Category Archives: Accounting

Do You Have a Backup Plan?

I was hanging out in a coffee shop working the other morning, and the internet connection went down. As was my habit, I was working from the hotspot on my iPhone, so it wasn’t an issue for me. I overheard the staff tell customers they couldn’t take credit card payments because the internet was down. Could the customer pay cash? Then I overheard the internet provider wouldn’t have the problem fixed until about four p.m. that day. Considering how many people don’t carry cash, I would imagine a lot of sales were lost that day.

As a society, we depend on technology each day. What’s your backup plan if the technology you use fails you? What happens if the hard drive on your computer fails? What happens if the internet goes down? Your web host gets hacked? Power goes out? Fire? Flood? How will your business continue?

If that coffee shop had a backup plan, the staff wasn’t aware of it which is the same as not having a backup plan at all. What could this coffee shop have done? They could have installed a second internet connection from a different provider. Or they could have switched over to the mobile app on their phones from their credit card processor or point of sale company. There are options available, but planning is required. Hopefully before something happens. Can you afford to lose a day (or more) of sales?

Using cloud-based backup services to backup your hard drive, multiple internet connections, generators, a full-scale disaster plan, or many other options could mean survival of your business. Need some help getting a backup plan in place? Get in touch.

Leverage Technology to Grow Your Business

I meet many business owners whose businesses are growing but are stuck because there’s not enough time in their schedule to work with clients and take care of the administrative side of things. There are a couple ways to get beyond this challenge.

One way to serve more clients is to outsource. What do you outsource? Your weaknesses. You know, those tasks you dread doing. Phone calls, cleaning, marketing, accounting, copywriting, etc. Outsourcing tasks to an expert not only frees up your time to work with more clients, that expert will get the job done faster and better than you because they are the expert. How to find those experts? Ask at networking events. Ask in your online groups. Look at Upwork.com. Post something on Craig’s List. Look at Fiverr.com.

Streamline and automate to grow your businessAnother way to free up time in your schedule is to streamline your business processes with technology. In the not too distant past, technology was something only affordable to big corporations with big budgets. Those days are gone. A great example of technology you can put to use right now is scheduling and booking software. How many sales have you lost because you didn’t follow up fast enough (or not at all) with a client to get an appointment scheduled? Online scheduling software such as TimeTrade, Acuity, and Booking Bug allow you to set appointment times for your clients to choose. Some of this software even allows your client to pay when they book the appointment. This type of software costs between $10 and $30 per month. If you make even one sale of at least $30 during the month, the software will pay for itself. Think of it. No more phone tag. No more lost opportunity. And since you are spending less time on the phone, you have more time to work with clients and grow your business. And that’s what you want, right? If you’d like some help putting technology to work for your business, please get in touch.

It’s Too Expensive

I don’t usually write about books I read. However, reading This Book is About Travel by Andrew Hyde got me thinking.

In spite of the title, the book is about much more than travel. It’s about getting out of your comfort zone. The author gave away everything he owned and traveled the world for 16 months. He traveled with one backpack and purposely didn’t plan every detail to take advantage of random adventures whether those adventures were conversations with locals, tours, or just experiencing a new community. While I’m not sure I could live out of a backpack and either couch surf or stay in hostels for an undetermined about of time, I appreciated reading his insights. Hyde traveled for the experiences, not just to check locations off his bucket list. He found creative ways to get to know the locals and refused to buy guidebooks.

Rather than a historical accounting of his trip, Hyde shares his experience about a different place he visited in each chapter of the book. The chapter about New York City struck a cord with me. He was visiting a friend, and they had the opportunity to see a Broadway play at over 60% off the regular price that would have cost them $40 each. The response of his friend? It’s too expensive. (The issue wasn’t a lack of money.) Notice the response of his friend wasn’t that he didn’t want to see the play. That got me to thinking about how many experiences I missed out on because I thought something was too expensive. Yes, the value is in the eye of the beholder, and there is the economic reality of simply not having $40. After reading this chapter of the book, missing out on something I wanted to do because I wasn’t willing to spend $40 seems foolish. And I’m determined to stop and think before declaring something is too expensive.

34HBeing a business owner, I also related Hyde’s New York City experience to running my business. We business owners work too many hours, think we can accomplish more than is realistic, and miss out on too many other experiences. Is it too expensive to invest $30 per month in software to streamline and automate a business process that will also give back two hours of your time each month? What could you do with that two hours? Go for a walk? Spend time with family or friends? Accept a new client?

What about the cost of outsourcing areas of our business where we have little experience, dread doing, get stressed out over, and mostly avoid? Is it too expensive to outsource those things that keep us awake at night and freak us out? What’s that worth to you? Think about the result of that investment. Who among us doesn’t complain about not having enough time to accomplish all we want? We all get 24 hours in a day and the only way to get more done in a day is to eliminate things from our to-do list or outsource. Outsourcing could mean automating with software or hiring someone to help us get more done. In the future, before I say something is too expensive, I’m going to stop and ask myself what it’s worth in the way of enjoying a new experience or giving me more time to accomplish more on my to-do list. How are you going to open yourself to new experiences?

Get Out and Expand Your Mind

About a month ago I attended the Xerocon conference in Denver, Colorado. It’s the annual conference for Xero, beautiful accounting software. And I am so glad I invested in me and my business to attend this conference. It’s easy to get lost in the day to day rush of running our businesses. However, it’s important that we never stop learning because investing in our continuing education as a business owner will help us to be better business owners and provide more value to our clients. At Xerocon, I spent three days with other accounting professionals, attending presentations, meeting add-on partners to Xero, and, of course, networking. A month later, I’m still trying to digest and apply all of the information and following up with people I met. One of the biggest benefits of traveling to attend a conference is sharing and learning from others in your industry. None of us is an island, but running a business can feel isolating at times. One of the things I learned at the conference is how others found solutions to challenges I also face.

Never Stop LearningThe biggest takeaway was spending three days with other modern accountants and seeing how the accounting profession is evolving. The accounting profession has changed over the last five years, and I’ve been embracing that change since starting my business in 2010. How has the accounting profession changed? Accounting is no longer just about data entry, managing piles of paper and crunching numbers. With automated bank feeds, invoicing and bill pay, paper handling can be virtually eliminated from the daily operation of many businesses.

Accounting is no longer about retroactively reporting the financial results of a business. You can know right now which quotes for services have not been accepted. Are your expenses are under control? What are your best selling (and most profitable) products and services? And most importantly, are you making a profit? Business decisions happen faster, possibly saving your business from a financial loss.

In the past, customized business software was cost prohibitive to many small businesses. Those days are gone. There are numerous cost-effective add-ons to accounting software that allow you to streamline and simplify the day-to-day operation of your business. Collaborating with clients, employees, and independent contractors is a breeze. You really can grow your business from anywhere. And that’s what I want to help my clients accomplish. If you want to grow your business from anywhere, please get in touch.

The Hidden Cost of Free

As business owners, we try to control costs as much as possible. As an accountant, I’m all for controlling costs. However, there is a fine line between running your business lean versus cheap. In the long run, cheap can cost you more. This is true when selecting software tools to support back office operations. I see many businesses fall into the trap of limiting themselves to only using free software to run their business. Don’t get me wrong. Free software can be a great place to start and solve an immediate problem. However, when your business starts to grow that free software usually can’t grow with you. And when that happens, daily operations can be impacted in sudden and painful ways.

When it comes to accounting software, there are a couple products out there I don’t recommend. And it’s not because they are free, and I want you to spend a lot of money on software I like. It’s because I believe they are inferior products and, in the long run, will cause more problems than they solve as has been my experience with Wave Accounting. When the software first came out, I joined their accountant network. And then I started seeing problems with the software that had a negative impact on the accuracy of the numbers. When Wave chose not to correct the issues, I requested to be removed from their accountant network. At best, Wave does only the most basic of bookkeeping akin to keeping a spreadsheet; at worst, the accruacy of your financial information is in question. And forget about exporting any data from Wave. It’s difficult at best which means changing to another accounting software is time consuming and expensive. GoDaddy Accounting (formerly Outright) is another software I don’t recommend.

So what accounting software do I recommend? My first choice is Xero. It is fully functional accounting software with several subscription levels to grow your business. The clean interface makes navigation and understanding your numbers much easier. Also, the dozens of add-ons allow you to customize the software to streamline and automate the back office operation of your business. Your valuable time should be spent on your clients and growing your business, not on the back office operations.

My second choice of accounting software is Quickbooks Online. While Intuit has been dumping significant money into developing the online software, it can be buggy. The interface is very cluttered causing frustration for business owners who just want to create an invoice or write a check. Quickbooks Online is also known to go down at inconvenient times. Xero has a much better record for uptime. The subscription levels are different from Xero. Quickbooks Online subscriptions are priced based on functionality. That means the basic subscription does not allow you to customize reports, create 1099s, or even create a budget among other things. In a nutshell, the Quickbooks Online subscription model is all about the upsell. Personally, I find that annoying. The Xero subscription model relates to transaction volume and grows with your business accordingly.

Notice that Quickbooks for Windows does not rank among my top accounting software choices. Gaining access to the company file makes it difficult to collaborate with clients. There are cloud hosting options, but they are not cost effective. The risk of data loss with the Quickbooks desktop editions is high. Few businesses have reliable data backup and recovery plans in place. If your file should become corrupt (and it eventually will in my experience), data loss could severely impact your business.

Are you using the right accounting software for your business? Is it time to make a change? Please get in touch.

Another Way to Protect your Data

There’s no end of articles out there telling you how to protect your data. Having strong passwords is obvious. But think about employees and independent contractors that have access to your online data.

When is the last time you reviewed who has access to your online accounts? People move on, and task assignments change. People who work for you should only have access to the data they need in order to do their job. No more, no less.

Invest the time to review and update who has access to your online accounts on a regular basis. While you’re at it, change those passwords too. Doing so could reduce your risk of damage to your finances and reputation.

Here’s a list of places to start:

*Accounting Software
*Online Banking
*Employee Benefits
*Credit cards (online access and physical cards)
*Sites you purchase from online
*Twitter
*Facebook
*LinkedIn
*HootSuite
*SproutSocial
*WordPress
*Newsletter software (MailChimp, Constant Contact)
*Online document sharing (Dropbox, GoogleDocs)

Save Money By Filing Your Tax Return on Time

Tax day approaches. For individuals and businesses who follow the calendar year, your tax return is due by April 15, 2015. It is true you can request an extension to delay filing your taxes. Here’s why you should file your tax return by April 15:

File Your Taxes Now and Know What Changes to Make This Year

The sooner you file your tax return, the sooner you will know whether you owe taxes or will receive a refund. Filing your tax return sooner than later gives you the opportunity to start planning for the 2015 tax year by learning from what you did right or wrong for 2014. Did you pay the correct amount of estimated tax payments? What about contributing to a retirement account? Did you keep receipts for all the expenses you should have? When you request an extension, most of the next year is gone, and you lose the opportunity for tax planning and correcting things you did wrong last year.

Get Prepared, Then Meet with a Tax Professional

I recommend you have a tax professional prepare your personal and business tax returns. Partnering with the right tax professional will ensure you take advantage of tax deductions and credits to your advantage. To help you answer some of your questions and build a list to ask your tax professional, I recommend two resources:

J.K. Lasser’s Small Business Taxes 2015 by Barbara Weltman – This book discusses everything from choosing your business entity, handling income and losses, expenses, home office deduction, tax planning tips, and much more. Use this book as a reference year round to answer your quick tax questions.

Small Business Taxes Made Easy by Eva Rosenberg – You should read this book cover to cover. The author starts with the basics of starting a business, choosing an entity, business plans, income and deductions, pitfalls to avoid, and much more. She is an IRS Enrolled Agent and shares her years of tax experience throughout the book, including downloadable book updates, checklists, and resource lists.

To make the most of your meeting with your tax professional, you need to have up to date accounting records, namely a balance sheet and income statements. Financial statements help you make timely business decisions. They also help your tax professional quickly get an overview of your company in order to provide the right tax advice for your situation.

So stop procrastinating and start gathering what you need to get those tax returns done. If your accounting records are in a bit of a mess, I can fix your accounting. Just get in touch.

Are you a victim of fraud?

I have had the misfortune on several occasions to speak with business owners who were victims of fraud. Fraud can destroy your business by the way of ruined relationships and cash flow problems that force you into bankruptcy.

Regardless of the size of your business, you don’t have to spend a lot of time and money to reduce your exposure to fraud. Simply put, set boundaries and hold the people who work for you (or otherwise represent you) accountable. Some see these accountability measures as an accusation. (You don’t trust me! or But we’re all friends!) I call them protection. In the words of Ronald Reagan, “trust but verify.” Accounting is about financial responsibility and transparency.

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Stress and the value of time

As I write this, the holiday season is in full swing. Anyone with a product or service to sell is marketing like crazy. Just take a look at your postal mailbox and your email for proof. It takes extra effort just to sort through all that for what you need. Along with the day-to-day activity of running your business there are the year-end things to think about; estimated tax payments, retirement account contributions, health insurance, getting your books up to date, etc. Add to that holiday preparations; travel, decorating, shopping, baking, etc. Overwhelmed? The more overwhelmed we are, the less productive we are because we lose focus. The less productive we are, the more stressed we become.

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Improving your Collections Chances!

I recently had an unfortunate experience with collecting payment from a client.  I would like to share some information with you so that you will, hopefully, not have to go through this as well…

I had an unresolved invoice from a client and after many attempts on my part to collect the debt, I had to turn to a collection agency.  This is not an avenue that any business owner relishes, however, I was able to receive some sound advice through the generosity of the collections agency. It was suggested to me that I add a “Personal Guaranty” to my standard business agreement. They even provided me with the proper verbiage!  I would love to share this with you so that you may also take advantage of the great advice that I received.

PERSONAL GUARANTY

In consideration of [COMPANY NAME] its subsidiaries or affiliates, extending credit, I/we jointly and severally do personally guarantee unconditionally, at all times, to [COMPANY NAME], its subsidiaries or affiliates, the payment of indebtedness or balance of indebtedness of the within named firm. I understand that this could include remedies up to and including reporting on my personal credit and responsibility for any and all collection or attorney fees associated with the recovery of any past due balances.

 

By adding the “Personal Guaranty” to your service contract, you may increase your chances of being able to collect if you should find yourself in the unfortunate situation of having an “noncollectable” account!!