Blog
8 Steps to Mitigate the Impact of Inflation
In this blog we are breaking down the impacts of inflation on small businesses and implementing strategies to mitigate them more effectively.
The Importance of Financial Planning for Startups: Building a Strong Foundation
Learn why having a robust financial plan is not just a good practice; it’s essential for building a strong foundation and ensuring long-term success for startups.
5 Tips for Effective Budget Management
By following these five practical tips, you can ensure your business stays on track and makes the most of its financial resources.
The Power of a Board of Directors for Small Businesses: Guiding Success through Strategic Leadership
As a small business owner, you'll be pleasantly surprised by how a well-structured board of directors can contribute to developing better business plans, resolving organizational challenges, and cultivating strong relationships in the marketplace.
Unlocking Business Potential The Power of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Small Businesses
KPIs enable businesses to measure, monitor, and optimize their performance, providing valuable insights that can drive growth and deliver hidden insights.
The Advantages of a Part-Time CFO: Unlocking the Benefits
A part-time CFO delivers the high-level financial expertise required for scaling in a package that is often more cost-efficient and flexible than their full-time counterparts.
Navigating Tax Season and Year-End Finances for Small and Medium Businesses in 2023
By following these practical steps, you can ensure that your business is in good financial shape, maximize deductions, and stay compliant with the latest tax regulations.
6 Essential Tasks to Prepare Your Business for a Successful New Year
As we approach the end of the year, it's crucial for businesses to take stock of their achievements and lay the groundwork for future success.
Top 10 Tips for Entrepreneurs
In this blog post, we have compiled ten tips from seasoned entrepreneurs to help you navigate the entrepreneurial landscape and increase your chances of success.
Empowering Small Businesses with AI Tools for Success
This blog post will explore how AI tools can empower small businesses, enhance their operations, and drive them toward success.
4 Biggest Challenges of the Budgeting Process – and How to Solve Them
Creating a budget comes with its own built-in challenges. Here at Clear Insight, we have developed actionable solutions to each challenge.
Capitalizing on Sustainable Finance: A Guide for Businesses on Integrating ESG Factors
In this blog we will explore how businesses can integrate ESG factors into their overall strategies for long-term success.
Financing Strategies in Today’s Small Business Environment
In this blog, we will explore key financing strategies that can help small businesses thrive in today's landscape.
Empowering Entrepreneurs: How the Fractional CFO Services of Former Entrepreneurs Can Uniquely Support Your Small Business
Clear Insight explains how fractional CFO services, specifically when provided by seasoned entrepreneurs, can empower and support business owners.
Hiring Interns: A Worthwhile Commitment Year After Year – a blog from Susan Malik, President
In this blog, I will share my experiences and explain why I continue to hire interns year after year.
Leveraging Social Media for Small Business Success: Harnessing the Power of HubSpot, LinkedIn, Google Analytics, and More
We explore how small businesses through social media, improve brand loyalty, create scorecards to measure success, grow their customer base, enhance online visibility, and drive tremendous financial success.
Two-Month Update: Celebrating the Progress of our Clear Insight Interns!
At Clear Insight, mentoring and coaching these two has been an absolute pleasure, sharing our foundational knowledge about working innovative and maintaining client-centricity in everything we do.
Back to the Basics: The Fundamental Building Blocks of Successful Business Management
Building financial knowledge is essential for the success of small businesses organizations. By prioritizing financial management, organizations are able to maximize profits and innovate.
5 Finance Books to Recommend for Small Biz, Nonprofits, and Companies Experiencing Change
Increase Your Financial Literacy with the Top 5 Books for Small Businesses and Not-for-Profits!
Stay Ahead of the Game: Tips for Managing the CEBA Loan Before the Deadline
The Canadian Emergency Business Account (CEBA) program has been a lifeline for many small businesses and not-for-profits, providing interest-free loans during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this blog post, we will discuss key considerations to help small businesses and not-for-profits prepare for repaying their CEBA loans effectively.
6 Things Your Business Should Do Before 2021 Ends
As the year comes to an end, this is a great time to both reflect on this year’s success as well as prepare for the upcoming year. Take this time to analyze what you did right this year and what you can improve on for next year.
Creating a Pitch Deck: 5 Do’s and Don’ts
Your pitch deck is your first impression to your investors and can make or break your ability to raise funds for your business. With so much on the line, it is well worth investing your time and energy into making it right!
Should Your Business Incorporate? – 3 Pros and Cons of Incorporating Your Business
At some point or another in the life cycle of a small business, many owners raise the question; “should I incorporate my business?”.
11 Topics to Include in your Pitch Deck to Investors
A pitch deck is the first tool of communication used by entrepreneurs in an attempt to raise funds from potential investors. Receiving funding from investors can be challenging. Therefore creating a pitch deck that grabs the investors attention and articulates a compelling story is crucial.
Top 10 Must-Reads for Small Businesses
There are thousands of informative and inspiring business books out there that help guide small business owners to reach their goals. With so many options, it can be overwhelming to decide which are worth the read.
The Newest Way to Raise Capital: Crowdfunding
There are many advantages to Crowdfunding; online fundraising removes the typical barriers associated with asking for funds and makes it easier to overcome financial obstacles.
The Pros and Cons to Hiring a Part-Time versus an In-house CFO
A CFO sits at the intersection of where all the numbers roll into a business (HR, Sales, Inventory, Contracts, and more). They provide strategic financial direction to the business. Consider these factors when deciding which is right for your business.
The Role of Cash Flow in a Business
“Cash is king” is a widely accepted maxim in the business world and beyond, but what is the importance of cash flow in a business and how can those running a business better understand it? In this blog, we will get into exactly what cash flow is, why it is important and how businesses can better understand their own cash flow.
Susan Malik nominated for RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Awards
CLEAR INSIGHT FPM Inc. is proud to announce that SUSAN MALIK, CPA (CA), President, has been nominated for the 2021 RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Awards. The RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Awards are the pre-eminent national business awards recognizing the country’s leading female entrepreneurs. Now in its 29th year, the program is an initiative of Women of Influence, an award-winning organization dedicated to advancing Canadian women.
The Right Way to Raise Capital
The Right Way to Raise Capital Regardless of the business model or talent that a business possesses, it must find a way to make its vision a reality by raising the necessary funds. This can be one of the most challenging obstacles facing an entrepreneur and an extremely timely and expensive task. [...]
Managed Payroll Services: What Is It and How Does It Help a Business
Managed Payroll Services What Is It and How Does It Help a Business At the core of any successful organization are people. How a company interacts, motivates, evaluates, and compensates employees are all integral in achieving desired employee performance and subsequently organizational goals. So, it is extremely important for organizations to build systems [...]
10 types of data that can change your business
10 types of data that can change your business Here is a list of the types of data that can change your game and how each adds value: Sales, demographic and weather data enables more precise decisions about who to market and sell. With website, transaction and buying pattern data, you can better understand [...]
It’s Time to Plan your IBM TM1 Upgrade to IBM Planning Analytics
Specifically, TM1 10.2.0 will be out of support by September 2018 and TM1 10.2.2 will be out of support by September 2019. Now is the perfect time to focus on a Health Check and upgrade of your IBM and planning solution. The good news is that IBM has taken TM1 to the next level with new enhancements and a whole new self-service web interface and renamed it Planning Analytics.
Update your forecasts when you want to
Update your forecasts when you want to Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to update your forecasts on a quarterly basis rather than annually? Budgeting, planning and forecasting has typically been an annual process because of the time, effort and money involved. Collecting data from multiple sources, consolidating it, checking it, refining it, [...]
3 Reasons Rolling Forecasts Can Drive Real ROI
3 Reasons Rolling Forecasts Can Drive Real ROI Today's business environment is moving at a lightning pace. Many businesses increasingly struggle to keep up. With the advent of big data, organizations are seeing a constant stream of information come their way. They're under pressure to respond quickly to market demands. Plus, these organizations want [...]
Alternatives To Excel That Are Better For Budgeting And Planning
Alternatives To Excel That Are Better For Budgeting And Planning Excel has its uses, but budgeting and planning should not be one of them. Moving beyond Excel When it comes to budgeting and planning, the software you choose is crucial. You want your business’ operations to run smoothly, so you need software that can [...]
Driver-Based Scenario Planning Best Practices
Driver-Based Scenario Planning Best Practices When it comes to your annual budgeting and forecasting processes, do any of these statements sound familiar? It takes too long. It's already out of date before it's even finished. It doesn't help me track any real objectives. For most of you, the [...]
Mainstreaming Predictive Analytics For The Masses
Mainstreaming Predictive Analytics For The MassesWhether your business makes medical supplies, or you run a multi-national accounting firm, predictive analytics is necessary. In order for every business, marketing professional and layperson to be able to use predictive analytics, it needs to readily available. However, before we explore why mainstreaming predictive analytics for the masses is [...]
The Analytics Bottleneck: Make Your Data Easier And Quicker To Access
The Analytics Bottleneck: Make Your Data Easier And Quicker To Access When it comes to big data and analytics, you should be able to access this information quickly without a hassle. Once data has been collected, it is translated into a user-friendly language creating materials that that are crucial to running a business. Big data [...]
How To Use Analytics To Take Action For Your Business
How To Use Analytics To Take Action For Your BusinessAny adept business owner will tell you that in order for your business to thrive and maintain a competitive edge, you need to use analytics to your advantage. Analytics is the discovery and diagnosis of patterns found within data. These patterns are presented in a way [...]
TM1 Web – unable to select from Action Menu or SUBNM
TM1 Web - unable to select from Action Menu or SUBNM Mozilla released Firefox web browser version 52.0 on March 7, 2017. With this version, there appears to be a problem with some of the features in IBM Cognos TM1 Web. Specifically, the Action Menu dropdown was no longer functioning. Also, users were unable [...]
How Big Data Analytics Can Help Businesses Learn And Grow
How Big Data Analytics Can Help Businesses Learn And Grow There is information out there that can help your business succeed. This information will give you insight into how consumers think, how to effectively manage your company, how to budget, how to plan, how to gain competitive advantages and most importantly, how to consistently [...]
Why Cognitive Computing Will Help You Get Your Job Done
Why Cognitive Computing Will Help You Get Your Job Done Problem solving, forecasting and troubleshooting are three things that every business needs to have control over. Issues can crop up without notice and if you do not have the right resources in place to combat these problems, you risk slowing down your entire operation. [...]
How To Streamline Your Budget Process & Planning With IBM Cognos TM1
How To Streamline Your Budget Process & Planning With IBM Cognos TM1 As the economy shifts, it’s important for businesses to adapt. Through strategic planning, budgeting and analysis, we can aim for better business outcomes, regardless of the economic climate. We need to address performance gaps, forecast accordingly and ensure that our financial targets [...]
Business Analytics for the Office of Finance
Business Analytics for the Office of Finance The vast majority of CFO’s are now taking a more prominent role in decision-making, beyond the traditional role of finance. The Office of Finance needs access to tools and best practices that allows them to be ready for the challenge. These leaders need to know where their organization [...]