How To's for Family Business: Part 3 of 3 - Financials

As the third installment in a three-part series on “How To's for Family Business”, this workshop will fall under this year’s theme at the Institute For Family-Owned Business (IFOB): Inspiration & Perspiration - Strategies & How To's for Family Business. Please be aware that you can come to any number of programs in this “How To” series, as each program provides unique topics for discussion. All programs in this series are open to all members and future members of the IFOB.

This program will be a comprehensive discussion of how to read a standard set of financial statements and how to analyze the information to make business decisions including real life examples from a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of a family-owned business, Brian Deveaux of Hussey Seating Company. The objective of the program is to provide the attendees with a framework for analyzing a family business’s past performance to provide information that is useful for estimating and driving its future performance.

The presentation will start with Melinda Irish, from Baker Newman Noyes, walking through a standard set of financial statements (balance sheet, income statement, statement of cash flows and notes to the financial statements). Throughout the discussion the following topics will be addressed:

Once the group has an understanding of how to read the financial statements, Dean Michaud, from Michaud Accounting Solutions, will discuss:

• Key Performance Indicators (KPI's), which can provide key data to managers to understand the health of their organization
• Budget to Actual Comparisons, which can help managers ensure that business is meeting revenue and growth goals and that spending is in line with expectations
• Year over Year; Quarter over Quarter; or Month over Month comparisons, which can also help with assessing the performance and identify anomalies, requiring additional analysis
• Timely and accurate reporting - process considerations and software considerations to ensure data is being captured timely and accurately, ensuring timely and accurate reporting
  

Now that the attendees have a basic understanding of how to read financial statements as well as a deeper dive into analyzing the details of the statements, a practitioner will now share how to use these tools in a family business. Brian Deveaux, the CFO of Hussey Seating Company, will take the group through a reporting period for a family business. He will discuss the various ways he analyzes the financial data of his company to help guide senior management through important business decisions.

Our panelists include the following:

Melinda A. Irish – CPA, Audit Senior Manager, Baker Newman Noyes 
Melinda began her career at Baker Newman Noyes in 2003.  She is a Senior Manager in the firm’s Audit Division specializing in the manufacturing and distribution and employee benefit plans. Melinda is also involved with the firm’s internal training program. Melinda earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting and a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Husson University. Melinda also serves on the Board of the IFOB Board.

Dean Michaud – CPA, President, Michaud Accounting Solutions
Dean Michaud, CPA founded Michaud Accounting Solutions 4 years ago out of a desire to help growing organizations of all sizes effectively manage their finances and business processes. He started his career as an Auditor with Baker Newman Noyes, spending 5 years in public accounting. He has since been a Controller for a circuit board manufacturer, Internal Auditor for a bank, and spent 8 years as the Corporate Accounting Manager for IDEXX Laboratories. Dean is passionate about helping businesses leverage technology to drive process improvement.

Remote access is available to dial in.  You must have hi-speed Internet access and a camera on your computer to connect and dial-in to the forum remotely. If you are dialing in to the workshop you must pre-register so we can send you the remote instructions.