Fiscal Fitness

Imagine having the ability to know HOW to use your financial statements to manage your business to achieve levels of performance you thought impossible!

This is not a lead-in from the Twilight Zone—it is present reality and the kind of skills Lodestar’s contractor workshop, Fiscal Fitness, can deliver.

This action-packed two-day computer-driven workshop is not a course on accounting, but a workshop on how to use what the accountant produces to make superb business decisions.

The workshop is structured around a powerful learning model called Problem Based Learning (PBL), a system in which participants work in teams to solve real-life problems and then apply the lessons to their own businesses. Here is an outline of what is covered:

Day 1—Morning

  • The nature of good fiscal fitness
  • Good financial statement structure
  • How to load the software
  • Orientation to the process of PBL
  • Management style analysis (icebreaker for how to use the software)

Day 1 (afternoon) and all of Day 2

The topics for the balance of the workshop are chosen by the participants with an electronic ballot from the following topics:

  • Understanding the Income Statement
  • Running the Financial Ratios
  • Factoring Accounts Receivable
  • Improving Cash Flow
  • Compensation Plans
  • Sales Scoreboards
  • The Power of Selling Systems
  • Jobs Analysis
  • Installation Labor Efficiency
  • Setting an Installation Street Rate
  • Productivity Bonuses
  • Installation Breakeven
  • Labor Analysis on Jobs
  • Job Planning (for manpower)
  • Job Pricing
  • Slow Season Job Pricing
  • AOR Pricing and Job Costing
  • RNC Pricing and Job Costing
  • Retail Price Books
  • Service Labor Use Efficiency
  • Service Street Rates
  • Pricing of Parts
  • Service Tech Productivity Bonuses
  • Service Breakeven
  • Service Sales to Replacement Sales Mix
  • Service Tech Income Statement
  • Residential Service Agreements
  • Commercial Service Agreements
  • Advertising Leads Analysis
  • Setting An Advertising Budget
  • Doing Clean and Checks
  • What Impacts Profit
  • Business Planning
  • Long-Term Growth Planning
  • Sales, Expense, and Cash Forecasting
  • Business Valuation
  • Retirement

Contractors learn the topics they choose by using powerful software (which they get to keep), guided by an extensive workbook and facilitator interaction. The CD-ROM also contains a complete tutorial on how to use the software. The software is written in Excel 2000 and can run on any Windows 2000 (or later) platform using Excel 2000 (or later).

To learn more about how to book a Fiscal Fitness Workshop, please have your distributor contact Lodestar (480-275-2764 or use the Contact Form). This is a powerful workshop (as you can tell by browsing the Testimonials page) and tends to book up quickly!

Download a sample worksheet from Fiscal Fitness. (Requires Excel 2000 or later versions to open the file).