When I worked at a public accounting firm, one of things I liked but didn’t like was going to clients. I wanted to work from close to home and not have to deal with traffic every day. While DC, MD & VA are a hop skip and a jump from each other, when you…
One of the hardest things to get a handle on as a business owner is your finances and how you can support your business and your personal life. You have to have a good plan in place in order to be able to still handle all your expenses consistently without any issues. So the first…
Helping other people with their record keeping has taught me one thing – people are making some serious mistakes when it comes to managing their cash flow. And with technology constantly changing, the mistakes are evolving. No matter how large or small the company, the mistakes are always the same. And with cash flow being…
As a business owner, it is key that you understand the financials in your business and what they say about your business. But so many business owners really don’t have a clue. I’m sorry if that sounds mean but it’s true. There is more to running a business than making deposits and paying expenses. You…
Petty cash funds are funds that are kept on hand at your business office and is used to reimburse employees for small expenses. Sometime it is misused as if it were an extra bank account. Keeping track of petty cash is a key control for small business owners. Failure to do so will leave your…
There are two basic forms of accounting that should be used to track your revenues and expenses – cash basis and accrual basis. Cash basis means that you recognize the income when you receive it and you recognize expenses when you actually pay them. Accrual basis means that you recognize income when you have the…
When most people think of job costing they think of construction businesses. But you can us job costing in any business that has multiple streams of income that are significant to that businesses bottom line. Job costing is all about assigning the proper costs to individual project or jobs, to help determine its profitability. In…
Last week I talked about the importance of using account numbers. One of the main reasons is that it creates structure and allows you to group your transaction based on the five main categories of accounting. There are five main chart of account categories that are the foundation of an accounting numbering system. These five categories…
I was recently working on a clients books and noticed that they didn’t use account numbers. And I asked them why, they didn’t have any reason. They simply replied “Why do I need them?” The Chart of Accounts is the framework to your reporting system in your business. This framework is a complete list of…
Software programs are evolving. You no longer have to buy it off the shelf. You can purchase it online. Have access to all your financial information at your fingertips no matter where you are in the world. But which one is better? Desktop or Online? Let’s explore the differences between the two and see who…
