How to have good financial management

In any company, it is very important to have good financial management, which is nothing more than the set of processes, actions and methods that keep the financial health of a company up to date. We say that financial management is essential, because after all, in any business, it is the area responsible for activities such as: controlling your expenses and identifying, as much as possible reductions in them, in order to be able to reach profit at the end of the month, in addition to to also provide the necessary resources for the business as a whole to develop. In other words, we can conclude that good financial management is the heart of every successful company.

Just like in a company, financial management is the part that will leverage all other sectors of an F1 in Schools team. At the beginning of financial management within the team, a budget must be drawn up for items that the team wants to buy, and that it sees as something that can help it to develop during the season, and for that, the financial manager must be attentive to the demands from other areas. Let's give a basic example: the engineering area is naturally the one that will probably need more resources to develop, such as, for example, polyurethane blocks and bearings, since a car cannot be made without these items, that is, they must be included in the team's budget.

Now with the budget complete, it is necessary to get money to ensure that the team acquires all the items it budgeted for, and the sponsors are the ones who will help the team financially; From there, the member responsible for seeking sponsors must exercise their responsibility as soon as possible, so that resources are provided and the team as a whole can develop.

As resources come to the team, it is essential to know how to manage them, after all, it will be a problem if the team needs to buy something but does not have the money for it. The team needs to know how to prioritize the items it wants to buy very well, in addition to the items that are essential for its participation in the F1 in Schools tournament. So that this can be better understood, let's give an example: we know that there are some items that are indispensable for participation in any stage of the tournament, such as portfolios, the stand and the team's uniform. Naturally, all three are produced by specific sponsors, but even so they must be in the team's planning, so that it can afford its own money, since there is a chance that it will not get the sponsors for such purposes. And, not only in these, but as in any other type of purchase, it is extremely important to try to reduce the expense as much as possible, researching the same product in different places, and then buying it at the lowest price.

In addition, it is necessary to account for the monetary inputs and outputs that the team has, so that the team does not get lost in the midst of its income and expenses, and knows exactly how much money is in the box. For this, a simple cash flow can be made that will account for the entries and their origins, the expenses and their destinations and the date of each one, and this can be done in a simple spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel, for example. This will also help the team in case it needs to spend something unforeseen at some point, as it can know exactly how much cash is available and how much it can spend.