If you pay your employees every other week but your income is recognized monthly, your revenue will not be matched to the expenses that helped earn it. On your income statement (P&L), expenses would be understated some months and overstated others.
One of the benefits of hiring an accounting/bookkeeping expert is the ability to meet with them after month-end close, to have them explain your financial statements to you and to help draw your attention to important aspects of the financial data. A monthly financial review meeting is a good starting point to ensuring your business is staying on track. Here is what we recommend you review:
Intuit has aligned with a bank called Green Dot to provide QuickBooks Online users with an integrated checking account. This account, called “QuickBooks Cash and Envelopes,” is designed to house funds received from your QuickBooks Payments merchant services. Per Intuit, it “combines a checking account, savings envelopes, merchant service payments, and a cash flow planner all in one integrated interface.” Here is a quick look at Intuit’s selling points:
Are you a dentist who does work in exchange for IT services? Maybe you are a physical therapist who exchanges services with someone who does your social media. These are great examples of bartering.
While running your own business, you pay bills online, deposit checks with your smart phone and check your bank balance using the internet. So far you are managing quite well. Then something unexpected happens - an automatic bill payment you set up clears the bank and suddenly you are overdrawn.
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.
When it comes to bookkeeping for small businesses it is important to have a year-end checklist to make sure everything is in order. Here is our year-end checklist:
- Backup of data made before correcting transactions
- Review Trail Balance
- Balance changed? Review Audit Trail, Voided/Deleted and Retained Earnings QuickReport for prior year.
I heard this advice at a JumpStart EXPO from a very successful entrepreneur. When it comes to small business bookkeeping there are two things a business owner should never do:
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:
We aren’t talking about peanut butter and chocolate (although that is good); we are talking about a part-time bookkeeper and a part-time CFO. That combination lets you do what you do best – create new products and services for your small business.
