Deneen McDonald

As a business owner or nonprofit leader, have you ever been confused about the financial performance of your organization? You see a healthy profit on the P&L report, but when you check your bank account, the numbers don't match up. And you wonder, where did all that profit go? If this has been your experience, don't worry, you're not alone. I've met many leaders who've had similar misunderstanding of the differences between profit and cash flow. Profit communicates the overall success of...

When I sit down with a business owner or nonprofit leader for the first time, what I often hear is concern and uncertainty about how their organization is really performing. They care deeply about their finances but aren't sure how to read the story their numbers are telling. As we discussed in previous blogs, that story lives inside your financial statements and two of the most important are the Balance Sheet and the Profit and Loss Statement. Read together, they'll tell you exactly where...

As a business owner, you probably look at your bank account balance often. If the number looks good, you feel good. If it’s lower than you’d like, a sense of unease might set in. While your bank balance is important, it only tells a tiny fraction of your financial story. To get the full picture, the complete, unvarnished truth about your business’s financial health, you need to turn to one of the most powerful reports at your disposal: the balance sheet. Many entrepreneurs find financial...