Small Business Resources › Financial Guide

SMALL BUSINESS GUIDES

Your guide to your financial information

Understand your financial information & reporting requirements to make better business decisions.

How To Calculate Gross Profit Margin

Your gross profit margin tells you whether your pricing and production costs make sense. For every dollar of net sales, it shows how much is left after paying the direct costs of the goods sold or services delivered – before rent, admin, marketing and other...

How To Calculate Gross Profit Margin

Learn how to calculate your gross profile margin so you can discover whether your offerings have the potential to generate sufficient revenue.

Receipt: Definition, example and format

A receipt is an essential proof of purchase — here is how one helps your small business. Read more for an example.

Petty cash management guide for small businesses

Learn how to manage petty cash for your small business, including tracking expenses, and maintaining proper records!

PAYE: deduction tables and tax rates

NZ has progressive tax structure that can be complicated for small businesses. Read further to understand your obligations as an employer.

What is a financial statement?

A financial statement is an important document that helps you understand the performance of your business. Read further to find out more.

What is accounts receivable?

Accounts receivable is what you are owed by your customers. Read on to find out more about this important account.

What is depreciation?

If you are a business owner, you know how important depreciation is. Keep reading to learn about methods of calculating depreciation and much more!

Why is financial information important?

Your company’s financial information is very important because it is often used to evaluate a company’s financial performance. Some aspects of financial reporting are even required by law. For example:

Creditors such as banks will require your financial information to assess your eligibility for a loan
Investors need your financial information to assess whether they want to invest in your company
Managers & owners of the business use financial information as a way to measure past and forecast future performance.

What are some sources of financial information?

Financial information can come from many sources such as a companies credit card statement or bank account. However this will never give enough information to make the judgment on overall performance. To do this effectively, you ideally need the balance sheet, income statement and a cash flow statement. Each of these statements gives a different insight useful for the overall assessment of how a business is performing.

Types of financial information?

There are three main financial information statements. They are:

Balance sheets
Income statements
Cash flow statement

Financial information can also be more broad and include any relevant information in relation to money such as credit card statements or bank transactions.

What is non financial information?

Non financial performance are simply measures of success in a business that are not expressed as a monetary value. Non financial reporting might include things like environmental impact, diversity in the workplace and social responsibility. These kinds of measure are increasingly important for determining the overall success of a company.