REPORT ON PROGRESS
Consistent Monthly Reporting
A simple monthly financial review checklist for growing NZ businesses — what to look at, what to fix, and how to stay on track.
How to Review Your Business Finances Each Month (Without an Accounting Degree)
At this stage, it becomes important to set aside time each month to review your financial reports. Without doing this regularly, it’s easy to drift — and drifting in business usually means drifting in the wrong direction.
Before you review your reports, run through this checklist to make sure the numbers are reliable:
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Bank accounts are reconciled and match your bank statements
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Any invoices showing as unpaid are genuinely outstanding (sometimes they’ve been paid but coded incorrectly)
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Assets are coded to the Balance Sheet, not to a Profit & Loss account
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Wages are coded correctly — if paid through Xero Payroll, they should sit under “Wages Payable”, not duplicated in your Profit & Loss
Once you’re satisfied with the above, review your Profit & Loss. Look at revenue, Gross Profit, and then go through your expenses line by line. Compare each category to previous months and think about where things are heading.
This doesn’t need to take long. An hour a month spent on this is one of the highest-leverage activities in your business.