Slow Corporate Pays - A Small Businessman's Nightmare

basics accounting - Before retirement, I ran a franchising company, and one thing I've always warned our franchisees, especially the young men and women who were new to business was to "be careful with your collections, don't let large customers string you out on receivables." If you get behind collecting on all the money that is owed to you from all the bills you sent out and if those customers get too far behind, there's a chance you may never collect your money, but in the interim it's worse, because you don't have that cash flow, the money you need to pay your employees, pay the rent, and make all the payments.

Without a decent cash flow, there will not be any profit for you to take home in your business. It's unfortunate that corporate America uses small businesses as their piggy banks. Sometimes I think that they have too much power, and they can often really shaft the little small business person. Okay so let's talk about this shall we?

There was an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal on April 19, 2013 titled "Firms Pinch Payments to Suppliers," by Serena Ng. The article told of how big corporations are stringing out the little businesses and suppliers to the tune of on average now 75-days. Further, if the small business wants to get paid sooner, they can use vouchers at the bank, a lot like factoring or borrowing on receivables, or in some cases the corporation will pay them quicker for a steep discount.

Back in the 80s and 90s it was often considered wise to demand net payment in 30-days, with a 2% discount if they paid in 10-days, eventually those all got lengthened, 2/30, Net/60 for instance. Today, the fees and loans are akin to pay-day type loan-shark loans. It's as if the small business has no choice, and yet, I can't think of a single corporation dealing with the public or consumer that allows their invoices to go past 30-days. Your cell phone company, cable company, power company, water company, etc. are in the middle of a shut-off phase I imagine if you let things go that long. Where is fair I ask?

But in that article Proctor and Gamble for instance notes that it frees up some $2 billion in cash to switch to the net 75-day strategy. Well, as shareholders we like the sound of that, but as a small business supplier, I'd be a little concerned about paying the rent, and employees, especially in this day and age of ObamaCare and rising taxes. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.

Choosing The Right Accountant For Your Business

basics accounting - Having a successful business requires making the right choices, like selecting an accountant with the right qualifications and experience necessary to take good financial care of you and your business. "How to choose an accountant" is a question that many business owners ask themselves when they want to get a better handle on the financial functions of their business. Either that or their current accounting software simply isn't getting their business where they want it to go. In any case, it's best if you allow a licensed accounting firm to handle all of the financial aspects of your business, even if you don't think that you need an accountant.

An accounting firm can not only help your company with tax returns, they can also help you develop a sound business plan and provide assistance with long-term tax planning and personal tax planning. Since there are so many choices out there when it comes to accounting firms, it's vital that you keep in mind that you'll be trusting the accountant your hire with the financial future of your business. One thing you should ask yourself is if your business needs to hire an inside accountant or an outside accounting firm.

If yours is a growing business, it's recommended that you hire an outside accountant or an accounting firm that can offer you financial advice. By using an outside firm, you can save more money than you would by hiring a full-time employee, plus you'll be working with individuals who have a higher level of experience. An accounting firm will be able to help you with tax return preparation, financial analysis and financial statement preparation.

When your business transactions start to become more complicated, it might be time for you to bring in either a full- or part-time inside accountant. Bear in mind that an outside accountant's fee will increase along with the size of your business, so you might be better off breaking down and hiring an in-house employee if your business continues to grow. An in-house accountant's duties include: daily financial transactions, fixed asset accounting, cost accounting, payroll, cash management and variance analysis, among other tasks.

No matter which kind of accountant you decide to go with, there are a few qualifications that you'll want to check before you make any final decisions. Make sure that the accountant is a Certified Public Accountant with all of the required schooling and continued education. Your accountant should also have experience in your particular industry and be able to handle the complexity of your business.

Now that you know more about how to choose an accountant, you can get back to focusing on running a successful business and leave the financial complexities to someone who knows what they're doing.

Factors Tax Preparer Needs to Consider When Resolving Dependency Claims

basics accounting - A tax preparer needs to be very alert especially whenever there are dependency claims. In most cases, conflicts arise when disagreements about sharing the custody of the child after a nasty divorce. Dependency exemption is questioned in such situations. There are also some instances when parents who were never married try to dispute these dependency claims.

The most essential approach in these kinds of problems is to explain the information through a tax preparer course about dependency claims. It is much easier to obey the rules first before submission of returns. You wouldn't want the IRS to enforce these guidelines for exemption for the same person due to dependency claims.
There are two kinds of dependents - both of which are at the major study area for someone who files and plans returns.

The first criteria are for a qualifying child - who takes priority over another for relative criteria. Most of the time, when a person meets the rules for qualifying child for two or more, that parent prevails for dependency claims. But, professionals find more benefit for grandparents claiming qualifying child dependency. The bureau accepts this so long as both payers resolve this prior to filing returns.

To make sure that everyone is aware about the situation, there is a need to for the tax preparer to coordinate that only one return list is eligible for any qualifying child. If none of the parents claim, the person with the greatest gross income succeeds the usage of the exemption.

The most typical case is for both parents who are filing for dependency claims for a qualifying child. In this case, the parent who resided with the child the most nights gains the exemption. In a rare case that the nights are exactly equal, parent with higher adjusted gross income will get the exemption.

The process in breaking the tie is very critical for any accountant, and someone needs to gain expertise in doing so. One needs to make sure that the payers have to be aware of the methods of determining who is entitled to claim dependency exemption. Similarly, the IRS uses these approaches to determine the rightful person to use the dependency claim.

If a client mistakes claiming dependency for someone else, this can be very expensive. Thus, as one who plans the client returns, one needs to make sure accurate data is generated. Erroneous claims force additional payment and forfeiture of credits connected on dependency claims.

If you're in the hunt to find a tax preparer in Sacramento who has vast knowledge of the field, it would be best for you to check out Capital Tax Services Inc now and see whether their services would be the best for your business.

Contracting Profession Gaining Momentum

basics accounting - Following the much discussed and greatly anticipated budget last month, many professionals were left confused as little appeared to have changed at the hands of the country's most powerful (besides a slight reduction of the price of beer) and contractors especially were left gnawing at their fingernails as any mention of their predicted tax status changes were brushed over in a single sentence. Any government or revenue announcements are awaited with baited breath, and with a history of nasty surprises, this year's annual budget was poised to be a belter.

The 2013 budget was in fact met with a pinch of misunderstanding, a touch of distain and a hefty dose of boredom, as the tax paying public were met with a relatively unsympathetic speech and not much to get excited about afterwards. While politicians are very much people that the public love to hate, the extreme scrutiny under which George Osborne, David Cameron and Ed Milliband were put after the event was nonetheless surprising. Thousands took to the internet, blogging and tweeting their views, from commenting on the Chancellor's budget announcements, to predicting when the Prime Minister will go bald.

Many limited company professionals had expected an update and announcement concerning 'office holders' in terms of IR35 and those who had expected further guidance in this area were left disappointed with what HMRC offered, the promised 'clarity' remaining undelivered. 'Announcements' relating to the contracting profession are usually of great importance to those in the field, the self-employed area of work being one that comes with both boundaries and limitations. In recent years, the state of contracting has seen a number of changes and alterations occur following government statements, more so than in the previous decade. From changes made to the IR35 legislation to revenue issued self-help business tests, contractors have been subjected to a great deal during the past year and a half and it isn't surprising why.

So what are the reasons for this upsurge in government interest in contractors? Instead of gritty tax nonsense, the answer in fact lies with the sheer number of people entering the profession of limited company trading. As a professional route, being a contractor would have seemed highly out of the ordinary during the 90's and even throughout much of the 'noughties', but in today's society, becoming a contractor and trading through limited companies has become a prominent and competitive line of work.

As Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs never miss a trick, with a vast influx of professional tax payers leaving the PAYE system and entering contracting, their grip on limited companies has been increasingly tightening. Through the IR35 legislation, the revenue have been monitoring and investigating potential tax avoiders since the year 2000, but it has only been in recent years that an IR35 upsurge has occurred. From oil riggers to IT consultants, contractors from every profession are all at risk to HMRC's legislative regulations, and with the government interest gaining momentum (despite the recent budget) it looks as though contracting is becoming progressively more prominent.

Can Social Media Generate Sales Leads For CRM Software?

basics accounting - We have all heard about the power of social media, of how it can open doors for your business, and how it can spread information really fast to your intended audience. Because of this quality, a lot of businesses are using social media channels for their B2B lead generation campaigns. They hope that this is the solution they are looking for in increasing the number of sales leads that their business will need. But is it that really a good idea? Will solely relying on social media assist you in your b2b appointment setting efforts? To be honest, that would be a very bad marketing move. Why is that so?

First of all, we must understand how social media actually functions. Social media is a marketing tool that opens doors and engages prospects in a discussion - just that. Being social can only do so much for your B2B leads generation efforts. You cannot use social media in a much more aggressive manner. Due to the very nature of this medium, any overt acts of selling or promotions get automatically banned or shunned by the community. Yes, social media can help you communicate and interact with everyone you want to reach, but if you need to convert these contacts into qualified sales leads, you will need another method.

Actually, there are many other marketing tools that you can use. For example, you can employ email marketing blasts, where you send targeted business emails to your prospects. It may have a low return rate, but at least it is cheap enough and quantifiable enough for you to use. Another strategy you can employ is through telemarketing. With the use of an updated calling list from a reliable business database, you can create a targeted call campaign, reaching out to prospects, offering the best of what your CRM software business can offer. There are also other means of promoting your business, like trade fairs, symposiums, and even social activities like golf or dinner parties.

As for the skills involved, if you have doubts on your own abilities in CRM software B2B lead generation, it all right to ask for help. Outsourcing to reliable lead generation services, with experience in appointment setting and lead nurturing, can help your CRM software firm greatly. Think about it, you can work to your heart's content in perfecting or improving your products and services, while you leave the marketing work to those who know it better. That would be a much more ideal arrangement. It would help you save more time and effort for yourself while still getting the sales leads that you need.

So, how does social media fit in the picture here? In the first place, social media is an excellent marketing tool, as long as it is paired with another marketing medium. Engaging in social communities is great for finding prospects and opening doors, but if you want to get more concrete results for your lead generation campaign, you should get more promotion tools like telemarketing or email.

Outsourced Client Profiling, Every Deal Is A Done Deal For Accounting Firms

basics accounting - Although almost all businesses in every industry need to have a bookkeeper by their side round the clock or a financial consultant to ensure a sound financial health, some companies will have a hard time trying to keep the records straight when it comes to finance and accounting matters. Since most of these companies would love to hire somebody from the outside to do accounting works like bookkeeping, auditing, give them sound and sensible financial advices, they will end up in a blank wall trying to find the right finance and accounting firm to help them out. This is where these accounting firms will come into play. It is up to them to find these qualified leads that have the need of their accounting services.

What they can do is they can hire somebody in their own ranks to do the client profiling and if there is ample time, they can also find someone among their ranks to do telemarketing to get these leads to nod and approve face-to-face appointments or do appointment setting tasks so that they can come face to face with the decision makers of a company that has the need to avail their accounting and financial services.

However, those are not easy tasks. They need to train someone do to all of these responsibilities wherein that someone will just have to do a lot of client profiling as it is important for accounting offices to keep a profile of each of their existing clients and can also provide all the useful and vital information of potential clients. Client profiling is also like searching for a needle in the haystack. If an accounting firm don't have the right system for client profiling and even for telemarketing and providing themselves with targeted call lists that has all the right and warm financial and accounting qualified leads, they will just have to tire themselves to death.

But, if they will outsource client profiling, every deal is a done deal for these accounting and financing firms. They can assign a lead generation company to hire somebody who will be a professional appointment setter and somebody else to do the client profiling using the right and effective methods. These B2B lead generation services companies have properly trained people like these to be personal and yet professional and objective in their approach in talking with decision makers on their behalf and come up with all the important and vital information of the potential client.

If an accounting or financial firm can outsource these effective methods for client profiling, telemarketing and other lead generation campaigns, they can cut through the competition clutter and come out strong and be ahead from the others that's because they can now have a strong base of satisfied customers and a strategic business partner so that can deliver high-quality and qualified financial services leads so that they can now solely focus and channel their energy in getting to these appointments and find out the needs of their clients.

Profitability by Type of Customer

basics accounting - When evaluating what's working well in your business and what's not, one of the aspects I like to view is what Types of customers are most profitable for me. If I can narrow down the types of customers that are profitable, I can streamline my workflow, simplify my marketing, become known in those industries, and increase my bottom line.

Some businesses actually use Classes to look at the different types of customers they have. An example might be Commercial versus Residential or Nonprofit versus Business. In my business, I prefer more detail about my clientele (I want to know what industry they represent). Since I find numerous classes cumbersome to review, I use the Customer Type field in QuickBooks to describe clients' industry (the QuickBooks default is how clients find you) and a Custom Field for Source of Lead. You can assign only 1 type to the customer, but you can assign a different type if you have multiple jobs for a customer. Other examples of Customer Types could be type of residence (condo, townhome, single family home, estate) or location (city, county, subdivision) or type of manufacturer (biotech, pesticides, cold cut meats), type of business (defense agency, non-profit, medical facility) or size of business. Think about what helps you identify your ideal client and that may give you ideas.

While you can get reports to show you Sales by Customer Type, that's not always the total picture. You may find that in some cases where the revenue is high, so are the costs. So having the ability to look at the profitability of a type of customer is helpful. If you look at the standard P&L reports, you will not see the ability to do a Profit and Loss by customer type. However if you go through the custom reporting, you can create a report that will let you see Profitability of Customer Type in the same format as your P & L. Here are the steps:

Click on Reports> Custom Reports> Summary
On the Display Tab, select your date range and Report Basis (cash or accrual)
In the Column section, select Customer Type from the drop- down menu
Leave Display Rows by Income Statement as is
You might also want to see Percent of Row - this will let you compare different Types not only by dollar amount, but by the percent of your business

If you have lots of customer Types and sub-Types as I do, you might find this report will be easier to view and examine if you export to Excel.

This report does not show all the expenses in your business - just the ones charged against a customer. But this can still be very helpful - especially if you have lots of costs associated with certain types of customers.

This report can provide interesting insight into your business. After all, it's not just the total dollar that these various types of customers bring into your business but the overall profitability of the different types. And that's really what it's all about isn't it?

Muir & Associates helps businesses use their Intuit products more efficiently and more effectively so businesses can focus on their business and make more informed decisions. We provide sales and support services. Monica Mitchell Muir has been helping businesses with their QuickBooks products since 1996.