One way of measuring the profitability of your company is to take a big picture look at your company’s finances. This type of examination usually comes at the end of the year as you examine annual budgets, spending goals, and discern the overall profitability of your company. 

When it comes to talking about the best accounting practices, it’s easy to focus on the numbers on the page. The numbers are constantly changing and moving, and at some point it’s your job to make sure the numbers end up in the right place. However, if your business carries physical goods and keeps them in stock, your numbers are representing these real physical goods. Just because your numbers end up in the right places doesn’t mean your physical goods have.

Most of the available advice on procurement is aimed at large companies with hundreds of employees. While there might be some pieces that are helpful, most of that advice pertains to systems and issues that don’t arise in medium sized companies.

When the lay person thinks of accounting, they most likely think of financial accounting. Your financial accountants are the ones in charge of summarizing the financial situation of the company, providing a big picture overview of how your business is running. However important this may be, the business insider knows that this is only one piece of the accounting puzzle. More information is needed.

The finality of signing a contract should rightly inspire caution in the signing parties. Once your name is on the dotted line there isn’t a lot you can do when things go wrong. You have to abide by the terms of the deal, all of them, even those included in the fine print. Words that you didn’t see, or implications that were not apparent at the time of the signing, become attached to your name and reputation.

Your supply chain plays a critical role in the cost and profitability equation of your company. Your suppliers both enable and limit the services you provide to your customers, and help shape the financial matrix you operate within. It’s no wonder businesses place a great value on their relationships with their suppliers.

Negotiation is a skill that is not often taught to employees. Employees are often hired for a specific skill set and then expected to know how to sell and negotiate without receiving any training. Employees who end up in negotiations quickly learn that negotiating is a little more complicated than simply saying, “Show me the money.”

There’s an old expression that says if you want to find the answers to something, follow the money. A common mistake in businesses is thinking of financial matters as something that happens only in the accounting department. But if you follow the money across all the purchase orders, invoices, and other dealings in your company, you’ll soon see that accounting practices affect everyone, not just the accountants. 

Every hero has an origin story. We think of Spiderman getting bitten by a radioactive spider, Superman discovering he has superpowers, and the X-men congregating around Professor Xavier. And as the saying goes, not all heroes wear capes, so today we discuss the origins of ProcurementExpress.com.