In view of the challenges small and medium enterprises (SMEs) face in scaling their businesses, Pundit Bookkeeping Services, a virtual accounting firm with headquarters in Lagos, has reiterated the importance of maintaining financial data and reporting.
Financial data consists of pieces or sets of information related to the financial health of a business. The pieces of data are used by internal management to analyse business performance and determine whether tactics and strategies must be altered.
At a meeting with entrepreneurs and business executives in attendance, Jovita Madojemu, chief executive officer of Pundit Bookkeeping Services noted that failure to pay attention to financial data and reporting is behind many of the problems SMEs face.
“An adequate account record will show a business owner their strength and weakness; it will put in a clear picture which services or products bring the most income,” says Madojemu. “This will help a business focus or build more on their strength and work on their weakness.”
Aside from pointing out strength and weaknesses, people and organisations outside a business will also use financial data reported by the business to judge its credit worthiness, decide whether to invest in the business, and determine whether the business is complying with government regulations.
Part of fiscal responsibility is when a company pays and files for tax irrespective of its level of income, says Madojemu. Failure to remit tax is a legal offence in Nigeria.
Combined with fulfilling their legal obligations, businesses also not take more they can handle at a time. Layi Adetona, a director at Pundit Bookkeeping Services said starting small, prioritising time and staying nimble are vital to succeeding as a startup.
Time consciousness promotes productiveness and reduces the chances of procrastination. Often times, business owners want to put every great idea they have to work or put them up on their website. They want a discussion board, a blog, a store, a chat room, a directory of professionals in their business, resources, links, an archive for their newsletters, audio and video, the list goes on and on. That could quickly lead to confusion and eventually fatigue sets in.
According to Madojemu, Pundit Bookkeeping Services is a platform small businesses can leverage to bring clarity and coordination to their operations. Many startups, for instance, which may not have financial power to employ a full-time bookkeeper even though this is critical to their business can take advantage of the part-time but very qualified bookkeeper service that Pundit runs. This allows the startup to save significant cost.
“Pundit Bookkeeping Services is a company of chartered accountants and accounting technicians leveraging IT to ensure that the entrepreneur’s entire business position and performance can be seen at a glance at every point in time,” a statement from the company noted. “We understand that bookkeeping is a universal point of pain for entrepreneurs, hence the dedication of our team of experts to changing this. We call ourselves the entrepreneurs’ internal accountant.”
