Accounting Software: Is it time to upgrade?

When businesses start out, they generally don’t need a very expensive or complicated accounting program to handle their accounting functions. They simple require something that will keep tracking of their payables and billings, and possibly payroll. However, as a company grows and expands, its needs in the area of accounting can also grow. Read More »

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We’re Being Audited! Follow These Tips and Decrease the Stress

Opening an envelope from the IRS or the State Revenue Office that has the word ‘audit’ on it can easily send a business into panic mode, but it doesn’t have to. Audits by federal and state revenue agencies are performed on a regular basis, sometimes at random and sometimes with cause. Being selected to undergo an audit of your business will certainly put the details of your accounting system under scrutiny, but approaching the process calmly and in control can eliminate much of the stress that can accompany this added burden to your business operations. Here’s a few tips for taking the sting out of an audit notice.

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Using Accounting Data to Measure Performance

Your accounting system is full of information. It has the pay rates of all your employees. It contains records of all your sales and all your costs. It has the data related to your investments back into the company when you purchase assets. It has all this data. How come it has such a hard time turning that data into information that you can really use, like measurements of your company’s performance in different areas?
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Accounting for Insurance Premiums

If you’re lucky, you have all your insurance policies with the same company and they all renew on the same date, but for many businesses this is not the case. You may have your worker’s compensation coverage with one insurance carrier and your general liability with another. They may also have different renewal dates and different payment plans. Trying to keep track of what you’ve paid, and what your true monthly insurance expenses are, can be difficult.
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Timing is everything

You can kill a great joke with bad timing. And, you can kill great bookkeeping with bad timing, too. Bookkeeping is not just about entering the numbers; it’s about entering the numbers at the right time.

If a customer pays you to do some work, their money should be reflected in the month you actually deliver the product or service. This sounds basic but it’s often ignored. Here’s why it’s important:
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Tags: Accounting System, Bad Timing, Blog, Bookkeeping, Joke, Money, Right Time, Swings