Cash Flow/Balance sheet/profit and loss

[samz]

Hi

I am fairly good with figures being a merchandiser by trade and up until now have been using my own spreadsheets to keeps tabs of sales, profit and loss, margins, income and expenditure. I do a weekly and monthly spreadsheet which is really helpful for me.

The only thing is it doesn't conform to the traditional formats and makes sense to only me I guess. My feedback from business advisors has been to start doing profit and loss, cashflow and balance sheets.

So what would you recommend, I do have an accountant and he will do my accounts yearly which will include a P+L and a balance sheet. What financial statements should/ can I do in between and update regularly to track my progress/performance? Following on from that, can anyone recommend a really easy to use template/software package for someone who really doesn't like doing them?

Thanks in advance

[gordano]

It sounds like you are keeping track of most data the accountant will need - check with them. The one area I would add is to track cash flow - this is the area that often catches a business unaware, especially in the current climate where an increasing number of companies delay paying invoices.