Cashflow for Creatives

On our blog last week, we looked at the importance of management accounts for creative businesses – and over the coming days, we’ll be delving deeper into the financial habits of super successful creative agencies to see what really makes them tick.

In this post, we’re looking at how top creative businesses handle cashflow – because however good your profits might look in the pipeline, you always need some spending money in the here-and-now to keep your business growing.

Of course, the key to cash-flow is getting paid quickly. And in the creative industry, where big design projects can easily last for months at a time, it’s particularly important that you’re not waiting forever for the money to roll in.

So, here’s how you can keep control of your cash-flow, without even having to look up from your Mac…

Xero and the cash-chasing add-ons

As a creative business in touch with all the latest tech trends, we’re sure you’re familiar with Xero by now – but if not, it’s an online accounting platform that will genuinely change your office admin for good.

It comes with a whole host of benefits, and through seamless integration with cash-chasing add-ons such as Chaser or Satago, it can even help you get paid faster too.

You’ll be able to automate the send, chase and follow-up of your invoices, getting paid on average 23 days faster than your competition – buying yourself some crucial extra time to work on creative projects in the meantime.

You can set up a schedule of stage payments too – which is essential when you’re working on long projects. Make sure you keep the money rolling in while you’re committing valuable resources to the task.

Even away from Xero, there are online tools you can use to speed up your processes and bring the cash in quicker.

Using Docusign or Echosign for electronic signatures on your contracts means faster approval for your projects, and brings that all-important pay day forward – while having the added benefit of setting you apart from sluggish competitors still stuck in a world of ink and paper.

After all, it’s your job to be at the forefront of new ideas, to do things differently. And there’s no harm applying that principle to your cash-flow as well as your creative pitches.

To learn more on how Inform can help your cashflow please contact us by phone or email.