Biz tip: Top 10 financial tools for small-business owners

Small-business owners can get so busy running their companies that keeping their financial house in order gets lost.

Guest blogger for the SBA, Marco Carbajo, a business credit expert, offers the best 10 financial tools for small-business owners to manage and grow their companies, transform company operations, improve productivity, reduce costs and increase profit margins (details at http://tinyurl.com/nmb7lod).

1. Accounting software like Intuit QuickBooks helps free up time by simplifying, automating, and tracking its key financial data. This is especially useful at tax season.

2. Business plan software should be simple to use and help you reach your goals. SBA’s free Business Plan Tool offers a step-by-step guide to help you get started (http://tinyurl.com/k73ehaj).

3. Financial analysis is the key to managing a successful business. Keep your profit and loss statement, cash flow statement and balance sheet all in one place so you can see where your business stands and take steps to stay profitable. Score.org offers a library of free financial statement templates (http://tinyurl.com/kh4frbs).

4. Inventory management keeps track of your products. Cloud-based solutions are available, but do your due diligence when choosing inventory tracking software.

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5. Invoicing software leaves little room for human mistakes, which means fewer missed payments or late payments.

6. Credit-card processing: Whether it’s a point-of-sale, mobile credit card reader, credit-card terminal or online payments, decide which methods of accepting credit cards are best for your business.

7. Business credit cards offer benefits over a personal card with business-specific benefits such as employee cards and spending controls.

8. Business debit card offers convenient access to your business checking account at millions of locations worldwide.

9. Business credit monitoring keeps an eye on changes to the reports that could affect your company’s ability to obtain credit. Consider an affordable monitoring service to ensure your company’s credit file is accurate and current.

10. Business credit check protects your company’s cash flow by identifying your most creditworthy customers. It helps small-business owners analyze their company’s current credit standing and make well informed credit decisions.