A Comprehensive List Of Resources For Franchises

Trusted CFO Solutions works with multi-location franchise owners to find money, save time, and provide growth advice. As a result, we come across common problems unique to the franchises, and to further equip and support our customers we’ve put together the following resource link center to help understand, resolve, the many problems franchise owners face.

Are You Ready to Regain 50% of Your Time & Add More Money To Your Business?

As a CEO or CFO, you want to significantly increase the efficiency and function of your finance department. Imagine what you could do if you regained 50% of your time and saved your company thousands of dollars?

Client Interview: Stars And Strikes Survives The Challenge Of Change And Saves Time And Money!

When we sat down to talk with Debby Ritnour, the second employee at 14-year-old Stars and Strikes, and Controller of thirteen locations, she didn’t hesitate to tell us how monumental a task it was for her and her team to make the switch from Quickbooks to Sage Intacct for nine of their stores.

Franchises: Are You Ready to Take Your Time Back and Boost Your Capacity For Growth?

Sage Intacct is structured to work well with multi-location franchisers. We show you how you can increase the numbers at your best-performing stores, how to create the benchmarks, and then drive the performance at the worst-performing stores.

When Migrating To Sage Intacct, Bring Your Historical Data Along For The Ride

What happens to my financial history (even the old stuff) when it comes to switching systems? Does the baby go out with the bathwater?

The short answer is, you can bring your historical data with you, and when we migrate that data as part of your implementation, you’ll get the opportunity to leverage that data in ways you’ve never been able to do before.

With Trusted CFO Solutions Your Capacity for Franchise Growth Increases

How well does your current financial solution serve you and your franchise team?

We show you how to get the numbers you’re getting at your best-performing stores, and how you create benchmarks to improve performance at the worst-performing stores.

Organizing for Growth By Seth Godin

“Maybe it’s (finally) working. Maybe demand is up, opportunities keep presenting themselves and people want to work with you. So why are you so stressed out? It might be because different organizational choices lead to different paths for growth.”

Franchising Your Restaurant

Joe’s career has focused on helping early-stage franchisors achieve their expansion goals while avoiding common industry pitfalls. Clients often remark that he brings order to the chaos of the start-up process, and bestows peace of mind for their franchise’s future. Joe shares his insight for franchising in this Powerpoint presentation.

Digital Marketing Strategies for Franchises (Infographic)

Here’s how to use the power of search, social media, email, and more to increase your visibility. As more and more entrepreneurs open franchises in the U.S, the competition is becoming fiercer. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to make your franchise stand out and succeed in this crowded market, starting with effective digital marketing strategies.

Why Most Restaurants Fail

“Have you heard of the two percent time bomb? The accumulation of numerous small, yet overlooked, expenditures will lead to a high-pressure situation. Stop throwing money away, and keep your doors open for business!”

Watch this webcast now and learn how to shepherd those dollars for minimizing wasteful spending and maximizing your income. What you learn in this session from Dixie McCurley & Steve Gross could be the difference between your restaurant succeeding and failing.

The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

The ONE Thing is a book for busy people.

Authors Gary Keller and Jay Papasan demonstrate that the results you get are directly influenced by the way you work and your choices. You’ll learn how to identify the lies that block your success and the thieves that steal time from your day. By focusing on your ONE Thing, you can accomplish more by doing less. What’s your ONE Thing?

These Are The Reasons To Outsource Your Back Office

“Business operations are undergoing a sea change of disruption caused by many factors. First, globalization has created markets and demand for almost all products purchased online and delivered by global systems to anywhere for anyone. Second, labor skills and costs are now distributed around the world, so customer support and administrative activities are now performed by a qualified and educated workforce around the world.”

Social Media Marketing For Franchising Brands

“Looking at the latest franchise marketing trends, we will uncover several easy tactics to turn social media platforms into powerful marketing channels to build brand awareness while ensuring brand consistency, acquire more leads for your franchisees, turn social networks into an effective recruitment tool, improve customer service, turn followers into brand advocates, and generally take your franchise marketing to a whole new level.”

Local SEO For Franchises Means Teamwork

“SEO is commonly viewed as one of the most challenging marketing activities to orchestrate across a national-to-local network. In addition to trying to figure out how to “win” at SEO in general, franchise businesses also often face the unique dilemma of needing multiple sites from the same domain to rank well in search results. Localization no doubt comes to mind immediately as the solution to this problem.”

The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It

“Michael Gerber dispels the myths surrounding starting your own business and shows how commonplace assumptions can get in the way of running a business. He walks you through the steps in the life of a business from entrepreneurial infancy, through adolescent growing pains, to the mature entrepreneurial perspective, the guiding light of all businesses that succeed.”

How to Succeed As a Franchisee

While franchising’s prevalence in the U.S. economy indicates that franchisees can succeed, hundreds of franchisees fail each year. The most frequent causes: lack of funds, poor people skills, reluctance to follow the formula, a mismatch between franchisee and the business, and poor management. Often, it’s the small stuff that separates winners from losers.

IDEMA. A Framework For Capturing & Sustaining Ideas.

IDEMA, Ideate > Discover > Execute > Maintain > Audit, is a problem-solving structure that helps organize a business. It guides the creation process for making a living blueprint for your project, department, or company. Every idea has a place, where does it now belong?

Process Street

“Process Management frees you from worrying about all the details. Keep your team organized. Assign or automate tasks. Track progress. Train new employees.”

Financial Models

Financial models are the track to run on to measure each operating component of your franchise company. It has taken years to develop customized franchisor financial reports. These are the most important executive tools to start your franchise company, and yet they do not exist in the open market.

How to Finance Your Franchise

“When considering finance options for a franchise opportunity, the best strategy is to take a personal inventory of your resources first, before deciding on one path or another. There are many creative options and strategies to utilize.”

13 Mistakes New Franchisees Make — And How To Avoid Them

On its face, opening a franchise may seem like a simple way to run your own business. But beware, rarely is business simple and in the franchise world, the business is never really yours.

Do Things the Hard Way Every Once In a While to Improve Your Process

If you can do something the easy way or the hard way, why would you ever pick the hard way? While the easy way is fine most of the time, you might want to try the more difficult path every once in a while to learn how to improve your process.

Outgrowing Quickbooks?

Say goodbye to spreadsheet reporting and manual consolidations and start using a cloud-based financial management system.

Learn More

Related Content

Wrap-Up: Reimagine Your Month-End Close with Sage Intacct

As the end of the month approaches, many finance and accounting teams brace themselves for the hectic period known as the month-end close. In our previous articles, we have explored different aspects of the month-end close, including where to begin, how to speed up the close, and best practices with Sage Intacct to overcome the challenges that prevent a smooth monthly close. In this article, we outlined the key points from this series and provided additional insights to help your team master the month-end close.

Where to Begin: Your Comprehensive Checklist

Staying organized at the end of the month can be overwhelming. With so many moving parts and crucial deadlines to meet, to say it’s challenging is an understatement. A smooth, efficient, and successful month-end close is the goal of every business, but how do you get there? Start with a checklist! To make the close process easier, establish clear deadlines and task ownership to establish accountability for all parts of the process. Preparation and attention to detail are essential when building your checklist to ensure all financial records are up-to-date and accurate. Read the full article: A Checklist for Success

Shortening the Monthly Close Without Cutting Corners

The month-end close is a notoriously lengthy process, leading to a backlog of work and creating unnecessary stress. It can take 5-10 days for a typical business to close the books at the end of each month, and many aren’t well-equipped to speed up this process. By using automation tools powered by software and technology, you can fast-track your monthly close and reduce manual tasks that take up too much of your valuable time. Read the full article: Techniques to Slash Your Month-End Close

Navigating Challenges of the Monthly Close

At the end of each month, businesses and their finance teams — especially smaller ones still adjusting to closing the books each month — face numerous challenges affecting progress and financial accuracy. The month-end close often presents challenges to companies. Four of the most common challenges we explored include:

Data inconsistency and endless spreadsheet management
A lack of clearly defined processes for the close
Being reactive to monthly events rather than proactive
Outdated software and limited financial insights

Read the full article: Decoding the Challenges of the Month-End Close

Sage Intacct Strategies for a Smooth Month-End Close

In its most basic sense, the month-end close involves closing out the books for the month and providing a full financial overview. However, this involves hours of time and grunt work checking data accuracy, ensuring regulatory compliance, and meeting deadlines for financial reporting. Sage Intacct is a robust accounting software that can help streamline the month-end close process and simplify daunting tasks. Implementing a continuous close approach, automated workflows, and leveraging a customized chart of accounts will keep you flexible and unlock better performance insights. Read the full article: Best Practices to Perfect Your Month-End Close With Sage Intacct If you want to learn more about incorporating these tips and strategies into your monthly processes, contact us today! Our team of advisors will help you master the month-end close so you can focus on more strategic activities to drive business success.

Best Practices to Perfect Your Month-End Close With Sage Intacct

As your business reaches the end of each month, your finances require precise maintenance, but that also means diving headfirst into endless spreadsheets and financial statements —an absolute nightmare. The cloud accounting solution, Sage Intacct, is an excellent resource to keep your financials on track by creating an efficient month-end close without the headache or hassle of sorting through documents and tracking mistakes. By following a few simple steps and taking advantage of its robust reporting capabilities, your business will stay organized, precise, and ready to start the new month. Let’s take a look at the benefits and best practices for a month-end close with Sage Intacct.

Benefits of the Month-End Close with Sage Intacct

Sage Intacct offers a range of features and integrated tools that help organizations reduce the time and effort needed for the month-end close, making the process simpler and ensuring the financial information is accurate and reliable Here are a few key benefits to using Sage Intacct during your month-end close:

Integrates with your existing systems, such as Salesforce, to eliminate the need for manual data entry and maintain data consistency.
Streamlines invoicing and payment processes help you get paid faster and reduce the time it takes to close out the month.
Uses one set of financials and multi-dimensional reporting with an integrated General Ledger and real-time views of current and historical data.
Allows user-defined workflows to improve efficiency, compliance, and transparency, providing consistent audit trail visibility.
Accruals and reversals are automated, and entries are visible at all times, reducing the manual work needed for journal entries and reconciliations.
Identifies variances and anomalies that don’t comply with accounting standards with intuitive dashboards and reports that work based on your preset conditions.

Best Practices

Your accountant is under a lot of pressure at the end of the month to manage the close in a timely manner. With Sage Intacct, you can alleviate some of that pressure and ensure your organization’s financials are accurate, secure, and provide powerful insights. Incorporating the following best practices to get the most out of your month-end close:

Establish a Continuous Close. A continuous close is a different approach to the monthly reporting cycle that aims to reduce the time and effort required for the close process. It provides real-time data and involves ongoing data management throughout the entire accounting cycle rather than at the end of the month.
Implement Automated Workflows. Sage Intacct provides the ability to set up pre-defined workflows for efficiently closing the period-end accounts and automating tasks like data entry, journal entry creation, and account reconciliations. Combining the power of automation and the continuous close allows for a much simpler period-end, freeing up time to focus on other important business activities.
Customize Your Chart of Accounts With Dimensions. Your chart of accounts allows for greater flexibility and tracking with Sage Intacct Dimensions. You can customize it to suit your organization’s specific needs, categorizing the information by company, department, or other key dimension values.

Move Beyond Traditional Manual Processes With Sage Intacct

In the world of modern business and new advancements, companies need to leverage technology to stay competitive and drive growth. By moving beyond traditional manual processes and adopting a cloud-based financial management solution like Sage Intacct, you can streamline your month-end close process, improve data accuracy, and gain deeper insights into the performance of your business. If you’re ready to optimize your processes and leverage real-time reporting, get in touch with our financial advisors today.

Decoding the Challenges of the Month-End Close

The month-end close is a critical process, and even more so because it affects all aspects of a business. Unfortunately, this process isn’t always smooth, and mistakes can happen, but having the right tools and systems in place helps ensure everything is correct, allowing you to use the month-end close to your advantage. Our ongoing blog series explores how businesses successfully complete the monthly close: highlighting tools, checklists, and guidelines to prepare for month-end closing and better estimating how long the closing process will take. We wanted to dig deeper and look at the specific challenges companies face when closing their books at the end of the month.

Challenge 1: Data Lives in Spreadsheet Madness

When it comes to your month-end close, data is king. But when your data lives scattered across multiple spreadsheets, gathering and organizing everything in time for the close can be challenging. Spreadsheets are also prone to human error, and the last thing you need is to spend countless hours tracking down the source of an error. All it takes is one misplaced decimal point or added keystroke for an incorrect entry, and suddenly your entire financial report is inaccurate.

Challenge 2: Lack of Clearly Defined Processes

Without a clear understanding of what needs to be done and when, you’re left stumbling around in the dark, increasing the risk of errors and omissions, which can have serious consequences. Starting with a detailed checklist to define the steps of the close and establish roles and responsibilities will help set you up for a more successful close.

Challenge 3: Being Reactive Rather Than Proactive During the Month-End

You shouldn’t be functioning in constant crisis management mode. If you’re always reacting to issues as they come up and not addressing the root cause of the problem, you’re going to keep encountering the same issues month after month. Here are three ways that reactivity can make the month-end close more difficult:

Lack of visibility: By only reacting to issues as they arise, you’re not getting a clear picture of the overall process. This lack of visibility can make it difficult to identify areas for improvement and can hinder your ability to make strategic decisions.
Time constraints: Reacting to issues is time-consuming and leaves little time for analysis or optimization. It’s easy to get bogged down in the details and lose sight of more important closing activities.
Increased risk: When you’re dashing to meet deadlines and constantly putting out fires, you’re more likely to overlook or miss important details altogether.

Challenge 4: Outdated Software Causing Limited Financial Insight

Many accounting teams lack the resources and tools to efficiently handle the month-end close. This makes it difficult to understand performance from one period to the next and limits their ability to have access to real-time financial insights. Fortunately, modern cloud solutions like Sage Intacct make it easy to unify financial operations and increase visibility into your business, bridging the gap between siloed, manual processes and dynamic, real-time visibility. With a more advanced and up-to-date platform, gain key insights and build better processes to make the month-end close easier and faster to manage. Learn more about how to overcome these challenges with our tips for best practices in our upcoming blog, or get in touch with our trusted financial advisors.

Fast-Track Your Financials: Techniques to Slash Your Month-End Close

We know that you’re all too familiar with the fact that managing your company’s finances is a never-ending, ongoing task. Your accountant is the unsung hero who supports you through all the ups and downs of your financial journey. But even the most experienced accountants face their own set of challenges, especially when it comes to the monthly close. Follow along in our newest blog series as we explore the challenges and discover best practices for improving the process. From techniques for tackling issues head-on to tips for what not to do, we will walk you through the steps to create more efficient workflows and master the month-end close. In this article, we’ve highlighted strategies to help reduce the time it takes to complete the close and free up valuable resources for your business.

The Month-End Close Takes Longer Than You Think

So, how long does the month-end close take? It can take anywhere from 5-10 days, and businesses often need help expediting the tasks associated with the monthly close cycle. Several factors can drastically impact the amount of time needed to close the books, including:

Company size
Complexity of transactional data
Incomplete or inaccurate data
Reliance on manual activities
Communication gaps
Lack of collaboration
Number of systems used for storing financial data
Level of prior preparation
Unexpected external events

Understanding the factors that impact the month-end close and how to streamline your process will help you create more efficient workflows and significantly shorten the monthly close.

Less Stress Leads to More Success: Why a Faster Monthly Close Is Key

Faster and more accurate closing cycles ensure your advisors, CFOs, and controllers have up-to-date financial data to base important decisions. Shortening the month-end close means the long nights, exhaustive calculations, and intense planning will reduce to a fraction of the original time, keeping workloads light and stress-free! Here are some ways you can shorten the month-end close:

Build a comprehensive checklist: A checklist is your roadmap to success. It will keep you organized and accountable during the accounting period and month-end close.
Streamline reporting processes: Identify areas you can implement an automated solution that saves time and simplifies procedures.
Regularly reconcile accounts: Instead of waiting until the end of the month, reconcile your accounts regularly. This speeds up the monthly close and keeps your figures correct and records up-to-date.
Leverage cloud-based technology: Invest in an efficient and user-friendly accounting system with cloud-based capabilities to maximize data security, improve transparency, and increase month-end efficiency.

Mastering the Month-End Close With Modern Accounting Tools

Modern accounting tools like Sage Intacct can be a major advantage for simplifying the month-end close. It provides a well-designed, flexible, and secure platform that saves time and effort by automating tasks that would otherwise bog down your team’s productivity. Leveraging this technology can lead to a faster and smoother month-end close, but working with a trusted accounting partner with a wealth of knowledge and expertise in your financial systems will set your business up for a successful future while reducing the burden of the month-end close. Contact us today to find out how our services can shorten the month-end close and strengthen your financial operations.

Take Control of the Month-End Close: A Checklist for Success

As a business owner, the end of the month can feel like a whirlwind: hectic, chaotic, and overwhelming. But by following a structured checklist and diligently staying on top of your core financials, you’ll alleviate some of your stress and keep your business on solid financial footing. If you’re ready to conquer the end-of-month chaos, follow along in this blog series as we dive into the ins and outs of the month-end close.

10 Comprehensive Steps for Your Month-End Close Checklist

Here we have broken down the month-end process in a step-by-step checklist, so you can feel confident, informed, and prepared to tackle the month-end close:

Review transactions: The first step to kick off your month-end period is to review all transactions for the month. This includes bank statements, invoices, receipts, and other documents retaining financial data. Make sure everything is accurate and there are no discrepancies.
Reconcile accounts: Once you’ve reviewed all transactions, you’ll need to reconcile and account for all transactions. This involves matching the balances in your general ledger to the balances in your bank statements and other financial records.
Adjusting entries: Made at the end of the accounting period, adjusting entries record additional transactions to keep your accounts accurate and up-to-date. This includes accruals, deferrals, prepaid expenses, deprecation, or other adjustments.
Review journal entries: Accurate financial reports allow you to make more informed decisions about your business. By reviewing all journal entries, you’ll ensure they are correctly categorized and coded.
Check for errors: Make sure your reports have no errors or discrepancies and that all numbers add up correctly. Even a tiny mistake can have significant consequences, impacting cash flow and legal implications.
Close sub-ledgers: Reconcile all sub-ledgers and include any journals and related entries so you’re prepared to close them out. Any discrepancies should be noted and cleared, and you must also include any new or unrecorded transactions.
Prepare financial statements: With your sub-ledgers closed, you can now prepare your financial statements. Include your income statement, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows.
Review financial statements: Before finalizing your financial accounts, review them carefully. Take this time to assess your tax liability and areas of improvement.
File all documents, paperwork, and statements: As the last step in the month-end close process, all financial records should be archived and saved for future reference.
Begin the next accounting cycle: Review any last-minute details and prepare yourself for the new month.

Now that we’ve reviewed this checklist, the month-end close may not seem so bad. But the reality is that the month-end close is a daunting task, especially if you’re working with outdated software or manual processes.

Divide and Conquer: Making the Month-End Close a Breeze

One way to make your close more efficient and less stressful is by automating as much of the process as possible. This could include using software to reconcile accounts, generate reports, and archive records. If you want to delegate your financials to a trusted outsourced partner and get ongoing support, we’ll help you break down the process and streamline your monthly close. We want to help you power through this stressful season and confidently complete each step of your month-end close. Contact us today to learn how we can help you slash your close time and empower your company with growth and continued success.

Managing Your Accounts Payable: A Guide for Small Business Owners

Are you tired of the countless hours spent managing your accounts payable (AP)? Do you want to streamline your accounting process to save the time and money spent on manual tasks on Quickbooks? With a growing business, it’s easy to outgrow the accounting systems you’ve relied on since the conception of your company. By moving to Sage Intacct, you’ll gain valuable, actionable insights and true visibility into your business performance while simplifying the AP process.

The Tech Stack for Your Accounts Payable

Technology has revolutionized how we do business, and accounting is no exception. With the right accounting tech stack, you can automate your accounts payable process, improve accuracy, and reduce the risk of costly errors. Here are some of the tools you can use to streamline your accounts payable process:

Cloud Accounting Software. Cloud accounting software like Sage Intacct can help you manage your accounts payable more efficiently. You can track invoices, payments, and expenses in real time and securely access your financial data from anywhere.
Electronic Payment Systems. Integrating with electronic payment systems such as Expensify and Bill.com can help you make payments quickly and even automate the process. By eliminating the need for double data entry or paper checks, you’ll cut your time spent with manual entry by half (—or more!).
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Technology. OCR technology scans and digitizes your invoices and receipts, making it easier to stay organized. OCR can also extract data from your invoices and reduce the need for manual data entry.

Simplifying the Day-to-Day Accounts Payable Processes with Sage Intacct

Once you have a solid strategy for your tools and technology, it’s time to focus on the processes and controls that will help you manage your accounts payable effectively. Here are some key elements you need to keep in mind to keep your business running smoothly and minimize your financial risk:

Three-Way Matching — This involves matching your purchase order, invoice, and delivery receipt to ensure the invoice is accurate. Three-way matching helps prevent overpayments and catches discrepancies early on. Sage Intacct utilizes an auto-matching feature to improve the accuracy of invoicing and reconciling your accounts.
Internal Controls — Keeping tight internal controls will ensure your accounts payable process is accurate and reliable. This includes the segregation of duties, approval workflows, and regular audits. With Sage Intacct, you define the invoice workflows and approval thresholds, so nothing falls through the cracks.
Reconciliations — Reconciliations involve comparing your accounts payable ledger to your vendor statements and ensuring they match. Sage Intacct provides centralized access to all your financial data, from bills and payment status to approvals and audit trails, so you can be sure your financial statements are accurate.

Streamlining Your AP Process With Trusted CFO Solutions

Whether you’re in the process of establishing an accounting team or already have a strong accounting department, a comprehensive accounting solution can help improve your accounts payable workflows. Sage Intacct is a cloud-based accounting software that allows your team the flexibility and control to focus on more strategic financial tasks to grow your business. Contact CFO Solutions to learn how we can help you tap into the power of Sage Intacct Accounting and implement the best internal solutions to set yourself up for success.

Trusted CFO Solutions is an advisory and accounting solutions firm with a proven track record of helping clients create... Click to learn more.

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