The so-called small and medium-sized enterprises refer to economic units with smaller personnel scale, asset scale and operation scale compared with large enterprises in their industries. 20 1 1 In June, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Bureau of Statistics, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued the Notice on Printing and Distributing Classification Standards for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, pointing out that small and medium-sized enterprises are divided into three categories: medium-sized, small and micro, and the specific standards are determined according to the employees, operating income, total assets and other indicators. Small and medium-sized enterprises are divided into agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fishery, industry, construction, wholesale, retail, transportation, postal services, accommodation, catering and other industries 16. The classification standards of various industries are: for agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery, small and medium-sized enterprises with operating income below 200 million yuan; For industry, small and medium-sized enterprises refer to enterprises with less than 1000 employees or operating income of less than 400 million yuan; For the construction industry, small and medium-sized enterprises with operating income below 800 million yuan or total assets below 800 million yuan; Wait a minute.

Working capital refers to the sum of the relationship between current assets and current liabilities. The "sum" here is not the sum of the amount, but a reflection of the relationship, which is conducive to financial personnel to realize that the management of working capital should pay attention to both current assets and current liabilities. It can be understood that financial working capital management focuses on investment, that is, the amount of investment in current assets of enterprises. The balance between liquidity and profitability is the core goal of working capital management. Working capital reflects the efficiency and benefit of operating assets of enterprises.

Working capital of small and medium-sized enterprises has three characteristics:

First, the turnaround time is short. In this regard, liquidity can be solved through short-term financing channels. Non-cash liquidity such as inventory, accounts receivable and short-term marketable securities is easy to realize, which is of great significance for enterprises to meet temporary needs.

Second, quantity fluctuates. Current assets or current liabilities are easily affected by internal and external conditions. The quantity tends to fluctuate greatly.

Finally, the sources are diverse. The financing problem of working capital can be solved by long-term financing or short-term financing. Short-term financing methods include short-term bank loans, short-term financing, commercial credit, bill discount and so on.

Second, measures to improve the working capital management level of SMEs

1, adopt advanced management methods to improve the scientific nature of inventory management.

In the purchasing stage, the economic purchasing batch model and the booking model can be used to verify the economic purchasing batch and booking time. In the storage stage, the economic state of the inventory can be measured by calculating the storage period of the principal-guaranteed poly. Of course, due to the difference in scale, small and medium-sized enterprises should not copy the model of large enterprises, and enterprise managers should make decisions on enterprise inventory management according to the actual situation and their own experience, combined with the results of scientific methods. In the daily management of inventory, ABC classification management method can be used to centrally manage high-value inventory with limited manpower, and at the same time, the system construction of inventory acceptance, delivery and periodic inventory counting can be strengthened to ensure the safety of inventory and avoid the loss of funds caused by inventory loss.

2. Enhance the awareness of cash flow management and improve the level of cash flow management.

First of all, the managers of small and medium-sized enterprises should fully realize the important role of cash flow management, put cash flow management at the core of enterprise management, and form a good atmosphere for the whole enterprise to pay attention to cash flow. Secondly, strengthen cash budget management. Small and medium-sized enterprises should set up a budget team with the participation of principal responsible persons, financial departments and other functional departments. According to the development strategy and market situation of the enterprise, we should use scientific budgeting methods to reasonably determine various basic budgets, and then determine the cash budget of the enterprise. At the same time, management departments at all levels should pay close attention to the budget implementation, analyze the causes of budget differences in time, adjust budget indicators in time according to the future situation, and maintain the scientific rationality of the budget.

3. Establish credit concept and improve the credit degree of enterprises.

(1) Establish an internal credit management system to reduce the risk of bad debt losses.

First of all, a credit management department or credit management post should be set up according to the actual situation of the enterprise to be responsible for the implementation and management of credit policies.

Secondly, it is necessary to establish a reasonable credit policy, including determining the customer's credit standard according to the comprehensive analysis of the customer's credit degree, their own risk tolerance and competitors in the same industry, formulating a reasonable and feasible discount period and discount rate for timely payment, and formulating a collection policy for customers' arrears in payment.

Third, establish a customer credit management system. By establishing customer files, conducting multi-channel credit surveys on customers, and analyzing and evaluating customers' credit on the basis of the surveys, we can grasp customers' credit status in time and avoid losses caused by blind trust.

Fourth, we should strengthen the tracking, analysis and control of arrears. From the beginning of sales, it is necessary to incorporate the arrears into the customer file information system, keep in touch with customers in time, ask about the collection and payment preparation, and urge customers to pay in time. Customers should promptly remind overdue payment.

Fifth, strengthen the internal control system of credit management, reasonably set posts and responsibilities and authorities, ensure that incompatible posts are separated from each other, so that each post can restrict and supervise each other, and at the same time, strengthen the inspection of the implementation of the internal control system to avoid the system becoming a mere formality. Finally, it is necessary to establish a post responsibility system for credit management, enhance the risk awareness of personnel in each post, and reduce the credit risk of enterprises.

(2) Enhance the sense of honesty and maintain the sustainability of liabilities.

Managers of small and medium-sized enterprises should enhance their sense of honesty, consciously abandon short-sighted behaviors that don't talk about credit, persist in carrying out production and business activities based on honesty, repay all kinds of debts on time and in full, establish a good credit image, gradually establish good credit relations between enterprises and between enterprises and banks, and promote the sustainability of corporate liabilities, thus solving the problem of insufficient working capital of small enterprises.

4, improve the quality of management personnel, enhance the ability of working capital management.

It is necessary to establish an incentive and restraint mechanism for human resources, combine material incentives with spiritual incentives, and form an all-round and multi-level incentive mechanism to ensure that high-level talents can stay and attract. At the same time, through institutional constraints, contractual constraints, institutional constraints and other ways, a restraint mechanism for managers at all levels is formed. Attention should be paid to the cultivation of talents. Modern management ideas and methods are constantly updated, and small and medium-sized enterprises should create more learning opportunities, so that employees can update their concepts and improve their skills, thus serving enterprises and promoting the improvement of management level. Managers and functional departments at all levels of enterprises should combine their respective management responsibilities, focus on working capital management, strengthen the management of small and medium-sized enterprises, enhance their competitiveness, and promote the sustained and healthy development of small and medium-sized enterprises.