Your Quarterly Review Plan

April 15, 2008 by Elizabeth Potts Weinstein

Do you want to fight less with your spouse about money?

Do you want to effectively save for retirement in the least amount of time?

Do you want to grow your business quickly, without having to look at the books more than the minimum necessary to get the job done?

Whether you are the CFO of your family, your home business, or a Fortune-500, you must schedule a quarterly meeting with your board to analyze your fiannces and plan for the future. Your board may be just yourself, you and yoru spouse, your business partners, or an entire board of directors; regardless, the Quarterly Review is a meeting set in stone, like a client or doctor's appointment, dedicated to keeping everyone on the same page, disclosing what's happened to everyone who needs to know, and troubleshooting what could be on the horizon.

What do you review at the Quarterly Review?

Family Net Worth Statement (Assets and Liabilities)
Family Cash Flow Statement (Income & Expenses)
Family Annual Budget or Cash Flow Projection
Family Investment Portfolio
Personal Visions & Goals
Business Cash Flow Projections or Pro Forma's
Business Marketing Reports (i.e., Campaign Performance)
Business Balance Sheet
Business Profit & Loss Statement
Business Cash Flow Statement
Business Marketing & Promotion Plan
Business Plan
Business Vision & Goals & Mission

For a family, this quarterly review may be a one hour meeting between the spouses, where you go over the current version of your Net Worth Statement to make sure there are no surprises, and plan for the next quarter of Cash Flow — primarily expenses. You can also revisit if any policy or procedure adjustments needs to be made — for example, if one spouse is uninformed of what the other is doing, or if one spouse feels he/she is doing all the work.

For a small business owner, you may have part of this meeting with yourself, to review your information and come to your own conclusions for what needs to be changed in business policies, procedures, products or services, and marketing, for the next quarter. You may want to set aside as little as a few hours, to as much as a day or two. Then, you may want to meet with your financial advisor, business coach, or mastermind group, to brainstorm and gather their opinions.

Take Action

Take out your calendar right now and schedule time for your next quarterly review in September. Honor that appointment just as you would with a client or doctor's appointment.