「志在創業– 設計與創意工業」2009課程 - Hong Kong Design Centre

The Beauty in the Books
一 盤 靚 數
“Many design startups rely on feelings in conducting business,
but as the business grows and becomes more complex, they
need analytical tools to put the company’s financials in order.“
「 原 來 會 計 是 可 以 先 用 『 感 覺 』 來 領 悟 , 繼 而 用 『 分 析 』 來 充 實 , 而
且 『 一 盤 數 』 是 可 以 『 靚 』 的 !」
Tsang Kwong Yip, Director of Douglas Education Consultants Ltd
名 仕 會 計 師 事 務 所 董 事 — 曾 廣 業
To many SME designers, accounting is a subject that is
very trivial and troublesome. They would rather create
ten design sketches than read the few pages of financial
report. In their view, accounting is for the left brain,
something right-brainers such as themselves will never
understand. Tsang Kwong Yip, an experienced CPA and
consultant, deeply empathises with their confusion.
Deep down, it is a mindset problem. Actually, getting
a good sense of accounting can start with the feelings
and subsequently be enhanced by analysis. After all, the
“books” can look “pretty” too!
To get rid of the nightmare, it is a must to look at the
figures and the business as a story, seeing the big
picture and relationships, but not as isolated pockets
of numbers. In his one hour lecture, Tsang was more of
a storyteller than an accountant. He started by talking
about the simple book-keeping needs of a freelancer,
then gradually moved on to talk about the more complex
accounting problems faced by SMEs.
Actually a freelancer is not really free at all. He or she has
to handle all matters, from taking an order to meeting
customers, idealization to illustration, production to
collection, in person. The only advantage one enjoys is
perhaps the cost saving indirectly subsidised through
mom’s household budget. Subsequently, the business
grows beyond what one can take and part-time help is
needed. Gradually, the projects get bigger and bigger with
increasing complexity and difficulty. One thing follows
another-registering a company, hiring full time employees,
leasing an office and buying furniture, computers, a fax
machine and other miscellaneous items. The administrative
expenses and bank deposits gradually increase.
At this time, the company has entered the stage of a
small and medium enterprise with increased receivables
and payables. Although customer fees have grown, the
bank account is constantly under stress. How much of
that is deposit for the works to be done and
how much is received revenue for completed
projects Are there dead stocks in the inventory
and bad debts in the receivables Many
design company owners can no longer tell
the meaning behind the numbers from the
bank statements and accounting records. The
company appears to be stuck and business is
stagnant. For the poor souls, liquidity becomes
a problem in which the cash receipts from
customer receivables can never keep pace with
payments and payables from suppliers.
Why is the company entrapped For the sake
of maintaining the payroll and keeping the
company going, sometimes even difficult
projects have to be taken on. Things appear
to run in a full circle, back to where they once
began. Tsang said, “The problem facing SME
designers arises from the use of cash basis
instead of accrual basis accounting. When the
business gets complicated, they cannot sense
the signals behind the numbers.”
Changing from cash basis to accrual basis is
an important mental shift. Simply keeping
the books in Excel is insufficient. Instead,
the books should be managed with
professional systems. Time and
billing and accounting systems
are indispensable tools used
by many companies to
keep the numbers in
order. Furthermore,
Tsang suggested
everyone attending
the workshop
become proficient
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