- Behind the Numbers
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- Understanding your impact on the numbers
Understanding your impact on the numbers
Can’t control your costs? And can’t explain why? Here is a tip to get you started.
Welcome to my newsletter “Behind the Numbers”.
A fortnightly newsletter where I share my Finance tips for Operational Leaders and their teams. I may also share an interesting sporting stat along the way.
For those of you who know my story you’ll get why numbers and sport are so much part of who I am.
One tip: Explaining cost performance
Can’t control your costs? And can’t explain why? Here is a tip to get you started.
“We completed that work 3 months ago. Why are we seeing those cost now?”
I hear this a lot from the Budget Owners I coach.
Traditional monthly cost reports are a lagging measure of performance.
The lag in cost data does not allow an “apples to apples” comparison to your budget.
Which makes it difficult for you (the budget owner) to explain your costs.
Are you aware of this lag?
If your answer is No, you may find this one page guide useful.
Cost control is less about the numbers.
And more about how people understand the impact of their actions.
I refer to this as understanding “what’s behind the numbers”.
One sporting stat
Major League Baseball games in the US. are getting shorter, thanks to the implementation of a “pitch clock”, which regulates the time allowed between pitches. On average, games are now 30 minutes shorter. That’s a good thing right?
Not if you are the Treasurer. The “flow-on” effect has been a fall in beer sales. That was until a decision was made to keep the bar open longer, with the cut-off time now extended into the eighth innings. That’s one way to “balance the books”.
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