Finance & Cash Flow
A budget is not a promise. It is a way of noticing earlier.
Many small businesses run without a budget because it sounds like a corporate exercise. In practice it is a one-page table: what you expect to earn, what you expect to spend, and what is left. Done monthly, it shows a problem while there is still time to act. This session builds one, on the owner's own numbers, in the room.
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Most financial surprises were visible in advance.
Insurance renewals, licence fees, advance tax, festival-season stock, a school-fee month for the owner's family, a machine that will need replacing: none of these is a surprise to the calendar. They become surprises because nobody wrote them down in one place.
A budget writes them down. It also turns a vague worry (“are we doing well?”) into a question with an answer (“are we above or below the plan, and why?”). A rough budget reviewed monthly is better than a detailed one made once and never opened.
What the session covers
35 topics across 7 areas. Seven steps, building one budget.
What a Small-Business Budget IsSmaller than people expect.5
- A table: twelve months across, income and costs down
- A budget is a plan, and a forecast is a best guess; both are useful
- Why one page is enough for most businesses
- Spreadsheet or notebook: either works
- What to leave out on the first attempt
Starting With Last YearThe best guide to next year is the last one.5
- Pulling twelve months of sales from invoices or the bank statement
- Spotting the busy and slow months
- Separating one-off events from the normal pattern
- What to do when the business is too new to have a history
- Writing down assumptions in plain words
Estimating Income CarefullySales are the least certain line.5
Made-up example for practice: if sales were ₹4,00,000 a month last year, the cautious case might use ₹3,60,000, and the lower case ₹3,20,000. The question is what must change at ₹3,20,000.
- A base case, a cautious case and a lower case
- Counting only orders and customers you can name
- Allowing for the days customers take to pay
- Not budgeting for the best month every month
- Using the lower case to test whether costs can still be met
Listing the Costs, Including the Lumpy OnesMonthly costs are the easy half.5
- Fixed monthly costs: rent, wages, loan repayments
- Variable costs that follow sales
- Annual or quarterly payments: insurance, licences, taxes, equipment servicing
- Statutory dues and their dates, taken from your CA
- A small amount set aside for repairs and the unexpected
Ask your CA for the due dates that apply to your business and put them into the calendar.
Profit Budget and Cash BudgetThe same plan, seen two ways.5
- A profit budget shows what you earned and spent in the month
- A cash budget shows what comes into and leaves the account in the month
- Why a profitable month can have a negative cash position
- Putting loan repayments and stock purchases into the cash view
- Which months need a cushion or an earlier collection
Reviewing Each MonthFifteen minutes, on the same day each month.5
- Actual against plan, line by line
- Is the gap a timing difference or a real change?
- The two or three lines that explain most of the difference
- Whether to change the rest of the year's plan
- Writing down the decision, however small
When the Plan Goes WrongWhat a budget is for.5
- Deciding in advance what you would cut first, and what you would never cut
- Triggers: for example, “if two months in a row are below the lower case, review costs”
- Talking to suppliers and the bank early
- Keeping the family's spending in view where the owner's pay is the business's profit
- Not abandoning the budget after one bad month
What participants work through
- A twelve-month sales and cost table started on their own figures
- A calendar of annual and quarterly payments
- A cautious case and a lower case for sales
- A monthly review routine with a fixed day and a few questions
- Their own triggers: what they will do, and when
What this session is not
- A course in accounting software
- Tax planning or tax advice, which belongs with a CA
- A forecast of what any business will earn
- A reason to avoid spending that would help the business grow
How the session runs
Two to three hours, working in the participants' own spreadsheets or notebooks. A finance practitioner demonstrates the table using made-up figures, then each owner builds their own from twelve months of sales and the main costs, stopping to add the annual payments. Owners with a CA are encouraged to bring a list of due dates; those without can leave the dates blank and ask their CA afterwards. The session gives general education and no advice on any individual business.
What your students leave with
- A one-page budget for the next twelve months, built from their own figures
- A calendar of the large or annual payments that usually arrive as a surprise
- A cautious sales assumption and a lower one, so the plan survives a bad quarter
- A simple monthly routine for comparing actual with plan
- A clear difference in their mind between a profit budget and a cash budget
- A rule for what to do when a month goes off the plan
Scheduled sessions
Nothing scheduled yet
Sessions are arranged with a college once a date is agreed. Ask us and we will find the right person for it.
A student rather than a college? See what is coming up, or ask your placement team to host this.
A rough budget that you open every month beats a perfect one that you never do.
Tell us who your students are and what stage they are at. Sessions are free for participants.