Real-time accounting is when your books are caught up to the present and you know exactly where you stand with your account balances, revenue, and profit. It’s truly doing your accounting in real time. The opposite of real-time accounting is getting your books done once a year (or worse, being years behind). When you wait to do your books once a year, say at tax time, you lose the power of being able to monetize…
Read MoreAssets and expenses both have a “debit” balance on the financial statements, but that’s where their similarities end. Spending on one can make you rich and spending too much on the other can leave you broke. An expense is money you may need to spend, but after a year, there is nothing lasting to show for it. An asset is a tangible resource that is still worth something after a year or more and that…
Read MoreThe technology side of the accounting industry is rapidly changing and expanding. Literally hundreds, if not thousands of new companies and new software applications have sprung up to help small businesses automate their processes and save time and money. The best way to profit from all of this innovation is to first identify where you can best use the technology in your business. Here are three places to look: 1. Paper Chase What business…
Read MoreDo you spend a lot of time reviewing stacks of reports each month so you can get the information you need to make decisions? Do you find out after the fact that something went wrong in your business and that if you had known about it sooner, you would have made different decisions? If so, you might benefit from a special type of reporting called exception reporting. Exception reporting highlights red flag areas that you…
Read MoreGetting payroll done has gotten so much easier than it used to be for small business owners. But there are still some minefields when it comes to state and federal compliance. We’ll take a look at six of them in today’s article. 1. Business or Personal? A great admin might want to help you in any way they can, including personal errands. But time spent having your admin fetch your dry cleaning and drug…
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