Does the seasonal aspect of some of your clients’ businesses not correlate to the financial year? Seasonal budgeting is a breeze in Calxa!
Seasonal Trading
For many businesses, their seasonal peaks and troughs in trading will not have any relationship to their financial year. Hence, this can sometimes prove challenging for reporting and forecasting estimates. Most businesses operate on a July to June financial year (or April to March in NZ),. Others like Not-For-Profit organisations may work on a calendar year. This may suit the Australian Tax Office and regulatory reporting bodies well. In many cases, this period will have no meaningful relationship to the seasonal aspects of a business.
Take, for example, a winter cropping enterprise in southern Australia. At this time of the year, many business owners in this industry are sitting down and trying to forecast numbers for the next 12 months. This is an absolute priority, as they liaise with their lenders to try and determine working capital requirements, after maybe experiencing poor seasonal conditions last year. In this particular industry, a large percentage of their expense is incurred prior to the end of June, whilst the majority of their income will appear in the next financial year.
Budgets not Restricted to Financial Years
In Calxa, we can take the pain out of doing seasonal budgeting, as we are not restricted by financial years. Whilst we create and edit budgets on a financial basis (see financial years graphic), we are not restricted when preparing reports and forecasts.
We can easily open up two financial year budgets at the same time, and quickly flick between the financial years to enter our monthly estimates.
Alternately, you can temporarily change the last month of your Financial Year. Go to Organisation Management and select the final month of the year you want to report on. Calxa will change all screens accordingly until you next do an organisation update. For example, if you set it to February you will now see March to February in the edit budget screen.
Reporting Across Financial Years
After the figures have been entered for both financial years, reports such as the Cashflow Forecast and Spreadsheet Profit And Loss can be created across financial years. For instance, this provides a seasonal budget which incorporates all of the expenses that relate to the income being generated. Check out our support note on date selection guiding you in the ‘how-to’.
And if your season runs over a period of more than twelve months; no problem, as we can budget up to ten years in advance.
Calxa works for Agri-Businesses
For agri-businesses seeking drought assistance, it is worth noting that these programs often require budgets and business plans. Sometimes for extended periods for up to five years as part of the application process. Calxa is the perfect tool for preparing these reports. If farming enterprises are part of your client portfolio make sure to check out our article on Seasonal Budgets for Farmers.