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A common misconception is that small businesses do not need a business lawyer. Nothing could be further from the truth. Regardless the size of a business, it’s always a good idea to have an attorney. It may be crucial to the success of your business. If the time ever comes that an unfortunate event arises and your company is in trouble, it could be too late to hire a lawyer.

When hiring a lawyer, make sure they are familiar with your industry and its legal environment. You should also be cautious of hiring an attorney that represents your competitors. As always, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Mistakes can happen in your books, no matter who you are. It’s important to know why your mistake happened and how they can be avoided.

Hiring family members is always an interesting debate to have with people. There are so many varying opinions along with many different pros and cons, both personally and financially. We’re here to address the positives of hiring a family member as a way to step outside the box and prove there is good behind what others think is bad.

No matter what kind of business you own or you’re a part of, it’s important that we all utilize the same resource that is here to help us all—America’s Small Business Development Center (SBDC). Michigan’s SBDC is headquartered in Grand Rapids but have over ten different locations throughout the state. They have helped over 5,500 businesses across Michigan and helped start 445 businesses in 2016. Their main goal is to help us - if you haven’t looked into the SBDC, now is the time.

Many people believe that having everything right at our fingertips at a moment’s notice is a bad thing. However, when it comes to your accounting records, it is the best thing. Real-time accounting allows you to access and check your records at any time from any device, 24 hours a day, day or night.

Accounting is an essential component of every business regardless of size. It’s important to keep in mind the basic do’s and don’t’s of accounting that not everyone may know, but should! These are common and often unnoticed mistakes that can lead to future problems.

Cash Flow vs. Profit

Don’t assume that profit also means there’s cash flow. What’s the difference? Cash flow is the inflow and outflow of money while profit is the extra money left over after expenses are deducted. It would be nice to assume that profit leads to cash flow, but that could give you a distorted view of how well (or not) your business is doing.

Bad Bookkeeping Records and Communication

Not taking your bookkeeping seriously nor communicating with your bookkeeper enough are simple mistakes that need to be avoided. Effective bookkeeping begins with recording each and every transaction. This includes not forgetting to record small transactions—these add up over time. Not only should your transactions be recorded, but they should be categorized. Organization is important for accurate records.

To have these transactions recorded appropriately and accurately, you must communicate with your bookkeeper on a regular basis. They should know what is going on within your business. Not enough communication can lead to unreliable records, as well as more work for both you and your bookkeeper. By avoiding these bookkeeping mistakes, you will be given a more reliable picture of where your business stands.

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Being that October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM), we thought it would be a great idea to share tips for staying safe online. As a company that utilizes many cloud-based systems, we take the utmost caution in which sites and tools we use when servicing our customers. We want to keep our information and our clients’ information safe, secure, and private.

The internet touches almost every part of our lives. Not just our work lives, but also our home lives and the lives of our children. Practicing safe habits online is a great idea for every person of every age, no matter what information they are putting on the web.

It’s essential for every business to have accurate, consistent, and coherent records of their financial activity. To ensure your records hit all three of these factors, you should highly consider outsourcing your bookkeeping/accounting. Among the many benefits of outsourcing, expertise is a big one.

By teaming up with an outside company, not only will your books be thoroughly and accurately completed, but you’ll have access to impartial and professional advice. They’ll pass along any tips or tricks they think will help your business thrive, while also being only an email or phone call away from regarding any of your own questions or concerns.

The best thing any business can do is simplify and consolidate all their work into more manageable and efficient loads. This can seem like an impossible task but there are ways to do so, and we have the answers! Why overwork yourself when there are tools for you to use that will keep you motivated and energized during the work day instead of burnt out and dragged down? Below are four online tools every small and medium-sized business should utilize for maximum productivity and efficiency - we use/have used all of them!

Expensify.com

Have you ever left a conversation with your accountant with nothing but confusion, asking yourself “What did they just say?” You’re not alone. We’re here to bridge the gap between accountant and client. Here is a list of common terms you will likely here from your accountant, if you haven’t already, and what they actually mean:

Accounts Payable (A/P): Money you owe to others.

Accounts Receivable (A/R): Money others owe to you.

Asset: Items of value owned by a business. This includes money in your bank, A/R, equipment, vehicles, buildings, and so on.

Bad Debt: Uncollectible A/R.

Balance Sheet: A list of company assets, liabilities and equities for the company.

Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) (a.k.a. Cost of Sales—COS): What it directly costs to produce your product or service. For manufacturing companies, this includes raw materials and the direct labor to make your product. For service companies, this includes the cost of labor to directly service your customer.

Equity: How much you have invested into your business or taken out of your business. This is where any profit from your business will show up.

Liability: This includes all the debts you owe to other businesses, such as A/P, credit cards and loans.

Profit and Loss Report (a.k.a. Income Statement): This shows you how well (or not) the business did for a specific time period (month/quarter/year).

Next time you speak with your accountant,

Intuit has released information about the new features coming with QuickBooks 2018. The scheduled release date is September 26. Although we’re excited for all updates coming in the latest version, here are the top five we are most anxious for:

1. Multi-Monitor Capability

The 2018 version now offers support for up to three monitors. This will allow you to move a task/report/register from your one monitor to another monitor. For example, you can have two reports open at once - one on each monitor. Or you might have an invoice on one monitor while you have a bill open on another monitor. This will be a definite enhancement to your productivity.

Outsourcing your bookkeeping/accounting can eliminate any issues of misuse of information, your finances falling into the wrong hands, or any conflicts that may arise if information is given to the wrong person. Taking your financial information out of the workplace will keep it from ever going where it shouldn’t.

Your finances are something that should be kept private, not broadcasted for everyone to see. This applies to your home life and your work life. If you own a business, it may be best for your employees not to be involved in the financial aspect of your company. People may talk, rumors could spread, and information could be leaked. To keep your financial information private and in good hands, it’s a beneficial idea to outsource your bookkeeping/accounting to an outside company.

Accounting and bookkeeping are both essential components to every business, no matter the size. They are services necessary for businesses to grow, thrive, and survive. But, what’s the difference between them? Although accounting and bookkeeping share similar goals, they each help you during different stages of your financial cycle.

Are you afraid of moving to the cloud? With technology so prevalent these days, it’s easy to overlook the safety and security of your business’ private information. The good news is you can rest easy knowing that QuickBooks Online (QBO) utilizes the same level of security as your banks, credit card companies, and other financial institutions. Because QBO is a Cloud Accounting Software, that means all your business’ information will be stored securely, safely, and reliably.

Some people may question the reliability and security of the cloud, but their worries should disappear knowing that an estimated 86 percent of companies use not only one cloud storage system, but many.  

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Life can get busy, especially for those who own businesses. Sometimes trying to do it all can leave owners falling short. Work may be left incomplete, overdue or forgotten, and goals may never be reached. Outsourcing is the perfect solution, rather than trying to take on more than they can handle.

Outsourced accounting is a great way for businesses to lessen their workload while also being certain that their accounting is being completed by an expert. Less work, fewer worries.

Not only does outsourced accounting help you lessen your workload, but you can also make better use of your time by growing and strengthening your business. You’ll have more time to give special attention to your employees, clients, and goals. You won’t lose clients or projects due to focusing on making sure the accounting is complete and correct. By outsourcing your accounting, you will never again turn down clients or projects due to being too swamped with work.  

At Skynar Bookkeeping, we utilize QuickBooks as our preferred accounting platform for many reasons. The first being it is the best accounting software for small and mid-size businesses—it is ranked number one among all other software for small business accounting. It is user friendly and can be used for any type of business. We strive to make our clients’ business lives easier and QuickBooks helps us do so.

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