When we originally created the Guidance everything was in one document and it was, to be frank, a bit unwieldy. We then split it into two parts:
- The Guidance, a summary of principles to consider
- The Toolkit, a collection of tools, frameworks and checklists that we and our clients have found helpful
Managing financial difficulties is a big area to cover so there are quite a lot of tools and frameworks. Here are some of the ones that you might find most useful right now.
- Read the summary of Section 1.1 What works when managing a financial crisis at page 6.
- If you’re not sure how serious your financial situation is, use the checklists on pages 13 – 14 to make a quick assessment.
- If you need to set a new budget fast read Section 3.2: Alternative approaches to creating a new budget.
- In a crisis, ‘cash is always queen’ so if you don’t have a 13-week rolling cashflow forecast set one up (Section 3.3).
- If you need to explain how your current crisis arose, say for a funding application, use the after action review process at Section 2.4 to do it quickly and well.
- The effectiveness of governing bodies is a key factor in managing a crisis well. Use the questionnaire of page 46 – 47 to do a quick assessment and identify urgent actions (Section 4.1).
- Good communications are essential. Use Section 5.2 to plan your approach.
- Crises take a real toll on people. Grab a cup of coffee, glass of wine or smoothie, find somewhere quiet and read Section 6: managing self and others. It is the most important section of all.
We hope that you find that some of what we have created helps you. Do let us know if it does and do let us know what we should have included and didn’t!
Dawn and Susan