The whole team here at Viridity is excitedly finalising preparations for CeBIT which starts in Sydney tomorrow (and runs till Thursday).

We will be co-hosting a stand with our good friends from Wendy Field Business Services, and showcasing a whole range of solutions aimed at small and medium business.  So if you are interested in:

• Xero (for bookkeeping / accounting)
• Unleashed (inventory)
• Dremus (e-commerce)
• Paycycle (payroll)
• Any combination of these
• Or a range of other related solutions (such as reporting and CRM)

Please call by and talk to us - we will be at stand K43. 

If you haven't got a ticket yet you can still get in for free, as long as you book by midnight tonight and use a promo code.  If you don't have a promo code click on this CeBIT Sydney link, type "CeBIT promo" in the other comments field and we will forward one to you.

Looking forward to seeing you over the next three days!

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a blog post on the importance of management reporting, arguing that all owners or managers of small businesses should be demanding high quality information to help understand and run their businesses.

A few days ago I attended my first board meeting for a new client - who happen to be a Not For Profit with an external board but the experience of that meeting is equally applicable to all SMEs.  I presented to the board the standard Management Reports out of Xero, which they loved.  I then went a step further and provided them a few edited highlights using the Spotlight reporting tool.  Just a couple of the charts I put up were as follows.



Nothing all that fancy (though there were a lot more besides this), but far more informative than anything they had ever received previously.

A number of the directors present - who are on the board because of all sorts of great skills they bring to the organisation - would be the first to admit they do not have particularly strong financial skills.  I received a number of comments that they suddenly felt as though they really understood the financial information presented, which they never had before.  This both delighted and horrified me.

Delighted because I had acheived what I set out to (of demistifying their financials) and horrified me because of how vulnerable they had all been for the months and years prior to that day.

It is really important to remember that as a director or officer of a business you have a range of responsibilities that are not lessened just because you don't receive or understand all the information you require.  So if you are not receiving an adequate range of financial reports or you do not fully understand them DEMAND them now, and make time to understand what they mean.

If you are not sure what your obligations as a director are there is a good summary of these on the ASIC website, or talk to a professinoal advisor.  The penalties for getting this wrong can be very tough!

If you think more meaningful reports would help you gain a better understanding of your business please contact Viridity.