Do I need to involve my bookkeeper or finance team?

It helps. You can complete it on your own, but asking your bookkeeper to score it separately often shows where your view and theirs differ.

We're a small business. Is segregation of duties really relevant?

Yes, scaled to your size. Even a two-person finance function can have a second approver on payments and a monthly bank review by the owner. Those two steps prevent most of the expensive mistakes.

Free business tool

The Finance Efficiency Diagnostic

How much time is your finance function costing you, and where are the risks? Score it across five areas, see the heatmap, and get a prioritised action plan. About eight minutes.

How it works

Most SME finance functions get the job done through effort rather than process. That costs time every month and leaves gaps that only show up when someone leaves, a payment goes wrong or the accounts are late. This diagnostic uses the POPIT model to find them.

People

Roles, skills, capacity and cover

Organisation

Structure, approvals and segregation of duties

Processes

Month-end, payments, invoicing and reconciliations

Information

Accuracy, timeliness and insight from your reporting

Technology

Systems, integration and access

Part 1: 20 statements, four for each area, covering efficiency, documented procedures, automation and controls. Score each from 1 (not true) to 5 (fully true).

Part 2: three quick checklists on your written procedures, systems and core reports.

Score what happens today, not what's planned. If you're not sure, the answer is probably a 2.

Who this is for

Owners whose finance function works, but only because of effort: month-end takes too long, one person holds everything in their head, or you only see the numbers weeks after the month has closed. It suits businesses with a bookkeeper or small finance team and no finance director.

What it measures

The diagnostic uses the POPIT model to score your finance function across five areas:

People: roles, skills, capacity and cover
Organisation: structure, approvals and segregation of duties
Processes: month-end, payments, invoicing and reconciliations
Information: accuracy, timeliness and insight from your reporting
Technology: systems, integration and access

Part 1 asks you to score 20 statements from 1 to 5. They cover efficiency, documented procedures, automation and controls. Part 2 has three quick checklists on your written procedures, systems and core reports.

How to read your results

The heatmap shows which areas are costing you time and which carry risk. These aren't always the same. A slow month-end costs time every month. A missing approval step or a single person with sole access to the bank is a risk that only shows up when something goes wrong. Deal with the red risk cells first, then the biggest time drains. The action plan puts them in order for you.

Worked example: Brightwater Fabrications

In this illustrative example, Brightwater Fabrications has an experienced bookkeeper and uses Xero. It scores well on technology. It scores lowest on people and organisation: only the bookkeeper can run payroll or make supplier payments, and there's no second approver on payments. Its management accounts arrive six weeks after month-end, so information scores low too. Its Finance Efficiency Index is 54%: "stretched". The action plan puts moving approvals into the accounting system first, a written month-end checklist second, and a documented cash forecast routine third.

Sample results · PDF

See Brightwater's full results: every figure, what it told them and what they did next.

Download the worked example (PDF)

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to involve my bookkeeper or finance team?: It helps. You can complete it on your own, but asking your bookkeeper to score it separately often shows where your view and theirs differ.
What if I'm not sure how to score a statement?: Score what happens today, not what's planned. If you're not sure, the answer is probably a 2.
We're a small business. Is segregation of duties really relevant?: Yes, scaled to your size. Even a two-person finance function can have a second approver on payments and a monthly bank review by the owner. Those two steps prevent most of the expensive mistakes.