Monthly Confidence Reports for Fort Knox Model

 

The “Monthly Confidence Package” was something Philip Campbell talked about in yesterday’s webinar, “Winning at the Game of Busines”.  It is a carefully chosen set of reports to convey an accurate picture of a company’s financial condition and prospects for the immediate future.  You can download the report formats and packages used in the webinar.

Here is the link:

www.survivalware.com/download/Monthly_Confidence_Reports_1_26_2012_Webinar.zip

 This is a zip file that contains some new report formats for the Fort Knox model (these files go in ..\FortKnox), and three report packages (these go in ..\FortKnox\UserStuff).

The three report packages are:

Monthly-Confidence-Package.RPK

YearEnd-Confidence-Package.RPK – run it prior to RollOver

Monthly-Confidence-Package-with-Graphs.RPK – spiced up with trend graphs of all the key indicators

Free Webinar – Winning at Business:Financial Management as a Competitive Weapon

This is a free webinar coming up in a week  (1/26/2012 – 11 a.m. EST).  I think’s it going to be a good one.  

Philip Campbell, author of ”Never Run Out of Cash” kicks off the presentation with some sound advice about how to whip your company’s finances into shape.  He preaches the virtues of a Monthly Confidence Package for investors, lenders, and key members of your management team.  Philip is adamant that the monthly set of financial reports must include cash flow projections in addition to historical financial statements and commentary.  Entertaining as always, Philip shows you how to keep on top of your finances, and win the hearts and minds of those who can help you win financially in business. 

 

Rusty Luhring follows with a “hand-on”  demo of how to do what Philip preaches using SurvivalWare.  At the end of the Nuts and Bolts session of creating a Monthly Confidence Package, you get a sneak preview of SurvivalWare KPI Dashboard,  which takes KPIs out of SurvivalWare and puts them into the “cloud”, accessible through web browsers, iPhone, or iPad. 

 Thursday January 26, 2012   11 a.m. EST

Join Philip Campbell and me for a fast-paced, free webinar designed to get you motivated about taking the financial management of your company to the next level, and show you the tools to get it done.

It’s Thursday January 26th, at 11a.m. Eastern U.S. Time - 8 a.m. Pacific Time.  

There’s no cost! 

 

We always get a great turnout when Philip and I team up – so be sure to register early.  Cheapskates that we are, our GoToWebinar susbscription limits us to 100 attendees.

Importing Projections into SurvivalWare from an Excel file

I have seen several occasions where a consultant is called in to help a company do cash flow projections in SurvivalWare, and many of the base assumptions are already in Excel.  The question I get from the consultant: “Is there a way to load this data into SurvivalWare?”  The answer is Yes!

The key is to create an Excel file using the exact same names as the Fort Knox model, or whatever model you are using.   And label the columns in a way that SurvivalWare can understand – e.g. 1/1/2012, 2/1/2012, etc.

Also: make sure that you do not use the Excel percentage format for percentages.  Excel stores these as decimal numbers (e.g. 0.10 for 10%), and SurvivalWare expects any percentages to be 0..100.  In the sample below, we convert the Gross Profit Percentage to a SurvivalWare number by multiplying by 100.

Here’s what it looks like in Excel:

Then from the Projections Module select File / Import XLS file…

Here is the result of importing the Excel file.  You can import several different files if you want.  Each one affects only the variables for which it has values.

Resources

Sample Excel file with Sales Projections

Complete list of projection variables in the Fort Knox Model

Budgeting at the Combined Level for multi-unit AlphaGraphics owners

Here is the problem:

An owner has two units, each with its own set of books.  He wants to combine the two units, and then do a single combined budget.  When actuals come in again, he wants to combine the history, but leave the combined budget intact..

There are two problems if you simply combine the two center files (of the form, USXXX.MTX):

1. The resulting combined file uses a different logic file (AG-Consol.XL instead of AG-Proj.XL).  This means that normal budget calculations, such as allocating sales according to sales mix, are not done.  Instead, each line in the combined file is the addition of the same line in the two center MTX files.  Percentages and ratios are calculated in the AG-Consol logic file so they don’t get added up.  You can check to see what logic file is being used by going to Rusty’s Toolbox, selecting File / Properties.

2. Each month that you update actuals in the two center files, combining them will wipe out the combined budget you entered into the combined file.  The budget would contain all zeroes because it would be the addition of the budget for each of the two centers, which contain zeroes in their budget columns.

Budgeting at the combined level

This implies that Budget vs. Actual reporting should take place at the combined level, too.  It also means that the monthly updating and combining of center financials should not disturb the budget.

There are four main steps to accomplish this:

1. Create a CSF file that combined the centers, and uses a special setting to allow the budget to be prepared at the combined level.

2. Combine the two centers using this CSF file to give a historical basis for doing the budget

3. Create a budget at the combined level

4. Each month: Run a special applet to combine the actuals

 1. Create a CSF File

Use Notepad or any Text Editor to create a CSF file that defines which files to combine.  This file must end in the extension .CSF (Not .TXT!), and reside in the ..\Data folder. 

In this example, we are combining the two centers, US998 and US999, and calling the combined result “Two-Centers-Combined.MTX”.

2. Combine the two centers using this CSF file

 From Rusty’s Toolbox, select Analyze / Cosolidate using CSF file…

Browse to the CSF file you just created:

Verify that it references the files you are trying to combine, then click “Combine.”  At this point the files are combined, and you are left viewing the combined file in SurvivalWare.

3. Create a Budget at the combined level

 Enter the budget module just as you would for an individual center.

 Here is a screen shot from the Revenue sub-module in the Budget.  Note that the name of the Combined file appears in the Window title.

4.    Each month: run the AG Combine applet

 Click on the Automator Icon from the main menu,  and select the applet, “AG-Combine-File-History-but-Leave-Budget.RCL”

Browse to the CSF file to use for combining, and also the last historical month to combine, then click OK.

Resources

 

Sample CSF file (put this in ..\ AlphaGraphics\data\) 

www.survivalware.com/download/Twin-Centers-combined.CSF

 Special combine applet (put this in ..\AlphaGraphics\UserStuff\) 

www.survivalware.com/download/AG-Combine-File-History-But-Leave-Consol-Budget.RCL