6 Things Every Small Business Owner Should Know About Payroll Taxes

Owning and operating a small business is complicated because often, you can afford extra staff to handle specific tasks. As a small business owner, you have to keep up with selling your products or service, inventory, staffing, bookkeeping, and gaining and retaining customers.

With all these business concerns, you may not spend much time focusing on payroll taxes, but you shouldn’t ignore them. The IRS takes payroll taxes seriously since it is how the federal government is funded. Here are six things every business owner should know about payroll taxes. Check out America's Best Bookkeepers

Crossing State Lines

Each state has tax laws related to the state taxes owed to fund the state government. Because of this, if you own businesses in multiple states, it can complicate how payroll taxes are done. Each state has its tax codes and regulations about handling, calculating, and distributing taxes.

When opening your business in other states, you may want to consider these differences in tax code before opening a business in another state. In some states, the additional payroll tax cost may outweigh the benefits of opening your business in that state.

Compliance Enforcement

Even if you are running an honest business to pay and withhold all taxes required by the state and federal government, mistakes can carry heavy penalties. The Internal Revenue Service has become known for being especially hard on small businesses regarding taxes and specifically withholding payroll taxes.

The single largest source of uncollected taxes is small businesses. Check out America's Best Bookkeepers Though most small businesses are legitimately functioning and paying, collecting, and distributing payroll taxes, they are still heavily focused on by the IRS. This lack of trust in small businesses by the IRS is likely from a few non-compliant businesses ruining the overall reputation of small businesses when it comes to payroll taxes. Keep that fact in mind when it comes to your bookkeeping practices and payroll taxes.

Do Not Access the Funds

When it comes to payroll taxes, they do not belong to the business owner but rather the government via the Internal Revenue Service. Those taxes do not belong to the business owner, and it is against the law to access them.

These funds are deposited to the IRS monthly or bi-monthly, depending on the schedule your company has set up. If you fail to make these deposits because you have accessed the funds, there could be severe consequences. No matter the situation, you should never touch these funds.

Monitor Constantly

Since these funds are deposited to the IRS regularly, you should monitor every aspect constantly. You need to ensure all employees have the appropriate amount withheld and that the deposits are correct each month.

It is also crucial that you be up to speed on the latest tax codes and laws to withhold and deposit the correct amount. The importance of monitoring payroll taxes is a vital part of your business’s bookkeeping and payroll process. Check out America's Best Bookkeepers

Bonus Checks and Overtime

Other earnings beyond the employee’s salary can have significant tax implications if not timed correctly. When paying overtime, bonuses, and commissions, you need to ensure that they are taxed. The taxes owed on these earnings and the timing of them can cause the taxes owed to fluctuate.

To avoid costly taxes, penalties, or fees, ensure the timing is correct and that the right amount of taxes is withheld on these types of earnings. This diligence will ensure all taxes are paid promptly and that the least amount of taxes is owed.

Severe Penalties

Incorrect payroll tax handling can lead to penalties that may put your business at risk. Most incorrect filings are simple mistakes or misunderstandings. However, it must be corrected immediately if a mistake is made to avoid the penalties.

There are more severe penalties if you don’t pay your payroll taxes. If you fail to deposit payroll taxes, it is considered a federal crime and can be prosecuted as such. It would be best if you avoided anything that will result in these penalties.

While not generally as severe, there are penalties for depositing payroll taxes late. You must make your payroll tax deposit on time and for the correct amount to avoid costing your business unnecessary penalties and fees.

Check out America's Best Bookkeepers 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-hosted desktop where their entire team and tax accountant may access the QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools in an efficient and secure 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. Check out America's Best Bookkeepers

Innovative Funding Strategies for Small Businesses

Starting your own business can be a frightening but rewarding procedure. While an ideal business plan condemns entrepreneurs, financing is one of the most significant elements a company needs to succeed. However, financing a small business can be a drawn-out process, especially for those with an accounting background.

Consistent improvements to grow your small business are daunting for its success and sustainability. Meanwhile, the operations like monitoring cash flow, controlling the marketing, and identifying your strengths turn out to be the most profitable. Check out America's Best Bookkeepers

Here’s a list of 10 strategies to utilize the acquired funds smartly to develop your small business.

Product packaging is important: You can apply the packaging to utilize the funds in a productive chore. Bringing innovation to the product and services will attract the clients and commit the old ones. Investment in the better quality and paging of the product will help you meet your client’s requirements, and they will come back to shop from you.

Impactful marketing campaigns: Wasting money on profitless marketing is easy. Seek out for budget-friendly and impactful marketing strategies to grow your business. Experiment with a few latest tactics and examine their after-effects on your business. Social media is one of the great ways to market your company globally.

Conservative financial projection: A big-wins area for business growth is the sales function. Whether you’re a sole operator or managing a sales team, you’ll have to focus on sales improvements. Check out America's Best Bookkeepers Even the trends that don’t seem relevant on the outside might have a versatile impact on the inside, so consider all the possibilities.

Keep up with technology: Investing in the latest technology provides pedantic insights into the clients and potential prospects. You can get CRM (customer relationship management) software to maintain the sales records virtually. With this software, you won’t be carrying the burden of keeping the records manually; instead, you’ll get all the documents prepared beforehand.

Keep your inventory updated: Another great way to utilize the funds efficiently is to get the latest and fresh inventory and equipment. This way, the work procedure will become faster, and the company will complete the customer’s orders on time.

Instead of purchasing used machinery, get the latest machinery with advanced features to provide a much-required boost to your business.

Prioritize and clear debts: Utilize your funding to remove the account payables. With a higher debt amount comes the higher interest rate, which you probably wouldn’t want to pay all at once. Also, you can utilize the rescued amount of cash from the interest rate in fulfilling other financial requirements of the company.

Please don’t push your limits: Successful entrepreneurs have a clear idea of their boundaries. Check out America's Best Bookkeepers By identifying your entrepreneurial personality type, you operate your resources well and find the areas of weakness. For instance, if you excel at sales marketing but are less experienced with the accounts, focus on the sales and hire a professional accountant to handle the books.

Involve in networking: As an entrepreneur and a small business owner, hosting business events is a great way to create an identity among the potential audience. Invest in advertising and promotional banners so that everyone will know about the existence of your company.

Target a niche sector:  Niche is a specialized market portion for a particular product or service. When other companies fail to fulfill the customer’s requirements, focus on the potential areas and invest to win the audience’s trust.

Consider franchising: Franchising provides a rapid boost to your small business. In this activity, the product is distributed among the potential audience. However, before franchising, you must do a market analysis to know the customer’s requirements and demands.

 The above-defined strategies come in handy not only for small enterprises but for every stage of business. Running a small business is quite hard as the owner himself is responsible for so many monetary chores. However, there are numerous options out there for the utilization of new funds. Determine your financial position and make a productive decision for the growth of your business.

Check out America's Best Bookkeepers 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-hosted desktop where their entire team and tax accountant may access the QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools in an efficient and secure 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. Check out America's Best Bookkeepers

Outsourcing Accounting with Transaction Cost Economics

When a company decides to outsource all of its financial operations to a professional accountant or counselor, it aims either to diminish excess costs, attain competitiveness, or gain expertise.

Experienced businesses prioritize outsourcing accounting activities, but their reasons vary from cost reductions to simply going with the trend of appointing an expert for monetary purposes. Numerous frameworks have been crafted to determine which operations can be outsourced and which couldn’t optimize the costs.

For any business, there are several costs associated with granting an internal service known as production costs.  However, if you purchase the same service, it would be considered a transaction cost. Check out America's Best Bookkeepers

The transaction cost economics perspective proposes that every company equalizes the costs before performing a function and outsourcing it. Higher transaction costs would compel a company to internalize its accounting operations.

Transaction cost economics is a substitute mode of organizing cash with minimum transactional costs. It is one of the superior linear models that evaluates what can be outsourced and what can’t. The model clarifies the fact that why companies exist and set their boundaries.

Cost transaction economics is also considered as economizing the costs rather than strategizing. Additionally, the theory asserts that every transaction creates coordination costs of monitoring and managing the transactions.

Ex-ante and Ex-post Costs

Usually, a company has two transaction costs for outsourcing accounting, including ex-ante cost and ex-post cost. Ex-ante costs refer to negotiating and drafting alterations incurred before agreeing, while ex-post costs refer to haggling, mal-adaptation, and governance costs.  Check out America's Best Bookkeepers

Researchers suggest that maladaptation might lead to a versatile opportunistic behavior by the company and is one of the main pitfalls of utilizing the transaction cost framework. To determine the mechanism of transaction costs, we first need to understand the key factors that influence it.

Assets Particularity

In accounting, the tangible assets of any company refer to the tools and software, while human assets refer to the information and human capital. Human assets will only be evaluated when an accountant requires knowledge about a particular characteristic to complete a defined accounting operation.

Transaction cost economics suggests that a company has to seek longer for a professional accountant during the high asset specificity. It is better to insource rather than outsourcing in such circumstances as it saves you high transaction costs.

According to the transaction cost economics, assets particularity is the most significant factor for anticipating the outsourcing limit. A higher asset particularity notifies that cost is worthy within a specific transaction.

Environmental Variability

Environmental variability refers to the steadiness of accounting workload as a consequence of explosive business activities. Alterations in corporate structures and unstable sales and purchase invoices are the uncertainties that directly influence the company’s workload, including accounting operations.

Transaction cost economics compares the impacts of high and low predictability of workload on transactional costs. In the technological environment where a business owner can easily predict unforeseen circumstances, the transactional costs are lower, and a company must decide to outsource. Check out America's Best Bookkeepers

Behavioral Variability

In accounting, behavioral variability refers to the difficulty in evaluating the accountant to perform the job efficiently. When behavioral variability is higher, the transactional cost will be elevated due to monitoring and negotiating contracts to avert opportunistic behavior. In such circumstances, the transaction costs economics argues that the company would perform the accounting operations internally.

Trust the Accountant

Faith in the accountant entails that the entrepreneur always expects the accountants to be trained individuals who are proficient at their jobs. They must perform skillfully and stay loyal in all of their dealings. Specifically, trust is a significant part of the financial deals and ignores the possibility of opportunistic behavior by both parties. Additionally, it would be wise to create a trust agreement with them to avoid harsh situations.

Transaction cost economics asserts that the primary goal of both parties should minimize the standard of opportunism. Accordingly, a higher degree of trust will diminish the transaction costs that lead to the outsourcing of accounting operations. Therefore, we can agree that faith is one of the critical factors for a company before hiring or taking professional accounting services.

Check out America's Best Bookkeepers 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-hosted desktop where their entire team and tax accountant may access the QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools in an efficient and secure 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. Check out America's Best Bookkeepers

Is It Ok to Use a Personal Credit Card for My Business Expenses?

For small business owners, managing multiple accounts and cards can be a difficult task while managing all the other operations of their business. Running a business is risky and very hectic for sole proprietors, and that’s why they’re always looking for more straightforward and less time-consuming alternatives.

Businesses with no accountants have the owner as the bookkeeper too, which is a highly complex task because you have to make sure that you make no errors. To avoid the hassle of multiple accounts and holding multiple credit cards, some business owners use their credit cards to pay off their business expenses. Check out America's Best Bookkeepers

You should have an Employer Identification Number (EIN) or a Tax ID Number to get a business credit card. The government uses these identifications for your business’ tax purposes. But to get a personal credit card, you only need your Social Security number.

To get a business credit card, you will need your business’s legal name and contact information. You will also need the industries your business operates in, your business entity or legal structure, the time in the business, and the number of employees.

In addition, you need your federal tax ID, the annual business revenue calculation and estimated monthly spend total annual income, and your credit history to provide the bank. This all is a challenge for small business owners, so they use their credit cards for business uses. A few advantages and disadvantages of using a credit card for your business expenses are: Check out America's Best Bookkeepers

Disadvantages:

  • You won’t have access to business credit. A business credit card is an excellent source of finance without paying any extra charges like interest or other fees. The business credit card also builds credit, and your credit score increases. The credit score helps you take lines of credit, and you will be eligible to take loans.
  • Your business will have less spending power. Having the same or merged accounts for your personal use and business use will make you stop spending on necessary stuff for your business as you would want to save that money for your personal use. Having a business credit card gives you a sense of more spending power, and you can spend on the right things as a business credit card typically has a much higher spending limit than a personal credit card.
  • You will face cash flow and financial management problems. When using the same card for different purposes, it can be hard to differentiate between personal and business expenses. While keeping a record of bookkeeping and other accounting transactions, you will be confused about business expenses. You also won’t be able to create a cash flow statement properly when you don’t have accurate information about the inflows and outflows of the business only. Check out America's Best Bookkeepers

Advantages:

  • The CARD act of 2009. The CARD act of 2009 is only provided to personal credit cardholders in the USA, and a lot of legal protection is provided to the cardholders. The banks cannot ask for high charges to issue a credit card, and the interest rates are lower too.
  • More benefits and rewards as compared to business credit cards. Credit cards are pretty safe and have better security features. You can avail of discounts and gift cards through your credit cards, and some credit cards even offer cash back on some purchases and payments.

There is absolutely nothing wrong or illegal in using a personal credit card for your business expenses. Still, you should separate your personal and business accounts and expenses to prevent any confusion. Keeping your accounts separate is easy and much more beneficial than having merged accounts.

You can have access to extra credit without having to worry about interest rates or mortgages. You can access lines of credit through credit cards if you have a satisfactory credit score. You can only have a good credit score if you have a separate bank account for your business. Your cash flows will be managed properly, and you won’t face bookkeeping problems. So you should get a business credit card for your business instead of using a personal credit card.

Check out America's Best Bookkeepers 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-hosted desktop where their entire team and tax accountant may access the QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools in an efficient and secure 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. Check out America's Best Bookkeepers

Tips for Creating a Successful Digital Marketing Strategy

In the past, television, billboards, newspapers, and brochures were the only means of marketing. These methods have evolved as the digital world now encompasses more platforms to get a message across. 

With the advent of the internet, people began marketing their services and products online, and as the internet gained more popularity, their ways of thinking also changed. The world shifted to digitalization, and marketers took advantage of that. 

Digital marketing, by definition, is the virtual marketing of your blog or website. Digital Marketing is the optimal way to promote your business online, and if done right, it can transform your business into a big profitable giant. Check out America's Best Bookkeepers

Digital Marketing Strategy

Digital marketing strategy can be defined as a strategy designed to transform your business into profitable means and meet your goals and objectives. It focuses on the plans that dictate which channels and tools you will use for marketing your website and includes budgeting. 

There are multiple ways to market your stuff online, and we have covered the top 5 tips for creating a successful digital marketing plan in this article:

1) SWOT Analysis

Every plan starts with an analysis. A complete analysis of your business’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats will help you understand the things you need to work upon for its betterment.

A SWOT analysis allows you to look at the market and get to know your framework in a much better manner. After the analysis, you can work on the factors that come up as the result of your research. 

An internal study and research of your brand, product, or website also help you understand it better and unlock many sides of the promotional campaign in your plan.

2) Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is the core of digital marketing; it is the procedure of your website’s improvement to rank better against the related keywords and LSIs on various search engines. Build a strategy to rank on as many keywords (higher rankings) as you can, as it will give great exposure to your website and welcome more visitors. Check out America's Best Bookkeepers

The goal of SEO is to get more site traffic from your relevant audience. Your audience includes the people who regularly read, buy, or search for the services you offer, so your goal should be to get them on your page.

Targeting is essential in SEO, as your priority should always be to rank against the relevant keywords only to get the required audience on your page.

SEO is essential as every other user begins their search by typing in the search engine bars, and according to the CTR study, 30% of users click on the first result that appears against a specific keyword. If any of your pages are ranking at the top position against a keyword, it will only increase the chances of users landing on your page.

3) Marketing Automation

Marketing Automation refers to using the software as a service to automate various marketing-related tasks. Digital Marketers use this process to save their time and benefit from the results gotten via CRM and CDP integrations.

Marketing Automation platforms can help you build your digital marketing strategy, removing the hurdles of various marketing tasks from your plate by automating them. They can easily automate email marketing, content marketing, social media marketing, and more. 

4) Monitoring

After building a good digital marketing strategy, you should track your progress and monitor every process to ensure that everything goes in the right direction.  Check out America's Best Bookkeepers

Constant monitoring can help you eliminate the vast blunders by fixing the minor fixes that may appear in any process. You can set the error right when you diagnose it, saving you from more significant troubles. 

Also, constant monitoring contributes to improvements in your tools, processes, and plan. With monitoring, ensure to introduce timely updates to upgrade your digital marketing strategy.

5) Finalize your Digital Marketing Strategy

After the planning and research phases end, you can put together all the elements to finalize your digital marketing strategy.

You must build your potential buyer’s persona, have clear-cut goals for your website or blog, have an inventory and audit of your existing media, and have created a content creation plan. 

After ensuring all these factors, you may form a proper marketing strategy that focuses on your aims and objectives and includes all your research elements.

Conclusion

You can incorporate all the practices mentioned in this blog to make a comprehensive and cohesive digital marketing strategy. We have amalgamated all the critical factors and the essential digital marketing tips for startups required to succeed.

Check out America's Best Bookkeepers 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-hosted desktop where their entire team and tax accountant may access the QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools in an efficient and secure 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. Check out America's Best Bookkeepers

5 Reasons Your Small Business Needs an Accountant

For a business to run efficiently, it is vital to have a record of all financial statements. The three financial statements generated by the accounting department include the income statement, the balance sheet, and the cash flow statement. Each of these has its significance. Keeping the financial records up to date and maintaining all three of these financial statements is critical for business growth.

Small business owners sometimes make the mistake of ignoring the recording of financial statements promptly. Accountants in small businesses often rush to create accounting statements only when filing the taxes or an external audit is near. Rushing can raise the risk of errors and lead to the potential loss of critical financial data. Check out America's Best Bookkeepers

Accounting is the systemic recording of all business transactions, including the income and expenditure such as payroll, taxes, client and vendor payments, and office expenses. The accounting department also ensures that the business complies with the government laws and provides the necessary financial paperwork to upper management, investors, and government officials.

An accountant’s job may only be restricted to bookkeeping or data recording and report generation for the small-sized business. However, for medium and large-sized businesses, the role of accountants and the finance department evolves as it involves financial analysis, expense management, and presentation of the company’s financial data to potential investors and the company management.

Having an efficient accounting department or at least a committed and efficient accountant for your small business is necessary. Here are five reasons your small business needs an accountant. Check out America's Best Bookkeepers

Finance Data Recording and Management

The primary function of an accountant in a small business is recording and managing crucial financial data. The accountant is responsible for maintaining records for all financial transactions and keeping receipts, invoices, and payment documents organized.

The accountants must prepare monthly, quarterly, and yearly financial statements to help business owners study the trends. This data management is easy, especially when you are looking for someone to invest in your business.

As the company size grows more prominent, a typical accountant’s job evolves from bookkeeping to payroll and tax management. Proper financial management ensures a balanced cash flow and timely payments to vendors.

Finance Analysis and Projections

At a more senior level, accountants are required to study the financial statements, analyze and make projections to business owners and potential investors.

These projections are made by studying the monthly, quarterly, and yearly financial reports to observe sales and revenue trends and identify areas of weakness and strength. Qualified accountants calculate and project a business’s growth by thoroughly reviewing the financial records, thereby helping the company owners make learned decisions. Check out America's Best Bookkeepers

Law Abidance and Regulatory Compliance

The finance department, chiefly the accountant, is also responsible for ensuring that the business abides by the law and complies with all the IRS and state regulations. From tax preparation to budgeting, the accountant is responsible for doing all of this within time to avoid penalties.

Monitoring and supporting taxation issues and filings can also be a responsibility of an accountant. The accountant also usually coordinates the audit process by assisting with financial data preparation.

Communication with External Bodies on Matters of Finance

Businesses often operate on credit and have multiple vendors with payments overdue. The finance department is liable to communicate with all these external bodies, vendors, tax lawyers, or potential investors. Accountants provide the prerequisite data and make sure that payments from vendors are made in time.

Budgeting

One of the critical functions of an accountant is to help formulate an appropriate budget for the company. The accountant, based on business projections, allocates a fixed budget to various departments of the company. The budget is usually annual; however, small businesses tend to break the annual budget into different categories of quarterly budget, monthly budget, and bimonthly budget.

Check out America's Best Bookkeepers 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-hosted desktop where their entire team and tax accountant may access the QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools in an efficient and secure 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. Check out America's Best Bookkeepers

What are the Roles of Budgets and Performance Reports in Business?

Companies utilize numerous management tools for smooth operations. These tools are efficient and provide business owners with critical insights into their company’s financial information and performance tools for operating processes.

One of the most valuable tools is a budget, primarily used by businesses to manage their finances. A budget is crafted with advanced forecasting so that it can predict future expenses. Presently, companies rely on the accuracy of their income and expenditure, which is indicated by budgeting.

On the contrary, performance reports are usually an assessment of a particular function of a business. Also, comprehensive performance is generated at the end of every fiscal year. The performance report reflects the input of the resources and output of the services for every single company unit. Check out America's Best Bookkeepers

This activity is commonly implemented by government officials and agencies to co-relate the tax-payer funds and the outcome of services provided by the federal or state government.

Budget and performance reports are essential for every business, and generally, professional accountants or bookkeepers are hired to tackle them. The finance department is typically assigned the budgeting task, while an expert always creates a performance report. The process of budgeting is essential for a business to grow in health and profitability.

Role of the Performance Report

Although budgeting holds a significant amount of information, it can’t offer you additional facts related to variances. Additional costs of acquiring the resources or poor economic conditions are several factors that need to be considered before the budget approval.

However, performance reports are highly impacted if the government brings any alterations in its laws. Half of these indicators are utterly financial, while others might be related to administration and management. Therefore, a performance report has to be accurate to avoid any future surprises. Check out America's Best Bookkeepers

Role of the Budget

For a business, there are numerous characteristics of budgeting. One of them is how budgeting accurately assigns your money. It provides you an evaluated acknowledgment of your affordability and financial limitations. Here are the primary characteristics of the budget.

Controllability

Budgeting is a fantastic way of willfully controlling your money. The budget allows you to stay worried about the unexpected expenditure that might appear. Also, you’ll be able to determine the weakest parts of your business.

Cash Assignment and Profitability

It is effortless to lose sight of where a company is generating profit during the scramble of chronic management. An appropriately structured budget indicates what aspects of a business generate money and which ones utilize it, which ultimately compels the management to consider expanding neglected parts of a business. Additionally, a very minimal amount is available to invest in working capital and fixed assets, and budgeting forces the management to select the worthiest assets to invest in. Check out America's Best Bookkeepers

Avoid Business Chaos

In smaller organizations, budgets became a rarity. Business owners prefer to manage themselves only with the reference of general budgeting. Undoubtedly, they aren’t professional accountants with tons of expertise in this field. When things don’t do as planned, the business owners might reserve the employees’ paychecks or invest in several financial operations, but many businesses fall anyway.

There will be varied explanations for this failure called “undercapitalization.” Undercapitalization is the reason larger corporations rely on budgets. It is a significant element for controlling and strategizing financial processes.

Productive Usage of Resources

Within many companies, it is a prevalent practice for employees and managers to assign limited resources. Every business contains a deserving workforce, and it usually creates disputes among the employees. However, the available resources will be naturally higher than the available amount of funds with proper budgeting.

Companies may opt for automated software and performance reports for tracking the financial information related to budgeting. It combines with the performance report that is in charge of comprehensive budgeting management. These reports often list particular attributes relating to several budget variances and the other mandatory information for the budget situation.

Check out America's Best Bookkeepers 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-hosted desktop where their entire team and tax accountant may access the QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools in an efficient and secure 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. Check out America's Best Bookkeepers

How to Use Bot Technology in Business Accounting

Business owners need to know the current technological advances in the field of accounting. With time, the use of bots is increasing, and their cordial relationship with bookkeepers is utterly unavoidable.

Bots are not robots in reality but unique applications that interpret information and notify you. The coding activity allows bots to process data rapidly, which is not humanly possible. The most significant aspect of bots is the perfect blend of human elements and advanced technology to achieve utmost efficiency.

Undoubtedly, bookkeepers play a pivotal role in an organization, but what happens when bots manage the flow of information and render various manual tasks virtually? The shared insight of bookkeeping as an activated role focused on tracking data gets upside down. Check out America's Best Bookkeepers

Technology has reached a point where individuals don’t have to be involved in manual data collection and management. For instance, recording invoices can be done reflexively and without any human involvement. This activity is getting a lot of hype and is becoming a reality for many financial recorders.

It has been determined that future bookkeepers will go beyond understanding the accounting manual software. Bookkeepers must be capable of anticipating technology usage, workflow issues and strengthen financial strategies.

Artificial intelligence and mechanics have already enabled bookkeepers to communicate with bots just like associates. Many businesses have already entrusted online tools that can record the transactions without requiring a lengthy trial.  Here are six reasons you should use bot technology to handle your business accounting. Check out America's Best Bookkeepers

Efficient Data Recording

Chasing customers for their accounting records, bills, bank statements and finding the missing documents are some of the troublesome pointers for bookkeepers. Bots help to eliminate this gracious part of the work for bookkeepers. The bookkeeper has to share an online application with the customer for data collection.

Every time the customer receives a bill or receipt, they have to take a picture with their smartphone. The digital document and the connected data will be available to the bookkeeper within minutes. Additionally, they can scan and upload documents from the desktop.

Improves Processing Speed

Sorting documents manually and data entry needs time, depending on the burden of work. Almost all bookkeepers who have worked with SMCs in the past have gone through extreme workloads, and they’ve described their stressful journey of working under pressure.

Bookkeeping bots mechanized data processing and enabled them to craft more reliable services for their customers. Once you have rapid data processing, you can render practical reporting and excellent services.

Better Management

With multiple tasks, it is nearly impossible to remember deadlines and deliveries. A mechanically organized dashboard can compose all the functions in one place. This bird’s eye view of your customer’s bookkeeping variables enables you to prioritize their requirements. Check out America's Best Bookkeepers

Practical Reporting

Nothing makes a brand attractive to its clients more than practical financial reporting. A few decades ago, practical reporting was quite impossible. Still, with the advent of the latest technology, document sharing, and mechanized bookkeeping tools, it has been easier than traditional accounting.

Less Stressful

Recruiting, training, and reserving a skillful workforce is one of the most crucial challenges for SMPs. However, bookkeeping bots make it facile to appoint and retain work staff. Moreover, it also diminishes the stressful procedure of hiring employees, and it would be highly feasible to motivate a minimal workforce. You won’t worry about the workload’s instant burden or pushing the team to contribute to the business.

Budget-Friendly

The bookkeeping bots don’t include any initial cost, fixed fees, and maintenance costs. Fortunately, it isn’t the software that you need to buy with thousands of dollars. Bookkeeping bots are budget-friendly internet-based software, and getting one for your financial purposes is as easy as signing up for a social media account. There will be no initial cost to utilize them, and you’ll be paying only for the processing of documents.

Check out America's Best Bookkeepers 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-hosted desktop where their entire team and tax accountant may access the QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools in an efficient and secure 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. Check out America's Best Bookkeepers

6 Reasons You Should Hire a Professional Accountant

An accountant is a financial professional who has the skills to handle a business’s finances and accounts. Accountants manage the finances by doing analyses and creating plans. Some of the accounting functions performed by an accountant include account analysis, auditing, and financial statement analysis.

Accountants perform account analysis, review financial statements, documents, and other reports to ensure they are accurate, conduct routine and annual audits, review financial operations, prepare tax returns, advise on areas that require more efficiencies and cost savings, and provide risk analysis and forecasting. Check out America's Best Bookkeepers

Many accountants choose to become Certified Public Accountants because the CPA designation is considered the highest standard in the accounting profession. To run a successful business, business organizations are always looking for the best possible accountants.

An accountant is one of the business’ stakeholders as they are concerned about the business’ wellbeing and want the business to grow. The accountants create budgets for the business. They make business plans from the analysis and set goals and aims for the business.

An accountant’s job also includes creating three accounting statements: Income Statements, Balance Sheets, and Cash Flow Statements. You can easily say that having an accountant is a significant advantage for your business as they play a vast role in the growth and success of your business. Here are six reasons you should hire a professional accountant.

  • They indicate the critical factors of the reason behind the growth. An accountant indicates the source through which your business grows and determines what makes your cash flow positive. They provide ways and solutions to cut down your expenses and unnecessary expenditures to control outflows. They can guide you through all the stages of a business cycle. Check out America's Best Bookkeepers The stages of a business cycle are expansion, peak, contraction, and trough. They can even suggest ways and tips to survive a recession in the economy.
  • They determine your position in the market. An accountant’s job is also to measure the performance of your business. They then use that information to compare the results with your previous years or to compare it with other businesses. This will help you identify how much more improvements you need to make to reach the standard.
  • They control and stabilize your finances. Having an accountant in the business ensures accuracy in the business’s bookkeeping. They keep the accounting and finances in order, and you can get an accurate report of your inflows and outflows. Having a clear view of your finances also helps in making better decisions and forecasts. This financial overview is also beneficial as you can ensure that your customers will experience good services and quality.
  • Their analysis leads to better operations. Because the accountants provide a precise monthly analysis of the finances, decision-making for operations is more efficient, and you can pay more attention to it. The up-to-date data makes it much easier and quicker to plan further operations. Check out America's Best Bookkeepers
  • Fewer errors. Having a professional accountant will ensure that the least possible mistakes are made. Having financial statements full of errors leads to many problems and failures as the data provided is wrong. But with an expert in accounting, you will be free from the stress of having messed up records.
  • Suitable for start-up businesses. Start-up businesses are always looking for ways to grow their business successfully. And having an accountant is very efficient to have an advisor and planner who will help you at every point and make things easier. If your business has sufficient funds to afford an accountant, you should hire one.

There are many accounting firms you can contact to get the right accountant who will meet your needs. It is true that to make your business grow. It would be best if you got an accountant. The accountant will take over the finances and will manage it easily.

If you have someone who could manage the most significant part of your business, accounting, you can run your business with fewer struggles and hassles. The qualities mentioned above are why a good accountant is a reason you can grow your business more quickly and manage other aspects and operations of the business properly.

Check out America's Best Bookkeepers 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-hosted desktop where their entire team and tax accountant may access the QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools in an efficient and secure 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. Check out America's Best Bookkeepers

5 Tips to Creating an Effective Credit Control System for Your Business

A business credit control system is a strategic system that ensures that the services or products you provide to the customers on credit are paid for. This system identifies the types of debtors to give them a different time of payment. This determination means that the customers with a strong credit history are provided with a longer time for the repayment of the line of credit, and the customers with a weak credit history are asked to make payments as soon as possible. Check out America's Best Bookkeepers

Credit control is also called credit policy and credit management. Credit control is essential as the whole business’ success depends on sales, but sometimes having high sales does not mean that you have cash in the business as, without credit control, credit sales turn to irrecoverable and bad debts. Controlling credit also makes your cash flow positive or balanced.

With credit control, your accounts and finance stay managed, the risk of failure decreases, and the business owners will be free from the stress of having to worry about accounts receivable. The duties of a credit controller are managing and collecting debts from company debtors, setting up terms and conditions of the credit, processing payments and reconciliation of invoices, and ensuring timely payment of debts.

The job of a credit controller is very challenging and full of obstacles as dealing with customers can be very hard. Sometimes the customers do not tell the truth, and you end up with late payments again. Sometimes, the situations get out of your hands, and you can’t control them. Here are a few tips to control credit effectively: Check out America's Best Bookkeepers

  • Make sure that the credit-control process is organized. The first step to success has clear and managed records. An essential factor while controlling credit is to make a precise and proper timetable which should include all the debtors, the time of sale, and the time provided to the customer for the payment of your product or service, do not forget to mention the contact details of the debtor to avoid panic at the time of payment.
  • Make policies and follow them. While controlling credit and introducing the Credit Control System to the business, you should create a policy and procedure document and follow it. This documented procedure will also help others to understand the policy.
  • Keep a background check on the credit history of your customers. If your customers have a strong credit history, you can give them an extension for the payment period, and customers with a weak credit history should give them a lesser period to pay you. You can also offer discounts over early payments to encourage customers to pay timely.
  • Communicate with your customers. Check out America's Best Bookkeepers It is imperative to get all the contact information about your customers to inform them about your terms and conditions. Schedule calls for your customers to keep them updated and to remind them about your payments. Tell them about your new offers and deals about early payments and inform them about your credit history.
  • Send invoices to your customers through the internet. Sending electronic invoices to customers is an innovative idea to save the cost of ink and paper, and it is also easy to manage and will be sent to your customers quickly. You can also mention all the details about your policies to make them agree upon your terms. This agreement can also prevent or decrease late payments. Invoicing is also very good for your cash flows and helps you manage your finances properly.

A few benefits of controlling credit are that it saves time if you follow a systematic process. It even saves your money as you will get many payments when you keep track of your payments and invoices. You can manage your risks, too, as irrecoverable debts are a significant factor behind failed businesses.

Credit control is also a key to sustaining growth. A credit controller should be very well organized and skilled to do this job with ease. The tips mentioned above are handy if followed the right way and are practical too.

Check out America's Best Bookkeepers 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-hosted desktop where their entire team and tax accountant may access the QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools in an efficient and secure 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. Check out America's Best Bookkeepers