional in the role of 𝗴𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲 uses questions to guide the team towards items to consider to improve performance.  𝙒𝙝𝙮 𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙖𝙘𝙝 𝙨𝙤 𝙥𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙛𝙪𝙡? Business leaders are the ones at the coal face of the business every day. They know it’s every intimate detail. They’re often also the founders of the business, meaning they’ve been there since day one – often for the last 10, 20…40 years. Therefore, it’s often far more valuable if the finance professional brings a ‘finance lens’ to the business that compliments the business owner’s and leadership team's experience. Compliance and Advice are obviously important roles of the finance professional. However, having a mindset of a 𝗴𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲 is one way in which I think you get the finance professional better complimenting the business knowledge within the SME and ultimately driving better financial results. p.s. Send me a DM if you’d like to discuss how you can receive a more guided approach to managing your business's finances. #SMEs #Finance #CFO #BusinessSupport #FinancialGuidance #Compliance #BusinessAdvice

Beautiful morning for flying, ABX to MEL. Great day yesterday with the fabulous leadership team of StraBe Group and Bendcraft Products in Albury/Wodonga. ✈️ wheels up 🛫

Proactively seeking feedback from Board members and Leadership Teams on financial reporting is crucial. It enhances financial discussions, refines reporting, and drives continuous improvement. Finance leads should be asking their Board and Leadership Team: - 'What's missing?' - 'What additional information is needed?' - 'What's not understood?' Asking these questions will lift the quality of your finance discussions and drive performance. #Leadership #FinancialReporting #AICD #PerformanceImprovement #Management

At Colfax, we believe that the value of a quick end-of-month financial process lies in its ability to orientate your business' leadership team towards being forward-looking and driving financial performance. While accelerating the financial close process is often emphasised, it's crucial to understand why it's important. A swift financial close ensures that your team spends less time on past performance and more time planning for future growth. #business #management #growth #futurefocused #SMEs

Having led a lot of Board finance discussions for businesses under $30m in turnover, I believe a concise pack of approximately three to five pages typically works a treat. A rough outline of those pages would often look something like this: 𝗣𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝟭 - 𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗦𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗔𝗶𝗺: Provide a quick snapshot of YTD P&L result. Figures/visuals to include on the page: • Summarised P&L clearly visualising favourable/unfavourable variances to budget • Bar Chart of Month-by-Month Profit Result clearly showing variance to budget (or PY) • Line graph showing cumulative revenue YTD vs budget. 𝗣𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀 𝟮 – 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗔𝗶𝗺: Provide the Board a view of the performance of the financial metrics that are clear indicators of the financial performance of the business. Examples of what this may include are: • Gross Profit % • Wage Costs & Contractor Spend • Wage Costs to Revenue% • MRR - Monthly Recurring Revenue • Overhead Expense to Revenue • Trend in Breakeven Sales  • Revenue Per FTE 𝗣𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝟯 – 𝗖𝗮𝘀𝗵 𝗙𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗕𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗦𝗵𝗲𝗲𝘁 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝗶𝘀 𝗔𝗶𝗺: Provide the Board visibility to any risks surrounding insolvent trading, but also visibility to the balance sheet health and drivers of the business’ cash flows. Examples of visuals that I think are helpful: • Cash Flow Statement visualising cash from Operations, Investing, and Financing activities. • Working Capital Trend • Current Ratio • Debtor Days  • Inventory Days  • Creditor Days  • Loans/Debit Obligations • NOTE: I usually include the full BS as an appendix. 𝗣𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀 𝟰/𝟱 – 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝗶𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗨𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗹𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗗𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀 & 𝗔𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗔𝗶𝗺: Go deeper on the underlying drivers of financial performance of interest for the Board. Examples of items that might be relevant: • Sales in Pipeline • Proposals in Progress • Occupancy Rates  • Customer Retention Rates • Customer Satisfaction Scores • Marketing Campaign Performance • Product/Service Development Updates Why do I think a three to five page pack does the trick for most businesses? I’ve often seen well-intended Boards sacrifice valuable time to matters that they themselves would say don’t warrant their attention, but they look at it because it’s there (it’s like click bait for Boards 😄). This obviously takes their attention away from key strategic matters to which they want to give their attention. At the same time, single-page financial (or shorter) presentations to Boards risk not providing enough information for Directors to fulfil their duties. Every business is unique. Some Boards will have very different requirements from what I've outlined above. However, I've seen the above cover a lot of bases. #BoardFinance #BusinessStrategy #CompanyDirectors #FinancialPerformance #AustralianBusiness #AICD

The Rule of 40 is a familiar concept to most tech businesses. Are you integrating this metric into your financial narrative? If the Rule of 40 is relevant to your business, it’s essential to track and communicate it effectively through your reporting to stakeholders. Xero made the Rule of 40 a North Star metric, clearing communicating their aim and journey of getting to 40. Their success in getting there was well received by investors. How are you telling a compelling financial story that highlights your capital efficiency? #TechFinance #RuleOf40 #CapitalEfficiency #BusinessGrowth #Profitability