Of all the numbers to know in your business, one on the short list to know would be your cash balance.

Give yourself the test. What is your cash balance now? Do you know what it is? What reports do you have to rely on to give you that information? How up to date is it? How accurate is it?

That wasn’t so easy to come up with before, but thanks to the power of the internet and most financial institutions embracing the internet heavily, that information is now at your fingertips. There’s no reason not to have a good understanding on what those balances are.

One starting point is having access to the online information from each of your major bank accounts. I’m surprised at the number of people that don’t have this setup. Give this information to somebody on the accounting staff, so they can compile that information for you and have it handy everyday.

If you’re one of the better companies, you have a good dashboard system going. Is cash part of the dashboard?

I had a friend who once joked that the accountants’ favorite day of the month was the day that the bank statement arrived. I teased him back and said, "Well, now everyday is a great day." Everyday you can have access to this information. Make sure your accounting staff has access to the online information and can pull that number together for you at any point. Knowing your cash balance is the starting point to any good cash management system.