The scenic picture in caption to this article portrays a very particular site in our sister island Gozo. The Azure Window was a rock formation formed hundreds of years ago which has attracted tourists to view it and take lots of selfies with it in the background. It was also made famous worldwide when it featured in the first season of Game of Thrones. This site collapsed in a stormy weather in March 2017, and what had been a ‘must visit’ site in Gozo vanished in the blink of an eye.
However the purpose of this article is not to give a historical recount of such a site but to take this event in context of what we have just experienced due to COVID-19 pandemic.
Many have had their businesses’ operations disrupted and in some cases completely shut down due to this unprecedented event in our era. As in the case of the Azure Window, a rock-solid formation standing for hundreds of years, many businesses thought that their business which was established for many years could not fail.
Doing business as you have done for the last 10, 20 or 30 years might not give you the same results in this new normality that we are living in and we need to change, adapt and embrace technological advancements and incorporate them in our businesses.
Simply going back to ‘normal’ is not an option for many in order not to become obsolete.
What has happened shook the system from bottom up. This needs to be a wakeup call for many businesses and a way to find alternative ways to improve the business. This period of a general slowdown is a time to find new methodologies and new efficiencies.
This leads us to one of the fundamentals of business, the accounting function and being in control of finances and management tools. In the past few years you might have perceived the accounting function simply as a regulatory obligation to adhere to in order not to incur penalties.
The new era will require you to use accounting tools to follow and understand even more closely how your business is doing. This need arises especially when your costs might be constantly fluctuating unlike in more stable times.
You need to have tools to compare to previous periods and use your historical data to evaluate new trends and improvement potential and become more efficient. This can only be done if accounts are done in a timely manner on a software which you can access, follow up and provide you tools to analyse your data and not just providing a year end trial balance and profit and loss. Analysing data of a year ago is not going to give you ways to act fast today.
At Mito Consultancy we embrace the use of modern accounting software to generate information from your data to help you in your daily decision making.
Contact us if you wish to improve your accounting function in your business for a quote.