Border management is key if there is to be cohesion across your business

Border Control has been in the news a great deal lately and many businesses have been impacted since Brexit, with the need to adopt some unfamiliar practices. But it is also within businesses that there can be borders, which can be as great a hindrance to trade and have become all too familiar within some organisations.

How the borders are managed between your company departments can be key to your organisation's smooth running and success. Whether that be between Sales and Marketing, Procurement and Logistics; IT and Client Management; Production and Distribution; HR and Training; Innovation and Product Development - there's one common denominator - your accounts/finance department.

The make-up of your accounts department, the nature of the financial infrastructure in place within your business and the information emanating from it, are crucial in ensuring that your company's plans and projections can be facilitated and met.

As an essential conduit for your ongoing growth and profitability, a proactive accounts department that looks beyond transactional activities will not just keep the company finances in check but also help shape the direction and future growth of the business.

However, if the information from the department is only used for preparing your tax returns and similar, then you're likely not harnessing the true value that it can provide company-wide.

In addition to maintaining and consistently improving cash flow, with broader financial information coming out of your accounts department, you can identify trends and make forecasts more tangible. You can make a decision, or conversely be sufficiently informed to take no decision. You can consider current products and services and make changes where necessary that could improve the company's outlook over the short, medium or longer term. Crucially in this context, the accounts department can provide the timely information that enables the company to pivot and empower other departments within the organisation to take advantage of opportunities without hindrance or delay, through a lack of information.

So, an effective accounts department can impact, improve and increase the effectiveness of all other departments throughout your organisation, whether for day to day operations or in assisting management with strategic decisions.

At GSM we ensure that your systems are robust, your personnel familiar and well versed in the art of accounting - to be proactive yet prudent, to be robust yet flexible, to be forward looking as well as focused on the here and now. In all of these, they are wholly supported by our firm in ensuring our experience and expertise is readily available and the funds are there to enable departments to execute their plans, without inhibition or money concerns and with the confidence in the internal and external audits undertaken, to ensure there's prudent planning for the costs incurred and sound stewardship of the income generated.

In short, when your accounts department is functioning well and freeing up other departments to act similarly, borders between departments disappear.

To hear more about the GSM approach to give your organisation the edge and help you break down borders between your business activities contact us on 020 7935 3793.