Blog

It’s not uncommon for small businesses, or those just getting started, to use personal bank accounts. However, we recommend splitting your business and personal finances into two separate accounts - sooner rather than later. Some business owners think they don’t make enough money or have enough activity for an account, but that simply isn’t the case.

An important part of running a business is keeping it safe. This includes from fraud. Simply put, it’s best to remain cautious. If it doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t. Be smart with who you share information with and why. Here are five easy ways to combat fraud:

New year, new rules on deductibles. Before you sit down to work on your taxes (or with your accountant), remember that some of the deductibles revolving around meals and entertainment have been UPDATED. We want to keep you up-to-date with the most recent information possible. Use the handy chart below to know what you can deduct and what’s not an option anymore.

You’ll notice that the majority of changes are with business trips or meals. Your good ‘ole office snacks and beverages are still 100 percent deductible. It’s important to be honest with your deductibles. Use them to your advantage, but use them honestly.

Are there things you just don’t have time for? Or the knowledge to complete? That thing that always sits on your to-do list waiting to be crossed off, but it just never seems to happen. You know what we’re talking about. We all have that one thing we just don’t want to do, whatever the reason may be.

This is where outsourcing becomes your best friend. For small to mid-size businesses, hiring someone full-time, or even part-time, just isn’t an option sometimes. The funds might not allow it. This is when outsourcing comes into play. Hiring someone outside of the company to do that one thing you don’t want to do saves you money. How? Simple. Rather than paying an hourly or salary employee for being in the office 9 to 5, you can pay someone for only the time they spend doing what you need.

With tax season in our midst, it’s time to get it together and figure out who needs to be issued a 1099.  These are to be sent out each year by January 31st. It can be kind of confusing to figure out who to issue a 1099 and who doesn’t need one. The basic rule is that you must issue one whenever you pay an independent contractor who provides you a service.

In a previous blog, we discussed the five types of accounts every business should have in their books. If you missed it, circle back and check it out before continuing with this one. As a reminder, the five types of accounts are assets, equity, expenses, liabilities, and revenue. Now, let’s talk about transactions. A financial transaction is the activity that impacts your company’s assets, liabilities, and equity.

There are four categories that a transaction can be categorized as: sales, purchases, receipts, and payments. Each of them involves money in some way and is recorded in your books in two locations. To make things simpler for you, we will break down what each of the transactions are and the two places it should be recorded in your books. Now, let’s dive in! We’ll talk each of the four transactions and the two places they should be recorded in your books.

If you’re a small to midsize business, you need to be using QuickBooks Online (QBO) to manage all of your finances. QuickBooks Online makes life easier by helping you, not adding to the stress in your life. With just over 5.6 million users, it’s hard to deny it’s benefits.

So, what’s the big deal? There seem to be an endless number of efficient features in this accounting software, so we

Whether you run your own business or just work on the books, it’s imperative to know all the lingo. When you work on your books, these factors will tell you quite a bit about your business’s financial health. We know there seem to be an infinite number of terms in the accounting and bookkeeping world. It’s almost like a different language!

If you’re serious about making your dream a reality, it’s time to get real about what you’ll be encountering. From one small business to another, it’s no easy feat and you’ll face what seems to be endless challenges. Not only do you need to have motivation and perseverance, but here are six tips to help you on your journey.

When working in your books, you need to know exactly what the numbers mean. Often times people know the general meaning of a term like, “profit” but don’t actually know how it’s different from “revenue” or how the two affect each other.

Your profit is how much money your business has made from the sales of your goods and services or from things like fees or interest during a specific time period. For example, you could look at your profit from April to see how much money you made during those 30 days. If you sent out invoices for a total of $35,000 from April 1 - 30, then your profit

The New Year is one month away, is your business plan ready? If you haven’t started thinking of how you want to approach a new year then it’s time to start. Assess your business based on the goals you accomplished throughout the year, and strive for more in 2019. The first step to thriving is having a game plan.

Your business plan should contain three components: a mission statement, a vision, and a strategy. In plain terms, you need to know who you want to be, where you want to go, and how you’re going to get there. Establish clear and specific goals.

There’s a saying out there that says owning a small business is not for the faint of heart. It’s for the brave, the persistent, and the ambitious. Small businesses stem from passion and succeed because of dedication. Running a small business becomes your way of life.

With Small Business Saturday just days away, we wanted to get you in the spirit by sharing some cool facts we’ve learned about small businesses along our journey. This Forbes article has insane facts but a couple stood out like neon lights. The majority of businesses in the United States are actually small businesses! A whopping 99.9% of businesses are considered small.

According to Forbes, 8 out of 10 businesses fail. That statistic alone is enough to scare some people from even trying. Why do so many businesses fail? Although there is a myriad of reasons, there are three common deaths to businesses.

When setting up your books, you must first manage your accounts. The word “account” in bookkeeping doesn’t refer to bank accounts, which one might first think. It actually refers to the different kinds of transactions made, which will all be grouped into their rightful place, a.k.a. “account.” Keep this in mind moving forward. Some examples of accounts are sales, payroll, and inventory, just to name a few.

The business world is a tough place. It’s competitive, people play dirty, and lines can be crossed that shouldn’t be. As an employee, it’s sometimes difficult to know when it’s okay to take initiative and when it’s not. When expectations are laid out from the get-go, it makes adapting to your superior and/or boss that much easier. Finding your flow within a company can be a struggle if things don’t seem to mesh from the beginning. Over time, if you still aren’t sure of your place, it’s probably because it’s not there.

Leaving a company can be an uncomfortable conversation to have, but it’s worth having if it means you can move onto another that works for you and with you. Whether it’s

“Professionalism” is a term used quite frivolously. It’s thrown around as if it means the same thing to everyone - but it doesn’t. Depending on your company, the work environment, and your role, professionalism can range from any number of things. Professionalism is a scale.

Everyone’s preferable work environment varies. Some would love to be able to work from the comfort of their own home on their own. Others need the office atmosphere as motivation to get things done, and they appreciate the social aspect of being around others. But, which is better for the employee and the company? Is there a right or a wrong answer? Let’s look at the stats.

Fundera reported that two-thirds of managers who allow their employees to work from home say they are overall more productive and 85 percent of employees say they are more productive when they’re alone. With technology growing and becoming a regular part of our day-to-day lives, it makes sense that the number of work-at-home employees has increased by 115 percent since 2005, but only seven percent of businesses in the United States allow their employees to work from home.

If you’re sitting down to set up your books for the first time, you will need to choose between single or double-entry bookkeeping. Not sure what the difference is between the two and/or which to use for your business? Look no further!