QuickBooks

Over the last several years, QuickBooks has become increasingly popular. Because of its popularity, many individuals flock to QuickBooks to take care of their business needs without the stress of hiring an accountant. While DIY approach to accounting may seem reasonable, it’s not always a good idea. In fact, QuickBooks should never be used in lieu of an accountant but instead should be used in tandem with one.

Hiring a QuickBooks Specialist

When it comes to QuickBooks, one of the best suggestions is to consider hiring an accountant who specializes in this program. This is great for businesses which have everything already set up in QuickBooks and simply just need someone to manage their preexisting account. It’s also great for businesses which may not be able to afford a full-time accountant.

Diversify Your Approach

Relying solely on QuickBooks can be detrimental to your business simply because anytime you automate your business you run the risk of making more mistakes. If for some reason you don’t feel ready or even feel like you can afford to hire an accountant, consider simply reaching out to an accountant for consulting services to see if perhaps he or she can be of assistance to you at a cheaper cost.

In short, do you need an accountant if you use QuickBooks? It depends on your business, because ultimately you have to do what’s best for you and your particular situation.

Do you use QuickBooks for your business? We’d love to get your feedback. Leave your comments below.

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Accountants in Society

When most people think of the word “accountant” they instantly think of someone who sits behind a computer all day long crunching numbers. While this is a misconception, there is still a lot to be learned about the impact of an accountant. Below are just a few critical roles an accountant plays in society:

Financial Literary

Believe it or not, accountants can play a critical role in developing financial literacy for their communities. This could be in the form of programs, conferences, empowerment sessions, or financial seminars. Accountants are tasked with the responsibility locally to share all they know about finances to their communities in hopes of encouraging financial literacy.

Helping Businesses Grow

Businesses are only able to grow with the help of capable advisors such as accountants. Having a good accountant in your community will help businesses grow and consequently will improve economic conditions in general.

Helping Businesses Make Better Decisions

Helping businesses make better decisions is another critical role of an accountant. One of the primary responsibilities of an accountant is to ensure they watch how businesses spend and earn money. This not only empowers businesses but it also empowers individuals as they learn about proper money management.

Increasing Employment

The more financial literacy your business has, the more growth you should expect to see, both for your business and your wider community. While many may not consider accountants as being able to increase employment, they actually can increase employment in a plethora of ways that you would never be able to imagine.

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Tax Tips for Small Business Owners

Organize on a Monthly Basis

Organize, organize, organize. The key to being successful during tax season as a small business owner is to make sure you organize your records on a consistent basis. It is suggested that you organize monthly to make sure you don’t miss any important steps.

Review Business Finances

Just like staying organized is important, reviewing your business finances is also important. Reviewing your business finances is what will prevent you from getting any end of the year unpleasant surprises.

Plan for Estimated Taxes

When you fail to plan, plan to fail. If you really want to make sure that you are adequately prepared for tax season, plan for estimated taxes. Your accountant can help you specifically with planning for those estimated taxes to ensure that you can begin saving for taxes before they come.

What tips do you have for small business owners to help them plan for taxes? Leave your comments below.

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Daily Tasks of Accountants

Contrary to popular belief, Certified Public Accountants (most commonly known as CPAs) don’t always look the same for different businesses. For example, a small carpet cleaning business may not have the same needs as a Silicon Valley start-up company which has recently received a large investment from a venture capitalist firm. Because of this fact, the day to day responsibilities of a CPA can look very different depending on the circumstances of the individual case; however, even though their responsibilities may vary, here are three things all CPAs should be doing on a daily basis whenever they’re employed full-time for a company:

Balancing Expenses

Are you constantly spending money in all forms―cash, check, credit card or even automatic withdrawal? If so, it may be a wise idea to make sure your CPA is balancing those expenses on a daily basis to ensure that you’re not spending money that you don’t have in your bank account. Careless spending continues to be a problem for businesses across the world.

Finding New Growth Opportunities

One important task which accountants can assist any business with is searching for growth opportunities. Because your CPA is constantly looking at your finances they can easily identify opportunities for growth, whether it derive from buying an additional product or item or even hiring a new employee.

Documenting All Financial Records

Whether they do it using a filing cabinet or saving it onto your company’s hard drive, you will want to make sure that your account is documenting and organizing all of your financial records to make sure you’re not losing track of important documentation that you will need during tax season.

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Questions for Your Accountant

An accountant is by far one of the greatest assets your business team can have. They are there not only to help your company with the financial aspects of business, but also to serve as a critical business growth component. In order to get the most out of any accountant that you have on your team, it’s important to know what questions to ask him or her. Here are four questions small business owners should be prepared to ask their accountant:

What’s Important to You?

Before getting too deep into a relationship with your accountant, you want to make sure you are setting clear expectations of what it is you need. Be clear from day one if you want someone to provide financial guidance or if you just need an accountant to help you prepare your taxes once a year. This one question will let you know if your accountant is right for your business or not.

What Technology Do You Use?

DOS is still being used throughout the accounting world; however, it won’t be a tool that can be used forever. Because of this, you will want to make sure that your accountant is open to learning brand new technology systems as they become available. As cloud technology continues to increase in popularity, it would be advantageous if your accountant remains open to learning how to use those systems.

How Do You Stay Current with Industry Trends?

Whether your business pays for it or not, it’s important that your accountant continues to stay educated on industry trends. This could include, but is not limited to, being open to change as well as being open to new ideas as they evolve within the accounting industry.

What’s More Important: Value or Compliance?

Compliance is important, but there’s more to accounting than just compliance. Sure, an accountant needs to have the ability to ensure you remain compliant with all applicable rules, but an accountant can offer so much more value. Value means being able to provide financial advice, tax advice or even budgeting advice. While it’s not mandatory, having an accountant who focuses on value will prove to be more beneficial to you in the long term.

What questions have you vowed to ask your accountant? Leave your comments below.

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The Benefits Conferred by Accountants

Here are a few ways your accountant can benefit your small business:

Bookkeeping

In order to accurately keep track of your payroll services, you want to make sure all your finances and books are in order. An accountant can help you make sure all of your accounts are not only accurate but balanced. This could include everything from managing transactions, accounts payable and accounts receivable, collections, inventory and a host of other activities.

Payroll Data Entry

Whether you pay your employees on weekly, daily, or even monthly basis, payroll can be very stressful. Hiring an accountant to manage your payroll data entry could give you some much needed extra time. Best of all, your payroll is probably much easier for someone who is actually trained to handle things such as payroll, which in most cases is probably not you as a small business owner.

Tax Filing

Everyone stresses out during tax season: you’re wondering how you’re going to be able to pay people back, and most of all, you’re forced to figure out if you’re actually making the right choices when filling out your tax forms. Filing taxes can be stressful for a personal taxpayer, but it can be downright maddening for a small business owner. You can make sure you eliminate these stresses by leaving your tax filing status in the hands of your accountant.

What ways does an accountant benefit your small business? Have they helped your business in ways you never expected? Leave your comments below.

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Accountants Can Eliminate Stress

Sometimes the task of running a business can be overwhelming and very stressful. Some of this stress is unavoidable, but there are things that you can do to eliminate some of this work related stress, and one of the most important things you can do is hire an accountant.

Here are three sources of stress which an accountant can help you eliminate:

Accounts Payable Stresses

Managing accounts payable is often a source of stress for business owners without an accountant. Accounts payable is defined as an accounting entry that represents an entity’s obligation to pay off a short-term debt to its creditors. A good accountant will not only help you pay off your short-term debt to your creditors but can also work as the intermediary for your company and those who you have to pay back.

Employee Salary Stresses

“I need a raise” is a phrase most employers have heard on numerous occasions, and while they may believe their employee deserves a raise sometimes the money just isn’t available. Handling these salary stresses over to your accountant could be one of the best decisions you ever make simply because you can now redirect all of those salary inquiries to your accountant who will be able to share when a raise could be financially possible for the company (or even deliver the news that it would never be possible).

Balancing Checkbooks

Everyone loves to make money and spend money, but not everyone likes to balance checkbooks. If you’re one of those business owners who has a hard time balancing your checkbook then hiring an accountant can be a life saver. Not only will you no longer have to worry about balancing your checkbook but you also will no longer have to worry about spending money before you have it in your bank account.

What stresses has your accountant relieved you from? Leave it in the comments below.

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Finding the Right Accountant for You

The process of hiring a good accountant is something we discuss relatively often here on our blog because we are firm believers that a good accountant is essential to the growth of your business. While we frequently discuss how to hire a good accountant, many people often wonder how they can identify signs that an accountant may not be right for their company. It’s a lot like the concept of “one size fits all.” While it may seem ideal that every accountant work in the favor of your business, that’s not always the case.

Here are a few signs that you can identify that tell you that your accountant may be good but not right for you:

The Comparison Game

Many accountants may not do this intentionally, but unfortunately it happens. Accountants will discuss how quickly they were able to turn around another client’s finances and automatically believe they can do the same for you. Ideally, your accountant should want to see you win; however, constantly comparing your business situation to that of another could not only be unhealthy for you as a business owner but it could also have your accountant placing unrealistic expectations based on a previous experience.

No Experience in Your Industry

For the most part, skill sets can easily be transferred into another industry; however, if you’re really in a bad predicament financially, you may want to hire someone who has experience in your industry and is well versed in market trends. This not only can help you as your business grows but it will also guarantee that your accounting needs are in good hands.

Doesn’t Understand Your Vision

Your accountant does not have to agree 100% with your vision but they should at least understand your vision and where you stand as a business owner. This is essential not only to you as a business owner but also to the accountant. If they don’t understand your vision, they will have no ability to help you execute it and see that vision come to reality.

Have you ever had to let go of your accountant? What things let you know that the accountant wasn’t for you? Leave your comments below.

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Benefits of CPAs

Finding a CPA can be a very stressful endeavor. However, CPAs can confer a number of very substantial benefits to your company. Here are just a few ways your business could greatly benefit from hiring a CPA:

CPAs Can Help You Increase Your Budget

Have you often dreamed of having a bigger budget to do some of the things you have always dreamed of doing within your business? Hiring a CPA can help you do just that. A CPA is all about numbers and helping you cut cost, and the more you cut cost in one area, the more opportunities you have to increase your budget in others.

CPAs Can Help You Decrease Your Budget

Just like CPAs can help you increase your budget, they can also help you decrease your budget if that be your desire. This can be done by seeing where you spend unnecessary money and cut that spending in half.

CPAs Can Help You With Financial Management

Do you struggle with personal and business financial management? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Many businesses struggle with this same thing, and if you can find a CPA who is versed in financial management, that adds an extra bonus not only to your life but to the lives of those on your business team.

CPAs Can Help You Determine When You Need To Cut Staff

Whether businesses like to do this or not, sometimes cuts are necessary, and when you’re so invested in your own company sometimes you’re blind to the areas that you need to cut. Your CPA has an inside look at your business, but can also view things from a different perspective.

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Hiring a CPA

Many businesses desire to hire a CPA but often worry that they don’t have the requisite funds. There are several ways that companies can raise money in order to hire a competent and qualified CPA. Here are three ways your business can save money in order to hire a CPA:

Cut Out Unnecessary Purchases

If, over the last several years, your business has gained a reputation for spending a lot of unnecessary money, now may be a great time to start cutting out unnecessary purchases. It may be difficult to do, but it will be worthwhile once you’re finally able to hire a CPA.

Be Intentional In Saving Money

If you want to save money in order to hire a CPA, make sure you allocate a certain amount of money that you need to save up front. For example, if you know it will cost your business $5,000 a year in order to hire a CPA, make a conscious effort to save that much by the end of the year so you can begin a new year with your new CPA.

Hire a CPA By The Hour  

Many businesses mistakenly assume that they have to put a CPA on the payroll as a full time employee. If your business is not in the position to add a CPA as a full time employee, consider hiring by the hour. In order to get your money’s worth when hiring a CPA by the hour it’s important that you always come to each meeting with your CPA prepared to answer all of his or her questions.

What other ways can your business save money in order to hire a CPA? Leave your comments below.

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