account reconciliation – Think Beyond the Desktop

Is the Person Handling your Accounting the Best Person Suited for the Job?

Is the Person Handling your Accounting the Best Person Suited for the Job? As a small business owner, deciding where and how to spend your money can be a difficult decision. Most will opt to reinvest their profits into products, equipment, or services that will help to generate additional revenue rather than on services to help track and manage their finances. I totally get this! After all, it’s the revenue that keeps the lights on and the employees paid. But who is making sure that the bills get paid and payroll gets processed? If your answer to this question is not “a highly skilled bookkeeper with accounting experience that understands my business and can help me understand the numbers and grow,” I suggest you read on. If you think the person currently in that role is as described above, you [...]

By Judie|Categories: Business Planning|Tags: account reconciliation, accounting, applications, bookkeeping, budget, business, cloud accounting, critical information, customers, financial records, journal entries, journal entry, Outsourcing Bookkeeping, small business, small business owner|

Tracking What you Owe – Accounts Payable

Tracking What you Owe - Accounts Payable Whenever I meet with a potential client for the first time, I always start off by asking two simple questions: “What are some pain points in your business?” and “What do you want from your accounting system?” Accounts Payable When I asked these questions in my most recent meeting, the client answered by saying he has no idea how much he owes his vendors, or when those payments were due. Currently, they just record a check, posting it directly to the expense or liability account. This reminded me that not all business owners and bookkeepers understand the many benefits of entering bills as accounts payable. Even if your reporting method is cash basis, you can still use accounts payable as a way to track what is owed and when it’s due. Benefits of [...]

Basic Financials 101 – Part 2: The Balance Sheet Report

Basic Financials 101 – Part 2: The Balance Sheet Report In Part 2 of our Basic Financials series, we’ll cover the Balance Sheet Report This article is an easy to understand guide to provide you with a better understanding of how to gauge your business’ financial health. Why It’s Important for your Business Of the financial reports that you should familiarize yourself with, the Balance Sheet Report is arguably one of the most essential. This report is an indicator of the financial health of your business at a specific time - usually at the end of a month, quarter, or year. Basically. It gives you an overview of your business’ net worth. When trying to secure financing or outside investors, this report shows your ability to meet financial obligations as well as investments made into the business by partners or [...]

Basic Financials 101 – Critical Information for a Small Business Owner

Basic Financials 101 - Critical Information for Small Business Owners I remember a few years back, meeting with a new client who insisted he didn’t need me to provide him monthly financial reports, saying “If I’m making money on every job, and there’s cash in the bank, then I must be profitable!” ... Dude. This attitude is one reason that more than 50% of new small businesses are hard pressed to make it past their first couple of years. Even after managing the accounting for SMB’s for nearly 20 years, I am still amazed at how many don’t clearly understand the importance of basic financial reports. After running into this problem enough times to want to scream from the rooftops, I took some time to reflect on why this might be the case. As it turns out, the most common [...]