Category: Accountants and Bookkeepers
Can You Do Your Own Bookkeeping?
| February 6, 2015 | Posted by Steve Webster under Accountants and Bookkeepers, Accounting Software |
FAS 133 Accounting for Derivatives is difficult. Preparing a multi-state corporate tax return is difficult. Cost accounting for thousands of product lines is difficult. Keeping the books for a small business is easy as long as you stay organized, do not procrastinate and your books are setup correctly to start with. Doing your own books will give you a thorough understanding of the expenses involved in running your company and it will also help you later as your company grows and you turn your bookkeeping over to a bookkeeping service or you hire a bookkeeper. You will know when an account doesn’t look right and you will know what questions to ask your bookkeeper. If you don’t know how to setup your books, I recommend that you find a local Quickbooks expert or a remote accountant to get your chart of accounts setup correctly. They can also enter […] more
4 Questions to Ask When Interviewing for a Bookkeeper
| February 4, 2013 | Posted by Steve Webster under Accountants and Bookkeepers, Accounting Software |
There are hundreds of interview questions you could ask in a job interview. I have made a list of 4 questions to ask that are specific to hiring a bookkeeper. In addition to your regular interview questions, these questions will give you a glimpse into the personality and character of the bookkeeping candidate. For most small businesses, a bookkeeper is in a position of trust and you want to make sure they are not only competent but also honest and dependable. QUESTION 1: A general ledger account is out of balance by $.24. Describe the process you would take to discover the error. MY ANSWER: “First, I would want to make sure the error is not due to a larger computer software glitch. I have worked with systems that were corrupted by updates or programming errors. I make sure my accounting systems are backed up regularly just in case the […] more
6 Things the IRS Expects Employers to Know
| January 28, 2013 | Posted by Steve Webster under Accountants and Bookkeepers, Payroll, Taxes |
Running a small business is not easy and the IRS does not make it any easier. I’ve listed six things that inexperienced small business owners may not even realize but the IRS expects them to know. 1. Reporting New Hires You probably know that employers need to verify that each new employee is legally eligible to work in the United States by completing the I-9 form but you may not know that the IRS also requires employers to report each new hire to a state new hire registry. Employers have to report the employee name, address, social security number and the date of hire. The new hire reporting helps states speed up child support collection. If a new employee with a garnishment wonders how the State found him so fast, this reporting process is how they do it. If you use a payroll service provider, ask them to report the new hires for you electronically. […] more
Is it Time to Get a New Accountant?
| December 17, 2012 | Posted by Steve Webster under Accountants and Bookkeepers, Southern Indiana Business |
Hopefully, as a small business owner, you develop a long-term relationship with a great accountant that earns every penny you pay him or her. But, if your accountant starts to exhibit the following 4 bad business practices, it might be time to get a new accountant. You aren’t getting the support or advice you need. As a small business owner, a great accountant should not only be able to pay your bills on time, figure your taxes and prepare your financial statements, they should go above and beyond and help you save money in ways you weren’t expecting. For example, the “fiscal cliff” that you hear so much about will likely impact the taxes your business will have to pay in 2013. Has your accountant communicated with you how your business will be impacted and what strategies you can put into place to avoid higher taxes. Most accountants prepare for year-end taxes and your accountant […] more
After You Make the Sale Don’t Forget to Collect the Money
| December 10, 2012 | Posted by Steve Webster under Accountants and Bookkeepers, Accounting Software, Southern Indiana Business |
You closed the deal and you made the sale. Great! But if you made the sale on terms, your job is not finished. A successful business can close down if it runs out of cash. If you sell on extended terms, sooner or later (hopefully sooner), you will realize that your increased revenue does not mean increased money in the bank. You have to make sure you receive payment in an agreed upon amount of time. Photos Used With Permission For this reason, as a small business owner, you should have your bookkeeper run and monitor the Aged Accounts Receivables report on a regular basis (monthly at a minimum). An Aged Accounts Receivables report shows you how much money you are owed by each customer and the age of the account. The report is typically broken down into columns of less than 30 days old, 31-60 days old, 61-90 days old and […] more
Potential Payroll Tax Changes
| November 29, 2012 | Posted by Steve Webster under Accountants and Bookkeepers, Payroll, Southern Indiana Business |
This infographic from Intuit helps explain some of the payroll tax changes that may happen in 2013. Taxes are a major expense for your small business and they should be tracked and managed by your accountant just like material purchases or payroll. via: Potential Payroll Tax Changes to be Aware of in 2013 [schema type=”person” name=”Steve Webster” jobtitle=”Accountant” city=”Jeffersonville” state=”Indiana” postalcode=”47130″ ] more
Three Ways to Get More Local Customers
| November 23, 2012 | Posted by Steve Webster under Accountants and Bookkeepers, Southern Indiana Business |
Most of the businesses I deal with are local to me and we all seem to have the same problem of getting more local customers. I created the following video on YouTube to give you three ideas on how to get more local customers. The first two tips I have already implemented. The third tip is a little more difficult for an accounting and bookkeeping service like mine to do but it would definitely bring in more customers. [schema type=”person” name=”Steve Webster” city=”Sellersburg” state=”Indiana” postalcode=”47172″ country=”US” ] more
“A Trusted Friend” Steals $103,000 from Therapy Business
| November 5, 2012 | Posted by Steve Webster under Accountants and Bookkeepers, Payroll, Small Business Fraud |
This news story is about a bookkeeper who stole $103,000 from her employer over a 4 year time period. Apparently she was processing the payroll and paid herself twice for a total of $76,000. The “trusted friend” also wrote company checks to herself for $27,000. The fraud wasn’t detected until after the bookkeeper was fired. The news story doesn’t explain if she wrote the checks out in her name or if she tried to hide the fraud by writing checks to a fictitious company she created. If the company checks were in her own name, this fraud should have been very easy to catch. Either way, she obviously did not have any oversight from the owners or outside accounting business. I assume she wrote the checks, signed the checks and reconciled the bank statement which is a very poor business practice. Two simple steps to avoid this fraud would have been […] more
Bookkeeper Embezzles from Building Supply Business
| November 2, 2012 | Posted by Steve Webster under Accountants and Bookkeepers, Small Business Fraud |
A bookkeeper working for a small building supply store business, stole over $30,000 over four years according to this news report. Having never worked in retail, I am not sure exactly how this fraud works. Based on the article, I assume the bookkeeper reported a fraudulent return of merchandise in the accounting system and then paid her credit cards for the amount of the return. Where I’ve worked, we used return authorization numbers assigned to every return of material. The return material report was reviewed at least monthly by upper management. Perhaps in retail there are too many returns to be reviewed but there must be some report to check for this type of fraud. The article doesn’t state how she was caught so I can only guess that the owner was suspicious or was tipped off. $30,000 of returns over four years is $7,500 per year and $625 per month. Without knowing […] more
Free and Easy to Use Accounting Software
| October 28, 2012 | Posted by Steve Webster under Accountants and Bookkeepers, Accounting Software |
If you are a small business owner looking for a free and easy to use accounting software, WaveAccounting.com could be for you. Their goal seems to be to keep small business owners record keeping as simple as possible but still providing features found in expensive accounting software packages. There are several features that make WaveAccounting.com great. 1. It is free. Totally free. They don’t have multiple pricing plans. They have no pricing plans. They appear to make their money by posting ads and money-saving offers from other companies that would interest small business owners like virtual phone systems and web hosting. 2. Wave is online so you can access your data anywhere and anytime. It is not available on the mobile phone yet but it is a planned feature. 3. You can give view or edit access to your bookkeeper or accountant as a Guest Collaborators. 4. Wave allows you […] more