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contracts for savings opportunities. Renegotiate whenever you can. Talk to peers about what they are
doing to support the business while reining in costs. Talk with your purchasing department about
other ideas to reduce costs. Some spending is pure cost and should be eliminated. Some is a
necessary price of doing business. Other spending is an investment in morale, learning, or
productivity and should be well funded and wisely managed. Build buy-in and compliance by sharing
the decision-making process with the team. While certain details of the budget are confidential, the
team will benefit from knowing how expenditures are allocated. Share the decisions. Give your team
some budget parameters; pass some discretionary power for budgeting and spending down to them.
Treat the organization’s money as your own.

7. Need to write a forecast? Look beyond existing data. Accounting data primarily tells us what has
occurred to date. But sometimes you need to leap into the future to make a recommendation.
Decisions to invest in products, to add to or cut staff, to buy or divest a business—all require you to
make educated guesses about the future. To forecast the future, use grounded processes. Create
best-case and worst-case scenarios. Look at three years of data to spot trends that might continue.
Look inside and outside the organization—what could alter prevailing trends? Share your
assumptions with a few colleagues. Ask them to challenge your thinking. Recognize that there is no
crystal ball. Financial projections are developed from solid knowledge of how the business operates
and a willingness to identify extraneous factors that may impact the business in the near future. At its
best, a forecast is an educated guess about what the future will hold based on current conditions and
sometimes-hazy projections. But it is an essential tool for planning spending, borrowing, and
investment decisions.

8. Presenting financial information? Tailor your message to the audience. At any level of the
organization, you may be asked to present financial information. This could be part of budget
planning, capital purchasing, or reporting on final fiscal results. You need to consider your audience in
planning both the content and your approach. First, find a key metric and use consistent messaging.
What is most relevant to this group? If you regularly communicate financial results, find key
performance metrics that you can use as the bellwether data point for others to cue in on. Second, if
the data suggests certain actions need to be taken—such as cutting costs, raising pricing, etc.—let
the audience know. Then use the data to support your recommendation. Third, use visuals effectively.
Present information in a way that others can see and comprehend quickly. Columns of grey print are
a good way to bury information. Great graphics help you tell a story and illuminate trends. Study
annual reports and other financials for formats that are easy to use and comprehend. Fourth, be
concise. Don’t drown the audience or reader—only include what’s essential to understanding your
message. Put additional data in an appendix for those who want it. Finally, be careful what you share.
There can be serious compliance implications for insider data that seeps into the marketplace. Know
your audience and make sure that you present only the data that they need in order to hear your
message.

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