Author: Complete Controller

Do we require more physical storefronts? When did it become so handy to get anything from pizza to pens, shoes, shirts, and sofas from the comfort of our own houses? Rather than having to leave our homes and queue in stores? As seen by the recent bankruptcy and closures of The Limited, American Apparel, Wet Seal, Aeropostale, and Pacific Sunwear, this doesn’t happen as frequently as one might think.

What do we do now that we can arrange every room of our house on the screen? What are our options? We can now envision an entire room in our home on a screen, precisely what we are. Technology has improved sufficiently to show us what we might look like in a suit or a pair of Levi’s Made-to-Order jeans based on the body measurements we provide. Do? Do you require a valid showcase?

Thanks to Amazon’s Prime shipping service, we have spoiled for choice, which allows us to place an order online and have it delivered in two days for no additional shipping costs. You may set up an ongoing pantry subscription to have tissues, diapers, and chips delivered to your home when you’re about to run out of something.

There Has Been a Significant Evolution

E-commerce is slowly but steadily eroding the retail market share. According to a recent study, online purchases would account for at least one-third of all sales by 2030, a reality that could spell the end for many shopping malls. AT Kearney, a US consulting firm, doesn’t necessarily believe the latter can be a space for engaging with consumers, delivering a choice of products tailored to fit the needs of a new generation if it innovates.

According to research issued by an American firm, the distribution business has a bright future if it can grow and capitalize on changing aspects such as the human factor and new technical and economic characteristics. AT Kearney has created a list of four areas where they can transform the mall into a truly social environment.

The early aim was to turn the mall into a tourist destination, with a substantial area dedicated to attractions. The focal point here is not a standard distribution facility but a fun social event that provides immersive concrete entertainment. They can accommodate specialist brands in this new sort of mall. Their premise is still commercial, but they are also locations where brand engagement centers on exploration, education, and experience. As a result, the study mentions US market names like Bass Pro Shop (which focuses on hunting and fishing), Lowe’s (which specializes in construction and horticultural distribution networks), and REI (which specializes in outdoor recreation) (affiliate sales of outdoor sports products). Xanadu in Spain, the Mall of the Emirates in Dubai, and the American Dream Center currently under development in New Jersey and Miami are examples of these centers currently in operation.

Anthropologists, cultural psychologists, and shopping ethnologists continually observe, record, and analyze client behavior, educating retailers in real-time. Another aim is the establishment of innovation hubs or digital venues for aggregating data to produce specific suggestions. Beta testing is an essential aspect of the trading system in this format. A portion of the local region could be set aside for test stores that will use the information gathered by the new concept. Consumers can try new technologies, connect with professionals, and even share their thoughts on the product and assessment data.

Today, they can transform retail spaces into value centers where brand identity and choice are founded on consumers’ shared value. These malls will be distinguished by a theme: politics, animal rights, community, sports, etc. All brands will be able to provide experiences relating to this theme. Local stores will be able to provide their items on a cyclical basis. Thanks to temporary pop-ups and virtual or shared showrooms, local artists and producers can interact with customers, co-create, and develop things in real time.

Moreover, they broadly convert shopping malls into “commercial-residential” places or living spaces, focusing on specific demographics such as stylish city dwellers in their 30s, singles, and retirees in their 40s. For example, the senior mall will offer medical services, pharmacies, adaptive gyms, professional lawyers and accountants, and conference space. About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

You must be able to understand what you are doing anytime, anywhere. And only a few programs are capable of that. Therefore, an easy accounting program is a program that makes accounting fun and simple.

Below is the only overview you will ever need—an overview of the most accessible accounting programs. I dare say so because these programs can provide everything you need from an easy schedule.

Your bookkeeping becomes easier because you can book pleasantly. And that will also make your life as an entrepreneur easier. Read on for the entire top 5!

#5: Reeleezee

Reeleezee says it all with the name Easy Bookkeeping. As easy as Reeleezee is as an accounting program, it is not in the top 3. And that is because it is a relatively young player with the right intentions but is not there yet.

Would I recommend Reeleezee right away? No, the other players in my top 5 are too good for that. No accounting program insists on the most accessible aspect, and you would expect the absolute best from Reeleezee. Unfortunately, that is not the case, which causes some disappointment when I dive deeper into the accounting program.

In addition, Reeleezee is pricey compared to some alternatives. If you want to be able to book correctly, you will lose at least $25 per month. And that’s absurd for what you get.

#4: DigiBTW

DigiBTW handles all this a lot better. Although DigiBTW is not a very extensive accounting program, which you do not expect from this, it is a lot more for your money than Reeleezee.

What DigiBTW does well is that it’s just effortless. It’s super simple and super affordable, according to DigiBTW. And with $10 per month, you really can’t complain. For this, you get a user-friendly accounting program that has no limitations. So, you get access to all functions of the program. To summarize, you can count on this company’s support if you cannot find a solution.

Digital is an excellent stepping stone for those who want to be able to book easily and quickly. Perhaps it was not the most professional program, but deserved fourth place, especially for $10 a month.

#3: Red tape

My overview of accounting programs with the best value for money has a top ranking, not a bad performance for a program that has only existed for some time. Rompslomp has scored several times in the top 3 of my most popular accounting lists. However, it wouldn’t surprise me if Rompslomp also ranks higher here within a year. For now, Rompslomp is worth a top 3 listing.

Red Tape wants to make bookkeeping as pleasant as possible. It does this for as many branches as possible, whether in the construction or design sector. Everything is kept simple so you can easily find your way into the accounting program. It is for a very reasonable price of $10 per month. And if you want to do it cheaply, you can opt for the free package. This package has many functions you do not have to pay for.

#2: Moneybird

Moneybird is, according to the latest figures, the most popular accounting program among sole traders. Entrepreneurs know where to find Moneybird because Moneybird is recommended first in many large Facebook groups. And Moneybird doesn’t owe that to the fun name.

Everyone can use this accounting program. As a beginner, you can easily explore the accounting program through balloons, extensive manuals, and FAQs. An explanation can be read for each function so that you subconsciously learn how parts work. It strengthens your knowledge of the accounting program and accounting in general—quite an achievement from Moneybird.

#1: Yellow

After using Moneybird for the first time in 2015, I never expected that in 2020, there would be a more straightforward accounting program. Yellow has proven otherwise. You can find everything you would want to see from a sole proprietorship accounting program in Yellow. Yellow shows that you can utilize the application more manageably. Functions are excellently developed and beautifully and user-friendly designed.

If Moneybird is the noticeable Windows, indeed, yellow must be Apple. Everything feels intuitive and natural. It allows you to float through the functions, as it were, and your accounting is done in no time that you used to need an expensive bookkeeper for that.

The main reason why Yellow earns the label’s most accessible accounting program is that it helps you with everything. It gives you complete control without investing time and energy in your accounting. Yellow takes care of every aspect of your accounting without you distancing yourself from your accounting. You take every step yourself. About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

1. Keep an eye out for news

Nowadays, business is constantly changing, taking new forms every day. However, the problem with people is that it is getting hard to adapt to new business ideas and patterns, which sometimes become hard to adjust. Keep an eye out for recent market trends and adjustments. Take note of new investments made by firms in your industry and, most importantly, which sort of business has proven more successful.

2. Understand consumer desires

One of the main problems of any business is seeing consumers from our eyes, not from their eyes and perspective. We sometimes lose most of our customers, which is our mistake entirely, not the customers or consumers. Try to discover the requirements and aspirations of customers, what they are seeking, what they anticipate, and whether your proposal will match their expectations before you start an investment or business. 

3. Identify a problem

It is a fantastic approach to spotting a potential investment. That’s because there’s always an opportunity to provide remedies that can develop into successful enterprises when there’s a significant problem.

There are several examples of successful entrepreneurs who spotted possibilities amid adversity. Post-it notes, for example, are a well-known notepad invented in offices to help many executives who had lost essential appointments due to forgetfulness.

Those startups that stand out are those that provide something fresh. VC Eric Vishria recommends investors seek new firms whose creators compel them to question their own beliefs about a market or issue. What begins as an out-of-the-box concept has the potential to become the industry standard.

4. It is an area you already know well

Don’t put money into something you don’t fully comprehend. A company might receive positive early feedback and appear to be ready to evolve, but it isn’t easy to know whether this is true if it doesn’t comprehend the purpose of its products or services. You can more confidently judge if a company strategy has promise when you understand the sector you invest in.

You might begin to specialize in less familiar areas as you obtain more financial experience. However, you should first limit your investments to those connected with your areas of expertise.

5. The startup is focused on an audience or area whose needs are unmet

Many startups strive to target groups who are currently underrepresented to take a novel perspective to an industry. Hiruy Amanuel, Gullt’s managing director, has experience in early-stage tech startups in East Africa. Venture investors and the tech sector have mostly disregarded this area until recently.

The African continent, according to Amanuel, has the potential for expansion. Because specific organizations and their target consumers have been largely disregarded in the past, those who are the first to give a sector the attention it deserves have the potential for tremendous development.

6. The company has solid fundamentals

You must ensure that the firm in which you invest has sound fundamentals. It is accurate at the business level and the individual level. While a well-defined business strategy is critical, the startup’s people are even more crucial.

According to investor Winston Ibrahim, Strong visionary executives are the most significant criterion in assessing whether a firm is worth investing in. The most successful entrepreneurs are humble, adaptable, and willing to delegate. They recognize that they don’t know everything and are eager to seek advice and insight from others.

This adaptable thinking aids them in recognizing when adjustments are required. These entrepreneurs are worth investing in because they always look for ways to develop and grow rather than grow complacent.

There are no assurances in the world of commercial ventures. The startup may appear to have all the elements to become a game-changing force in the industry, but an internal feud among the founders might send it all crashing down.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Retention of the Backup

The so-called retention of a backup indicates how far back you can go in the history of backups. It was essential to restore the deletion of a file a year ago. In that case, a backup with a one-month retention would not offer a solution.

Longer retention will require more storage, so unlimited retention may sound handy but can add up unnecessarily in cost. Also, pay attention to legal considerations; the law can sometimes prescribe how to store long data.

Location & Media of the Backup

Ideally, you set up a backup using the “3-2-1 Method”. This method states that you have at least three copies of your data, which you put on two different media and one stored in a different location.

Different media can be hard disk, tape, or cloud storage. The media type can help determine the location but often depends on the amount of data to store. Also, remember that the space a backup needs grows over time. It is highly dependent on the retention and frequency of backups.

Access & Backup Security

It’s essential to think about protecting backups in terms of access. If, for example, a backup media is stolen, you can save it using encryption to ensure that no one can view it.

It applies both physically and via backup software. Also, consider who within your organization may have access to the backups. If you usually have the classification of a right not to make all data transparent to everyone, someone could access this data through obtained access.

Backup Frequency

When determining the backup frequency, you must consider the data that can be lost in an incident. For example, if you are hit by ransomware at 4:00 PM and your backup runs at 3:00 AM, you may fail several hours of work. This trade-off is called ‘Recovery Point Objective’ (RPO).

Increasing the frequency could help reduce the number of work hours you could lose in such an incident. A higher frequency of the backup is not always possible due to the time it takes to create the backup or the delay that may occur while it runs.

Recovery Time

When an incident affects (critical) business processes, knowing how long it takes before your data and application(s) are available again is crucial. Several factors impact the recovery time, such as the amount of data, the technique used, or the speed of the backup media. You may have to consider what to recover and when to return to work as quickly as possible. You will sometimes have to prioritize repairing essential parts earlier than others within such consideration. This trade-off is called the ‘Recovery Time Objective’ (RTO).

Prioritizing can also help reduce costs because you may have determined that active projects should be available again within a few hours, but an archive, for example, only after a few days.

Monitoring

After establishing a backup, it is also vital that you monitor the backup. Ensure you have good reporting to check whether backups are running and errors have occurred, preferably daily. Even if you have entirely outsourced it, you must receive and review these reports as an entrepreneur. Any mistake must be corrected in time so you do not run into them when you need a backup.

Testing Backup

In addition to monitoring backups, it is perhaps even more critical that you test them. Testing backups is sometimes only done when something needs to be restored. This is because testing often costs money and a lot of time. Some backup applications offer the option to run a verification test. Such a verification test checks whether the backup data is in order. This is good to set up, but it is preferable to go further and periodically test the backup by restoring it to check whether it works and the data is intact. You can do a restore test by randomly repairing some files or even restoring an entire system to test applications’ functionality.

Segmentation

Be aware that it is vital to use good segmentation for your backup. You can partly do this with the 3-2-1 method mentioned, where you use different media. In somewhat larger environments, where virtualization is also used, try to separate the backup and production networks. Recent targeted (ransomware) attacks show much energy is put into encrypting backups. In practice, insufficient segmentation apparently ensures you can quickly encrypt the backup. The only option to potentially get your data back is to pay a ransom.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Accounting has been around for a long time. One of its lesser-known branches is Forensic Accounting (or Forensic Audit). 

Forensic accounting, or investigative accounting, is a unique professional field that combines accounting with information technology. A forensic accountant uses advanced computer programs to examine financial data and find evidence that would be valid during legal proceedings.

Forensic accountants are usually asked to review financial records for mergers and acquisitions. You can also serve as an advisor to a company’s audit committee or resolve shareholder disputes within the company.

The Babylonian Code of Hammurabi is the first authorized document known to man. Some of its fragments hint at the basic idea of forensic accounting: to prove fraud or a lie with accounting documentation.

It was not significant until the historical event of the 30s when Al Capone was arrested. Al Capone was a famous Chicago gangster of the prohibition law and the author of innumerable murders. Still, they could only be jailed when agent Eliot Ness and his team of “Untouchables” could find all the receipts. The receipts linked Capone to illegal gambling income and tax evasion from that income.

In recent years, fraudulent bankruptcies and accounting scandals in the United States, for example, Enron, Worldcom, and Tyco resulted in the United States Securities Commission investigating hundreds of companies. It will create a body to supervise accounting and conflict of interest issues.

In the case of Europe, the Parmalat fraud case in 2003 led the European Commission to establish a directive on audits, which included a tightening of national supervision of auditors. It will promote close collaboration between federal authorities and third countries.

Forensic accounting has developed significantly during the last ten years, its base being the public sector. Our best practices in this field have been created. An example is the Government Audits that articulate investigation processes with auditing.

Therefore, we can define forensic accounting as a science that gathers and presents accounting, financial, legal, administrative, and tax information. It will provide an accounting examination that the courts will accept since it will form part of the basis of the discussion, debate, and opinion of the sentence against the perpetrators of an economic crime.

The relationship between accounting and auditing terms with forensics becomes close to criminal evidence. Therefore, a forensic audit is initially defined as an audit specialized in discovering, revealing, and attesting to fraud and crimes in developing public and private functions. It also studies the effects of events that may or may not be criminal to provide the judge with evidence involving accounting records.

Approaches to Forensic Accounting

Given the characteristics of economic crimes, the participation of the accountant is necessary for the previous stage to conduct the investigations and calculations that allow examining the existence of the crime and, as far as possible, its amount to define whether the initiation of a process is justified penal. The most common case is the one that has to do with a scam based on accounting records and supports. The intervention of the forensic accountant can vary, from the quantification of fraud and the gathering of evidence to participation as a witness. It is going through activities as diverse as systematized applications to present the evidence.

Corporate crime investigations

These investigations relate to accounting and corporate fraud by presenting intentionally manipulated, inaccurate financial information. Examples:

• Business fraud
• Counterfeiting
• Money Laundering
• Economic losses in business

Commercial disputes

In this field, the forensic accountant can function as an investigator to gather evidence to prove or clarify some specifics, such as:

• Claims for breach of contracts
• Disputes for the purchase and sale of companies
• Claims for profit determination
• Claims for breach of guarantees
• Intellectual property disputes
• Disputes over project costs
• Discrepancies between partners and stockholders
• Measurement and Arbitration

Insurance claims

When the responsibilities correspond to the administration of the companies.

• Claims for the return of faulty products
• Claims for damage to property
• Claims for complex administrations and processes
• Verification of alleged claims

Professional negligence related to:

• Audit- Accounting
• Morals
• Quantification of losses affected by negligence
• Covers all professions, including Accounting, Medicine, Engineering, Law
• Evidence from professionals in Auditing and Accounting Standards
• Advice to plaintiffs and defendants

Brand valuation

• Intellectual property
• Valuations of stocks and businesses in general

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

You have been working on social media for a while now. You have worked out your goals and managed multiple social media accounts. But are you already getting the most out of your social media marketing? Or can it be done even better and more accessible? How do you ensure that you achieve more efficient results? For this blog, we list the five most chosen tools of social media marketers. It would help to have this for efficient and effective social media management.

Inspiration Tool

Sometimes, you suddenly have a genius idea out of nowhere, but content creation can sometimes be a real struggle. Social media marketers, especially those responsible for the content, cannot do without inspiration. So, what should you write, film, or podcast about now?

A tool that can inspire you is more than helpful for those moments. Such an inspiration tool gives you tips for content based on your organization, industry, competition, or product. It can be, for example, an overview of the content that is trending or performs exceptionally well on social media and may, therefore, be of interest to your organization. Then, you can build on this content, create your variant, or even share the content directly with your followers on social media.

With the intelligent use of this tool, you will never run out of inspiration, and you will always have current and catchy content to share with your target groups.

Social Listening Tool

A social listening tool is closely linked to an inspiration tool, and these tools are often integrated into one solution.

Unlike an inspirational tool, a social listening tool allows you to precisely monitor what is being said about your organization or brand. Not necessarily to gain inspiration for updated content but to better understand the context of your brand or company.

To what extent does our brand thrive on social and online media? What is the current sentiment around our brand? Is our content frequently shared? Is it currently wise to raise certain content or sensitive topics? Do we have to wait a bit with a social media post? Is this the time for funny web care responses?

These are the kinds of insights you gain with a social listening tool. They help you with a correct and complete picture of the environment to reduce the chance of missing the point.

Social Publishing Tool

An efficient but indispensable tool in a social media marketer’s toolbox is a social media publishing tool.

Creating and posting a social media post may seem futile compared to all the other tasks in a marketer’s job responsibilities. However, the hours spent on this quickly increase if you manage accounts from multiple channels, locations, and sub-brands.

A planning tool can save you a lot of time (our experience shows this can go up to 75%). Some social planning tools also include workflows that allow you to create drafts, load calendars, approve posts, and view statistics.

This way, you have all your social media accounts in one well-arranged place, and you do not have to open ten tabs to manage your social media. Indispensable!

Community Management Tool

You can expect reactions as soon as you have scheduled your social media posts, and they are published automatically (which is handy). If the content appeals enough, that is. Then, you still must open ten tabs or make it difficult with small smartphone screens to start a conversation with your target customer. To prevent that, there are community management tools.

A community management tool should be a sizeable general inbox where incoming messages from all your accounts and channels arrive. That is brief because some tools support many more features, such as responding to notices not addressed to you. Costo also has possibilities for collaboration, extra channels (reviews and messengers), and countless other options.

It is a known fact that responding to social media posts helps to ensure that algorithms show your posts more often. But what if you do not use a community management tool and respond to comments? What if you do not build a real community? Is not responding an option at all? Not if you want to score a lot of reaches, interaction, and clicks.

Reporting Tool

Every marketer wants value for their work. So, if you wish to prove your achieved results or want to specifically look for points for improvement for the following social media post or campaign, you cannot escape a report.

A significant disadvantage of the fragmented social media landscape is that each social media channel has its way of presenting data and statistics. To avoid having to start transforming. Almost every social media marketer uses a unique reporting tool for CSV files or making crooked comparisons.

The principle is the same as planning and community management: all social media channels are combined under one roof. This way, you can easily compare results and justify your work.

A reporting tool also helps you answer questions such as: what have I achieved with my social media marketing? What is the ROI of my work? Which platform is the most successful for me? Which content catches on and which does not?

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

The holiday season is ending. Hopefully, your battery is charged again, and you can return to work with a fresh look. Because even though it still seems far away, the sprint toward the holidays has started. Would you like to boost your knowledge?

LinkedIn

LinkedIn use is still on the rise. But it is a bit complicated when it comes to organic reach. Organizations with few followers still see growth. Still, with larger company pages, the reach decreases, Sebastiaan Nagel and Judith Eversdijk found in their research into LinkedIn company pages at the beginning of this year. It also contains a handy benchmark to measure the success of your page.

Success on LinkedIn

Of course, you are not there with only a strong profile. Marjolein Bongers shares ten essential tips for business success and ten concrete tips for power posts on LinkedIn. Another tip: in our podcast HelloMasters, we spoke to LinkedIn boss Marcel Molenaar about the secrets of the platform.

TikTok

Whatever you think, TikTok is big. It became the world’s most downloaded app in 2020. In July, the platform became the first non-Facebook-owned, non-gaming app to reach three billion downloads.

In the Netherlands, the app is also one of the fast risers, as we saw in the social media survey for 2021. Both the number of users and the daily use increased enormously. Short-form video is hot. Although… TikTok once consisted of videos of fifteen and then 30 seconds, but since last month, it has also become possible to upload videos for up to 3 minutes. And it is evaluated with videos of 5 minutes (and longer). This logical step brings TikTok closer to the competition from YouTube and Facebook, creating more space for advertisements.

TikTok for Business

LinkedIn, move over! Are you considering including TikTok in your organization or company’s social media strategy? Then, it is helpful to go through these tips or read up on advertising on TikTok. The platform may also become attractive for recruiters and HR managers if job seekers with the ‘Resumes’ program can pitch their CVs in TikTok videos in the future.

Instagram

The Feed, Stories, IGTV, Reels, Guides, and Shopping… Kirsten Jassies mentioned it in her trend overview at the end of last year: Instagram has many content types and opportunities to profile yourself. Instagram shopping is unstoppable, but it was time to see if Reels would make it. For the time being, that seems to work, and the function is being developed further to keep up with the competition. Therefore, video is one of the app’s spearheads, and Instagram head Adam Mosseri explained this summer because he said: “Instagram is no longer a photo-sharing app.”

User-Generated Content

Finally, a reading tip: it is fantastic if fans of your brand express themselves positively about it online. And you want to reuse that user-generated content on your organization’s Instagram account. But can that happen? And how is it? In her article, Charlotte Meindersma shared the rules about sharing content from others on Instagram.

Facebook

No, with roughly 1.9 billion daily and 2.8 billion monthly active users worldwide in the second quarter of 2021, Facebook is still anything but dead. And they do not sit still.

From Social Media to Metaverse

Facebook plans to transform the company into a metaverse—a virtual social network to connect millions of people. You seem to be physically involved with other people in a different place. That may sound surreal and, as Jan Scheele describes it, ‘now mainly a sandbox for nerds and innovators to play in.’ But for those who find it interesting, his article is recommended.

Twitter

Amid the tsunami of social media updates, you would almost forget Twitter. And you could also draw your conclusions based on the erratic line in the 2021 social media survey that indicates the use of Twitter in the Netherlands.

But Twitter has other plans. The owner of Twitter wants to double its revenue by the end of 2023 and aims for 315 million daily active users. And so, the platform is no longer just about messages of 280 characters.

Getting Started with Your Social Media Strategy

Of course, trends are significant, and you want to stay relevant. And you experiment with new features and new channels. But not every direction or part will suit or resonate with your company. Moreover, developments follow each other faster than keeping up with your strategy.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Two of the four branches of accounting are financial accounting and managerial accounting (for example, tax accounting and auditing are others). Despite many similarities in approach and use, there are significant differences between financial and managerial accounting. These differences are primarily related to compliance, accounting standards, and the target audience.

Key Points

Management accounting is the practice of identifying, measuring, analyzing, interpreting, and communicating financial information to managers to pursue an organization’s objectives.

Financial accounting is the process of recording, evaluating, and conveying the transaction process and economic growth resulting from business procedures through time to the community and regulators.

Management accounting differs from financial accounting because the intended purpose of management accounting is to assist users in making well-informed business judgments.

Main Objectives of Both Counting Practices

The primary goal of managerial accounting is to generate relevant information for one company’s internal usage. Business managers gather the information that encourages strategic planning, helps them set realistic goals, and encourages efficient management of corporate resources.

Financial accounting also has internal uses, but it’s more concerned with informing a company’s outsiders: final accounts, creditors, and industry officials.

Past and Present Use

Financial accounting produces purely historical data, with financial statements containing data for a specific period. Management accounting examines past performance and creates business predictions. You should use this accounting to guide business decisions. Investors and creditors frequently use financial statements to make their projections. Financial accounting is not retrospective in this sense. However, no future predictions are allowed in the reports.

Adjustment and Uniformity

The most significant practical distinction between financial and managerial accounting is their legal standing. The reports generated through management accounting are disseminated only internally. Each company is free to develop its system and rules on management relationships. It means no centralized system adjusts the reports, and it can often take a lot longer to find what you need.

Conversely, financial accounting relationships are highly regulated, especially income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements. As this information is released for public consumption and is highly anticipated by investors, companies need to pay close attention to how they do the calculations, how the data is reported, and the order in which such reports are written.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), under the auspices of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), creates financial accounting rules in the United States. The sum of these rules is defined as Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).

This uniformity makes investors and lenders compare companies directly based on their balance sheets. Furthermore, the financial statements are released regularly, establishing the consistency of external information flows.

Report Details

Financial accounting reports are typically aggregated, concise, and generic for various reasons. Information is both more transparent and less revealing at the same time. It isn’t always the case in management accounting, as each organization has its own set of reasons for doing things a certain way. For example, you may internally report lower bonuses to avoid upset low- to mid-level employees who might want to investigate the report.

Management accounting reports are highly detailed, technical, specific, and often experimental. Businesses seek a competitive advantage and scrutinize information that might seem pedantic or confusing to outsiders.

Bottom Line

The key difference between managerial and financial accounting relates to the recipients of the information. Management accounting information is meant to help managers make well-informed business decisions, while financial accounting is intended to provide financial information to parties other than the organization.

Financial accounting must adhere to specific criteria GAAP sets to maintain its public trading status. Most other corporations in the United States use GAAP to meet the debt covenants generally needed by financial institutions granting lines of credit. Because managerial accounting is not meant for external users, it can be customized to meet their needs. It varies significantly from firm to company and even from department to department within a corporation.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Step One: Start Small

Like most things, a community will not be massive on the first day. The most successful communities typically begin as small email lists, pleasant meals, forum posts, and other informal gatherings.

They become crucial when you learn more about their worth, and your members become self-sufficient ambassadors.

Starting a minor requires patience and accomplishing things that aren’t scalable, but the effort is worthwhile in the long run.

Step Two: Add a Layer of Uniqueness

Starting small and being unique go hand in hand. To preserve excellent quality, some communities keep membership minimal. Others figure out how to develop while maintaining their quality.

To return to the Product Hunt example, when the site began, they kept ‘hunter’ access limited since it would be challenging to administer if they opened it up to everyone.

It made individuals with hunting privileges feel special, and more people wanted to participate. They eventually decided to include references in invites so that early users may ask their friends to join. It helped to spread the word about PH and made the hunters feel special…again.

Step Three: Instilling a Spirit of Usefulness

Your community members exist more for each other than for you. They are looking for a safe resource to connect about passions and interests.

By creating a spirit of utility, you are building an open environment. A place where your consumers or community members can learn and share. And once they learn from others, they will likely return the favor. They were impressed with what consumers were building and assumed that if one customer found a custom widget helpful, others would. So, they gave them a spot to share and go through the hacks, tricks, and custom widgets they were developing.

Step Four: Make Connections and Let Go

As a community creator and facilitator, you must connect with your members – to start the dialogue and then walk away. You are always appreciated for jumping in and answering inquiries, clarifying misconceptions, or providing advertisements. The idea is to enable your consumers or members to connect.

It’s more complicated with forums, but your community may divide into smaller groups to debate subtopics and areas of interest with Facebook groups and Slack channels. Alternatively, they might send messages to one another to develop deeper personal interactions. Don’t worry if you’re afraid of losing control. Your community will appreciate the ties you’ve established with them and will remain loyal as a result.

Step Five: Expand the Word About Your Community

Once you have a strong foundation – say, five to ten individuals participating regularly and respecting their community – it’s time to move on to stage two.

You learned more about the importance of your community in its residents’ lives. You have a good sense of what motivates people to participate and what doesn’t. You created and disseminated rules based on previous behavior and lessons gained. It’s now time to bring on more people and start scaling up. You may take various approaches, and the most effective one will be determined by the sort of community you manage. There are, however, fewer best practices that have shown to be useful for many people.

A referral program

As mentioned above, the Product Hunt and Quibb communities allowed early members to invite people to join. Ello did the same thing. The assumption is that if the community’s first members contribute significantly to the community, so will their friends. They will only invite the best of the best.

Product hunt

The most effective referral programs reward referrers. A referral is a way for members to share that cool thing they are a part of while promoting their brand. Rewards can include freebies, early access to exclusive features, event tickets, product discounts, partner discounts, freebies, etc.

Reference programs

Some reference programs use point systems. If your combined community has an ounce of players, they’ll be thrilled with a leaderboard. They can even create healthy competition by adding another layer of engagement.

Layered invitations

 SaaS programs like Intercom (CMS) or NomNom (feedback insights) help identify your most engaged consumers. You probably have A-tier customers (very engaged, super loyal) and B-tier customers (moderately engaged, loyal). When starting small, invite Level A first. Then, once you have processes and protocols in place, ask Level B. And so on. It is the best for slow and intellectual growth.

Your newsletter

You don’t have one yet? Shame on you. (Just teasing – but sincerely, here’s why you should have one and how to set up your list). Once you know you can handle a larger community, spread the word to your existing customers through your newsletter. Let them know the purpose of the community and the value they will find.

Your social channels

 We expect your social target audience to be relevant to your offer and highly engaged. Let the dogs out once your community is set up and running, and you have a strict process! I mean, announce it to the world. Share community highlights, victories, and insights. Give your wider audience a taste of what they’re missing and why they joined. The Geckoboard community has seen a massive spark of interest simply by announcing their dev community on their blog and social media.

Invite influencers

Find someone relevant to your community who adds and gains value from involvement. If the community is open to the public and customers, it can be effective to apply an influencer. Better yet, maybe one of your consumers is an influencer. When you get in touch, be sure to communicate this value to them – what they will gain from it.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Since Six Degrees, the original social network, social media has gone a long way. Before 2005, everyone on Facebook and LinkedIn was enraged. Later, social media platforms such as Twitter, Snapchat, Myspace, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Google Plus, and others arose to accommodate the rising need for individuals to connect.

Companies then discovered that social media was also a good location for opportunities, and social media marketing was born. Most social networks improved their systems in 2017, adding new features, chances for brands, and customer preferences.

The usage of storytelling, shopping, chatbots, and other artificial intelligence concepts are just a few of the clever updates that have made these sites more helpful. On the other hand, entrepreneurs find it harder to interact with their consumers as the number of customers on social media continues to fall entirely. Various tools are available to help you automate your social media marketing.

 

Systeme.io

While many social media marketing automation tools on this list help you engage and attract potential customers to your brand, most have no way of automating how you drive social media traffic. It is a valuable step in marketing, and with social media Systeme.io, it is an opportunity.

The solution gives an easy-to-use funnel builder that lets you build a funnel in a few minutes while it can rest. For example, you can integrate your payment system into your member website and your mailing list into the funnel. Automate your funnel steps and trigger email sequences to ensure that potential customers from social media traffic are sufficiently engaged and moved through a natural funnel.

Unlike most of the other options in this list, Systeme.io is a marketing automation platform that efficiently oversees the traffic aspect of your social media marketing campaign. For example, Systeme.io offers a website builder, email marketing automation, and sales funnel automation. Using the tool, you can even place automated rules for each element on your site. So, this tool manages the traffic conversion aspect of social media marketing effortlessly.

 

Sprout Social

Consider Sprout Social if you are searching for a comprehensive social media kit solution with many valuable features. You may use it to plan articles, track keywords, identify influencers, find mentions, and analyze data, among other things.

Those interested in social media marketing may find the tool handy as well. Unlike Buffer, Hootsuite, IFTTT, Socedo, and others, Sprout has fewer social platforms supported.

Sprout Social is a simple-to-use, low-cost social media platform that caters to small businesses, agencies, and corporations. Despite this, it is one of the most effective platforms for coordinating and distributing activities due to its multi-level access, including lower-level team members. Even individuals with content issues can assist in the printing of paragraphs that will spark online discussions. There is a free trial period, and no credit card information is necessary.

 

HootSuite

Hootsuite is a simple but effective social media management program that allows you to plan posts on time for distribution across many platforms. This application, which has over ten million customers, will enable users to manage their social profiles from a single dashboard.

Around 35 social media Services, including Twitter, Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and others, are fully integrated. Google Analytics is also supported.

This application gives you real-time information on your social media activity, such as when your business is referenced and precisely what was said. It can assist you in understanding what customers desire and avert a problem. The statistics area allows you to determine the optimal time to post content and provide detailed results.

Despite its many capabilities, Hootsuite is affordable and ideal for typical social media marketers. Even with a small team of marketers, you will be able to identify, plan, manage, and report on social media material far more quickly with it. Before selecting a plan from the available options, beginners can take advantage of the free trial period.

 

Buffer

Buffer is the best social media organizer for everyone who manages many social media accounts and a lot of material. This application works similarly to Hootsuite regarding scheduling, but the best part is that they have enough analytical data to recommend the optimal time to post content!

It does not end there, though: Its analytical technique gives you valuable information about how your social media efforts compare to those of competitors.

They also provide significant advantages in automation and user experience, making it simple to add material to it, especially when using a browser extension. A panel directs you on what to fill in next, such as a description, an image, which social networks to publish, and when to deliver the post.

The user interface is simple and contains only the toolkits that are required. Buffer is updated regularly to retain the ever-changing social media demands.

Customers can pick from different price packages based on their requirements. The Buffer is accessible for Windows and mobile devices (iOS and Android) and for individuals constantly on the move.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.