If you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll know that I strongly encourage checking in on your business finances as frequently as possible. I genuinely believe that this is one of the most important things we can do as business owners. Although many freelancers think that nothing could be more important than client work, you really do need to prioritise the numbers if you want to create a sustainable business that works for you in the long run.
Having a clear overview of your figures at all times and knowing exactly where your business is at will provide you with the information you need to make strategic business decisions and adjust your course of action when necessary.
When I wrote about how to carry out a monthly review back in March, I recommended taking a look at your finances on a weekly basis where possible. Since then, I’ve received a few questions from freelancers about what they should be looking at and whether weekly check-ins really do add any more value than monthly check-ins. So, in this blog post, I’m explaining why I think weekly check-ins can be beneficial, as well as sharing what I do when I look at my business finances once a week.
Why it’s a good idea to check in on your freelance business finances every week
The most practical reason for doing a weekly check-in is that you’ll know exactly where your business stands at all times. You’ll know how far off your income goal you are as well as what’s come in and gone out of your business accounts. To put it simply, you won’t have to deal with any unexpected surprises because you’ll always be aware of the current situation.
But besides helping you keep on top of things, I truly believe that weekly financial check-ins are an act of self-care. In the past, I’ve spoken about why your money mindset has a huge impact on your mental health, and I think that feeling in control of your finances is such an important part of this. By looking at your finances little and often, you’ll feel far more familiar with them, and, as I always say, familiarity breeds confidence.
I’m convinced that the more often we check in with our finances, the more confident we’ll feel when it comes to dealing with them.
Five financial tasks I carry out on a weekly basis
If I’ve managed to persuade you that a weekly financial check-in is a good idea and you’re wondering what you should be looking at, here are the five things I always make sure I do each week. This doesn’t mean you should necessarily be doing the same – I just want to share some ideas with you that I hope you’ll be able to use for inspiration.
1) Recording income and expenditure
Every week, I use online banking to enter all the transactions that have come into and gone out of my account in my income and expenditure spreadsheet. This gives me a clear overview of the current situation and how my business is performing.
I also use this data to check in with my monthly income goal and see how I’m doing. If we’re halfway through the month and I’ve not earnt as much as I was hoping, I might decide to take corrective action to make sure I hit my target by the end of the month. This could involve nudging a dormant client, writing to current clients to tell them I have some availability or marketing my services more actively than usual.
2) Checking my budget
After recording my income and expenditure, I always compare my expenditure to what I’d budgeted for. Have I spent more than I was planning to? If so, I’ll ask myself why this was, whether it was a truly necessary expense, and whether I can cut my spending elsewhere in the future to make up for it.
I’ll also look at any expenses that I know I’ve got coming up, and I’ll make sure there’s enough money in my account to cover them.
3) Reviewing my invoices
I then move on to my invoices and see if there are any due over the next few weeks. Perhaps I owe money to subcontractors, or maybe a membership subscription needs renewing. If there are invoices that require payment, I’ll pay any that I can afford to straightaway. That way, I can forget about them and know that I won’t have to deal with them in the future!
4) Checking in on payments
Once I’ve looked at the invoices I need to pay, I’ll make sure I check whether all the payments I was expecting to receive have come into my bank account. This could include checking that any payouts I was expecting from Stripe have come through and that any invoices that were due from customers this week have been paid.
If you do find overdue invoices that haven’t been paid, always make sure you chase them up with clients!
5) Transferring money between my accounts
In Charge with Confidence, we talk about the Profit First method where we discuss the possibility of setting up multiple accounts to transfer percentages of your income into ‘pots’ for different purposes. This is something that works really well for me, so each week I distribute my income between the relevant accounts.
All this makes me feel much more organised and in control of my business finances!
Financial checklist
To help you stay on top of your business finances, I’ve put together a checklist of financial tasks for you to download. It contains my go-to lists for both weekly and monthly reviews so you won’t find yourself sitting in front of your screen, wondering where to start.
I really hope you’ll find this download useful and that it’ll encourage you to carry out weekly and monthly check-ins so that you feel more familiar with your finances. My aim is to empower you so you feel confident when it comes to looking at the numbers in your business. If you’d like to take control of your finances, download my checklist by clicking on the button below.
