why have company policies?

Whether your company’s growth is entirely sales-dependent or you have the benefit of external financing to boost your product development and marketing efforts, chances are your finance practices have grown on an as-needed basis. It’s not unusual for start-ups to discover that the best documentation they can hope for is on a scattering of post-it notes around the office (or basement wall). Documenting your company’s policies can be expensive and time-consuming, which is why many entrepreneurs tend to procrastinate until it’s too late. After all, your focus should be on generating revenue; writing company policies sounds complicated and won’t result in increased sales.

With everything else we have to focus on, why should we make policy documentation a priority?

Let’s take the example of finance policies. By establishing and documenting your company’s policies and procedures, you are providing clarity about how you interpret generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). Your policies act as your own internal dictionary, to be used as a reference when you read and interpret your company’s financial statements.

This becomes extremely important when you introduce new or replacement hires into your company. If your Controller got hit by the proverbial employee-seeking bus, you are guaranteed to save time and money in training and orientation. You immediately benefit from consistency and continuity.

Documented policies also provide guidance to your company’s auditors. A Big Four audit firm will always request to review your policies because it saves them time. And saving an auditor’s time will save you money.

Most small companies simply don’t have the budget for a CFO. Instead, a part-time bookkeeper (often the same person wearing the hat of CEO or CTO) often struggles to fill the role. We understand that you are learning as you grow, which is why Business Ready templates are designed to bring your working knowledge of a topic from 10,000 ft down to ground zero.

We have created some of the most requested policies based on years of professional experience and feedback. We believe that working with specific examples is the best way to help you save time and money. If you haven’t formally started to document your company’s finance policies, you can easily start with our pre-written, customizable templates. Once you have a policy that reflects what actually occurs at your company, store it electronically on your intranet or save a hard-copy for handy reference. You should be able to quickly locate any policy to address everyday compliance and admin issues as they arise.

If you are looking to pick and choose policies then feel free to browse the store or if you know you need all of them consider purchasing the Business Ready policy bundle, that includes all the policies, at a discount.  It is intelligence to run with.