ABSTRACT
This chapter explores financial planning and control in the smaller businesses. A lot of management time will, therefore, be spent on chasing up old accounts or in pacifying creditors, which time, had it been available, might have been more productively spent in developing new business. The starting point for planning and control in an organization of any size is the business plan. A plan for the smaller business need not be complex but, even in its simplified form, it will contain all the essential ingredients of planning. The information on finance will form much of the rest of this section but, before leaving the business plan, the importance of people, particularly in the smaller business plan, cannot be overemphasized. The regular reporting and investigation of deviations from budget will form the basis of the planning and control system. Every manager knows that some costs vary directly with variations in activity while others remain constant, and others change but not directly.
