What Are the Different Types of Financial Health Checks?

Financial health checks can be performed for individuals or for businesses. These assessments might focus on the level of debt that a person has in comparison with income, and certain recommendations might be offered to improve the person's financial condition. Based on the results from these checkups, an individual might be advised about whether long-term financial goals are attainable. Financial health checks for a business might involve analysis of the way that accounting functions are performed at the organization.

For the individual, there are financial health checks available on the Internet that are designed to offer ways to gain control over money. To do this, the financial tools used might analyze certain information, such as the level of income an individual is earning, compared with his or her debt obligations. The process might be personalized based on a set of criteria provided by the user, such as age, marital status and whether the individual owns a home. Upon entering all of the required information, an online service might create an assessment and offer budgeting suggestions for ways to improve the health of an individual's financial condition, if necessary, such as curbing spending habits, seeking higher income or avoiding further debt.

Additionally, there are many free government services available online that are similarly designed to provide a personal financial health check for users. As part of the checkup process, these content providers might also offer support for financial planning. Government-sponsored financial service providers might also be available for in-house meetings that involve more personal assessments of consumers' financial conditions. These professionals might not sell any financial products or offer investment advice, but following a health check, the official might provide insight about whether an individual is on track to reach certain goals, such as saving for retirement or buying a home.

The Internet is not the only place to perform financial health checks. These tuneups can be done mentally, as well. If a person's financial condition is disorganized or problematic, such as when he or she is frequently contacted by debt collectors, it might be an indication of other areas in a person's life that are unsettled and are preventing the person from attaining a healthy financial condition.

Corporations rely on accounting and other financial processes to monitor and project performance, and they often integrate software solutions to support these functions. Periodic financial health checks might be provided by a software developer to ensure that a client is properly using the company's product. These checkups might be performed on a quarterly basis, for instance, and the product manufacturers could look to uncover inefficiencies, either in the way that a product is being applied or in the way that internal processes unfold and might make recommendations for improvements.