Financial Service Highlight | Small business expenses can add up

Much time and effort are spent by designers managing the cost of goods and products they purchase for re-sell to their clients. Rightfully so, as vendor purchases are high dollar and represent an overwhelming majority of cash outflow for a designer at any given month.

But what about the general and administrative or “business” expenses that are paid out every month? These expenses tend to be scrutinized less by designers and can really cut into profits when they aren’t properly monitored.

Aside from labor costs (we will save those for another post), office expenses can represent an unchecked monthly cash outflow. Office expenses include things like software subscriptions, phone, printing, postage, and many more. At The Dove Agency, part of our monthly accounting oversight process is to review business expenses and ensure all are posted to the proper account. Using DesignDocs, the integrated project management and accounting software that we support for many of our clients, we can easily generate reports to share with our clients that detail office expenses by vendor, date, and time period. This allows our clients to take a closer look at those expenses and make sure they are necessary and prudent for business operations.

Taking this one step further, we also provide financial forecasting and budgeting services for our clients. When drafting forecasts, we review business expenses line by line to determine areas where cuts can be made (such as canceling unnecessary software subscriptions) and areas where expenses may be increasing in the future (due to an increase in studio space rent, for example). This process requires our clients to really think through how they are spending money to support their business operations.

At The Dove Agency, we know that business-related expenses require attention! We make sure our clients have all the information they need, as well as gentle reminders, to review and monitor these expenses on a monthly basis.