As the Year Comes to a Close, Your Business Should Perform a Financial Check-Up

Posted on 14 December, 2018

An annual financial checkup is an opportunity to review how you’ve done financially over the past twelve months and make sure you’re still headed in the right direction. A good time to do your annual financial checkup is before the end of the year so you can take advantage of any tax-saving strategies and set yourself up for a successful new year. Let 2019 be a great year for your business by taking care of these steps now.

Identify Goals & Evaluate Changes

The first step in your financial checkup is evaluating your financial goals by asking yourself these questions:

Have I made progress on them this year? If not, where have I fallen short?
Can I determine why?
Have my goals changed during the year? (If so, revise them and write them down).
Have changes in my personal situation taken place in the last year or do I anticipate any major changes in the near future?

A job change, divorce, adding a baby to your family, retiring, buying a house, getting married, or moving can impact your income and your lifestyle significantly. You may need to adapt your budget, your spending, your savings, and your investments. Having time to plan for these changes in advance will allow for a smoother transition.

Protect Your Assets

Evaluate the protection of your assets by reviewing your business insurance program and all of your policies. Do you have the coverage that you need? Does anything need to be altered or expanded?

Review your will, and if applicable, your estate plan. Have any changes taken place that requires updating?

Calculate the return on each of your stocks, bonds, or mutual funds. Are you satisfied with their performance compared to the rest of the market?

Evaluate Debts

Have you been controlling and paying down debt efficiently? Evaluate your debt to income ratio. Has your credit card debt decreased this year? If not, figure out where the leaks are taking place and try to plug them. It’s difficult to get ahead and invest when too much of your income is going to interest payments on credit cards. Also, now is the ideal time to check your credit score.

Reduce Income Taxes

This is a good time to plan for next year’s taxes, determining what can you do to minimize them. Add up all your allowable deductions to try to itemize. Review the list of allowable deductions and make sure you take advantage of any you’re eligible for. You may want to bunch deductions into one year or accelerating deductions by paying tax-deductible items early to help you reach the threshold for deducting.

Look Ahead

You might be considering expanding the products you sell, hiring more employees or moving to online-only sales in the new year. These changes affect your insurance needs, so be sure your business insurance policies accommodate your plans.

About Byrnes Agency

At Byrnes Agency, we offer auto insurance solutions that can be tailored to meet your specific needs. Whether you have an old classic car or a brand-new model, we have the right coverage for you. To learn more about our products, contact us today at one of our two locations.

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Phone: (860) 774-8549

394 Lake Rd

Dayville, CT 06241

United States

info@byrnesagency.com

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