{"id":17879,"date":"2020-07-21T07:44:19","date_gmt":"2020-07-21T06:44:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/experts.ng\/blog\/?p=17879"},"modified":"2026-05-04T12:42:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T11:42:14","slug":"small-business-financial-tools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.experts.ng\/blog\/small-business-financial-tools\/","title":{"rendered":"7 Free Financial Tools for Small Business Owners"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a small business owner, you know money is essential to the overall success of your business; however, your financial management capability is more critical. And having the right financial tools to help with the planning, analyses, ad reporting of your finance is the most crucial of them all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"is-style-default wp-block-quote td_quote_box td_box_right is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Business is war and like any other war, you need the right equipment to win your battles.<\/p>\n<cite>ExpertsNG<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Have I lost you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I hope not. Let me explain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Business growth requires a lot of checks and balances, and one of the things that need your constant check as a business owner is your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.investopedia.com\/terms\/f\/financial-statements.asp#:~:text=The%20financial%20statements%20are%20used,and%20statement%20of%20cash%20flows.\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"undefined (opens in a new tab)\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">financial statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"is-style-default wp-block-quote td_quote_box td_box_left is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\" style=\"max-width:1104px;margin-bottom:10px\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Financial statements<\/strong>\u00a0are\u00a0<strong>important<\/strong>\u00a0because they contain significant information about a company&#8217;s\u00a0<strong>financial<\/strong>\u00a0health.\u00a0<strong>Financial statements<\/strong>\u00a0help companies make informed decisions since they highlight which areas of the company provide the best ROI (return on investment).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trust me Big businesses are doing more than buying and selling and recording profit and losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I know you probably started this entrepreneurial journey to earn a little more cash but let\u2019s face it; you need some form of knowledge in finance and plenty of help with financial analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, you probably should have listened more in your accounting class. Kidding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What was I saying?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As the owner of a small business in Nigeria, you must review your financial statements regularly <a href=\"https:\/\/dashbetcasino.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/dashbetcasino.com\/<\/a>. I do understand that you may not necessarily have the required skills at an expert level but analyse, you must.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Below are seven of the tools that I use to help with my financial planning and analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-blockquote uagb-blockquote__outer-wrap uagb-block-c76311c0\"><div class=\"uagb-blockquote__wrap uagb-blockquote__skin-border uagb-blockquote__with-tweet uagb-blockquote__tweet-style-classic uagb-blockquote__tweet-icon_text uagb-blockquote__stack-img-none\"><blockquote class=\"uagb-blockquote\"><div class=\"uagb-blockquote__content-wrap\"><div class=\"uagb-blockquote__content\">What sets the Big businesses apart from other companies is data. The capability to collect and effectively analyze and utilize financial data is key to the development of any business &#8211; big and small.<\/div><footer><div class=\"uagb-blockquote__author-wrap uagb-blockquote__author-at-left\"><cite class=\"uagb-blockquote__author\">ExpertsNG<\/cite><\/div><a href=\"\/\" class=\"uagb-blockquote__tweet-button\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><svg width=\"20\" height=\"20\" viewbox=\"0 0 512 512\"><path d=\"M459.37 151.716c.325 4.548.325 9.097.325 13.645 0 138.72-105.583 298.558-298.558 298.558-59.452 0-114.68-17.219-161.137-47.106 8.447.974 16.568 1.299 25.34 1.299 49.055 0 94.213-16.568 130.274-44.832-46.132-.975-84.792-31.188-98.112-72.772 6.498.974 12.995 1.624 19.818 1.624 9.421 0 18.843-1.3 27.614-3.573-48.081-9.747-84.143-51.98-84.143-102.985v-1.299c13.969 7.797 30.214 12.67 47.431 13.319-28.264-18.843-46.781-51.005-46.781-87.391 0-19.492 5.197-37.36 14.294-52.954 51.655 63.675 129.3 105.258 216.365 109.807-1.624-7.797-2.599-15.918-2.599-24.04 0-57.828 46.782-104.934 104.934-104.934 30.213 0 57.502 12.67 76.67 33.137 23.715-4.548 46.456-13.32 66.599-25.34-7.798 24.366-24.366 44.833-46.132 57.827 21.117-2.273 41.584-8.122 60.426-16.243-14.292 20.791-32.161 39.308-52.628 54.253z\"><\/path><\/svg><span class=\"uagb-blockquote__tweet-label\">Tweet<\/span><\/a><\/footer><\/div><\/blockquote><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-table-of-contents uagb-toc__align-left uagb-toc__columns-undefined uagb-block-8a7f716c\" data-scroll=\"true\" data-offset=\"30\" data-delay=\"800\"><div class=\"uagb-toc__wrap\"><div class=\"uagb-toc__title-wrap\"><div class=\"uagb-toc__title\">Table Of Contents<\/div><\/div><div class=\"uagb-toc__list-wrap\"><ul class=\"uagb-toc__list\"><li><a href=\"#so-how-do-you-check-your-business-health\">So How Do You Check Your Business Health?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#how-to-analyse-your-small-business-financial-statement\">How to Analyse Your Small Business Financial Statement<\/a><\/li><ul class=\"uagb-toc__list\"><li><a href=\"#horizontal-analysis\">HORIZONTAL ANALYSIS<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#vertical-analysis\">VERTICAL ANALYSIS<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#ratio-analysis\">RATIO ANALYSIS<\/a><\/li><\/ul><li><a href=\"#7-free-tools-for-financial-analysis\">7 Free Tools for Financial Analysis<\/a><\/li><ul class=\"uagb-toc__list\"><li><a href=\"#1-account-management-tool\">1.  Account Management Tool<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#2-cash-flow-management-tool\">2.  Cash Flow Management Tool<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#3-payroll-management\">3. Payroll Management<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#4-expense-tracking\">4. Expense tracking<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#5-inventory-management\">5. Inventory management<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#6-budgeting\">6. Budgeting<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#7-business-credit\">7. Business credit<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">So How Do You Check Your Business Health?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You see, your <a href=\"https:\/\/en.m.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Financial_statement_analysis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">financial statements<\/a>, also called financial reports are <strong>formal records<\/strong> of the <strong>financial activities<\/strong> of your business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Related:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/experts.ng\/blog\/bookkeeping-small-businesses\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"undefined (opens in a new tab)\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Bookkeeping 101 for Small Businesses in Nigeria<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now financial statement analysis, on the other hand, reviews the financial statement of your business in other to help you make better economic decisions that will help you earn more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No. That piece of paper squeezed in your back pocket doesn\u2019t count. You need a <strong>balance sheet<\/strong>, an <strong>income statement<\/strong>, a <strong>statement of changes in equity<\/strong> or rather &#8211; retained earnings, and a <strong>cash flow statement<\/strong>. I\u2019m starting to sound like your account teacher, but those rows and columns are very important, else you\u2019d have a headache trying to sort out your money as your business grows. We don\u2019t want that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now that you have all your financial records sorted I know you think you could just glance over it and I\u2019m going to say stop. Don\u2019t do that. There are free financial tools to help you analyze your financial records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But before that, let\u2019s talk about the HOWS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>How to Analyse Your Small Business Financial Statement<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are several ways to analyse your financial statement but let\u2019s leave that for the big shots. I\u2019ll focus on these three; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"\">Horizontal Analysis<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\">Vertical Analysis <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\">Ratio Analysis<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But what I really want to talk about are free tools for financial analysis. So I\u2019m just going to skip right through these:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In no particular order<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">HORIZONTAL ANALYSIS<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"\">Also called Trend analysis<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\">Financial activities are compared over period. Could be over years.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\">It\u2019s presented in percentage with a baseline of 100%. Simply put, product A did 40% in 2015 and in 2016 it did 60% (Something like that.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\">\u00a0It\u2019s easy to spot the growth trends of any given product by looking at the financial patterns<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">VERTICAL ANALYSIS<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"\">Compares items on the expense line to see how each item contributes to overall sales in percentage<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">RATIO ANALYSIS<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"\">It helps you evaluate operational efficiency.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\">Your business may be making good profit but isn\u2019t experiencing growth because when it comes to internal revenue money is not being managed properly.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\">When paired with Horizontal and Vertical analysis, ratio analysis can help provide insight on the financial health of a business.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s a lot to take in for a budding business but trust me it would save you a lot of effort if you get the frame work right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Every small business has it&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/experts.ng\/blog\/issues-small-businesses-face\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">challenges<\/a> but financial management shouldn&#8217;t be a part of yours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Let\u2019s jump right over to the 7 free Tools for Financial Analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">7 Free Tools for Financial Analysis<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are different aspects of financial analysis. Each of the financial tools listed will help track a different aspect of business finance. Some of these tools incorporate your business finance statement from multiple sources helping you to access the financial health of your business with little stress. I have ranked these tools in order of the purpose they serve in finance management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1.  Account Management Tool<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.xero.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Xero<\/a> <\/strong>is the trusted software as far as free goes. Top features as Invoices, Quotes, Contacts, Bills, Bank reconciliation, Spending, Bank account balances, Profit and Loss, Cashflow. Although some features as the CIS calculations may be limited to the UK. Other than that, Xero seems like the best option for your multipurpose account needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2.  Cash Flow Management Tool<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/floatapp.com\/eur\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Float<\/a> comes highly recommended but really if you&#8217;re a budding entrepreneur in Nigeria, you could use Google Docs to track your cash projections. You bet it. <strong>Google Docs<\/strong> may not come off as fancy for your taste but it does the same work for FREE with no catch to go premium to use its best features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">3. Payroll Management<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/xero.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Xero<\/a><\/strong> offers employee payroll tracking but as a small business owner in Nigeria, I can bet you are mostly multitasking on job roles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">4. Expense tracking<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While there are more professional expense tracking apps, for a start try <strong>Spending tracker<\/strong>. The User interface is simple and it offers charts to help you visualize your spending patterns. You could also check out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zoho.com\/books\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Zoho books<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">5. Inventory management<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I couldn&#8217;t find a mobile App for Ordoro and is best suited if you run a dropshipping business but it won&#8217;t hurt to snoop around. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ordoro.com\/features\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ordoro<\/a> takes pride in providing an efficient workflow for seamless shipping. Like I said suitable if you run a dropshipping business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">6. Budgeting<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I don&#8217;t know how much of the features on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planguru.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">planGuru<\/a> are offered for free but it&#8217;s worth a shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">7. Business credit<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, this is new. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/amp\/s\/www.allbusiness.com\/10-financial-tools-your-small-business-cant-live-without-23321-1.html\/amp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Meredith Wood<\/a>, A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fundera.com\/business-credit-cards\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">business credit card<\/a> increases the credit score of your business. I know credit cards aren&#8217;t popular in the Nigerian market. Hence, my advice is to keep track of the small loans incurred for your business and build your credit score by maintaining an excellent reputation for loan returns this would help for accountability when investors go through your financial statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Finally, and I probably don&#8217;t need to tell you this, but your business account should be separate from your account as an entrepreneur. Contact your local bank about opening your business account. Your ability to separate business from personal accounts is the first step to a healthy financial life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/experts.ng\/questions\/ask-an-expert\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Click here<\/a> to talk to an expert on how best to manage your accounts and business finances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Suggested Reading:<\/strong> <a href=\"Top 6 Challenges of Small Business Owners Today\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"undefined (opens in a new tab)\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Solved: Top 6 Challenges of Small Business Owners Today<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a small business owner, you know money is essential to the overall success of your business; however, your financial management capability is more critical. And having the right financial tools to help with the planning, analyses, ad reporting of your finance is the most crucial of them all. Business is war and like any [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":17886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"twitter_3899566575_3899566575":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[1899],"class_list":["post-17879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","tag-business-growth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.experts.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.experts.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.experts.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experts.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experts.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17879"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.experts.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41200,"href":"https:\/\/www.experts.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17879\/revisions\/41200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experts.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.experts.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experts.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experts.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}