Just as a personal budget can help ensure enough money is saved for retirement, a business budget can help ensure the company can succeed long into the future. Budgets also help start-ups step off on the right foot. Even without historical expenses data, taking the time to forecast income and expenses for the month, quarter and year(s) ahead will help keep your business lean, efficient and open for business.
At the start of each year, you probably make goals and have dreams of where you would like your business to go and how to make it grow. You prepared what you thought to be a realistic budget. Preparing the budget is the first step; reviewing it at least monthly is as important to the success of your company. Don’t let your budget gather dust and never look at it again.
How are you doing now that spring has sprung? Feeling lighter, brighter and refreshed? We hope both you and your business are bouncing along nicely into Spring. How do you know if this year will blossom, or if parts of the business are late bloomers and dragging you down?
The second draw of PPP funds is a life raft for many small businesses. There are a lot of great changes to the eligibility rules and uses of PPP-2 funds. Unfortunately, there are a few changes that many deem unfair.
A budget is evidence of your mission and values in numbers and tells you if your dreams are viable. A budget is an important feature of your initial business plan and helps lay the foundation of your future business operations.
Budgets can feel like a chore or a forgotten item on the to-do list when you are caught in the throes of running your business. But, how often do your goals come alive if you don’t have a plan or if you don’t measure your results?
We decided to analyze our client’s financial performance for the last two years. (There's no denying it -- we are a bit nerdy!) Not surprisingly, we found that most small businesses had a difficult 2020 year. We noticed a few things when reviewing the data, such as:
The Pandemic has brought to light the importance of financial management at nonprofit organizations. Many organizations are overwhelmed with demand and short on resources. A crisis always highlights weaknesses, but it can also identify opportunities. As a board member, what financial information do you need to guide the organization though the ever-changing community the nonprofit serves?
Small business owners wear many hats, and it's easy to let things slip through cracks (like that great marketing campaign you were going to do for the holidays). It's nothing to feel bad about ... when priorities shift, your attention and time needs to as well. There are plenty of tasks that can be tabled, but there are some that border on dangerous when delayed, and bookkeeping is one of them. When you let it pile up and get too far behind, the details start to slip and are harder to reconstruct. So, we thought we'd share a few of our sagely tips that seem to be useful in keeping the time spent tracking your finances as efficient and effective as possible.
Throughout the year, we publish weekly blogs loaded with tips, tricks, and valuable information about QuickBooks and all things bookkeeping. We all know 2020 was an unprecedented year, with information regarding relief programs and other solutions for businesses affected by COVID-19. We've compiled our most popular and significant blog posts from 2020 here to be sure you don't miss out on them!
