by Joyce M. Washington, CPA
Why should you outsource your bookkeeping and accounting functions? You might want to consider doing so for several reasons. For starters, maybe you’re someone who just hates math and accounting with a passion. There’s no shame in that; I will be the first to stand up, hold my head high, wave my arms in the air and scream, “I HATE ACCOUNTING!” (Okay, I’m kidding. I just wanted to get the admissions started.)
When you truly hate accounting and bookkeeping, you’re unlikely to do it well. Worse than that, you might even be unlikely to do it at all. While you can get away with poor personal bookkeeping, like not balancing the checkbook, you can’t with your business. If your business is going to thrive, you need the books kept to perfection. If you can’t do this on your own, or if you simply don’t want to do this on your own, outsource bookkeeping is a great way to go.
In-House Versus Outsource Bookkeeping
Another reason you might want to outsource your bookkeeping and accounting with a virtual accounting firm is to save money. While every business needs their books kept up professionally, most can’t afford to have a full-time accountant on staff. Outsourcing solves that problem by getting the job done through an outside provider. Now, with the assistance of the Internet, you don’t need to ship in a part-time subcontractor to do your books. You can have your books completed & reviewed virtually by a competent, trained professional… saving you money that you can put back into your growing business.
Saving Time With Outsourcing
Let’s suppose you’re like me and love (or at least, like) accounting. Maybe you’re even trained at accounting and feel you can keep your books better than anyone else. There’s still the matter of your time, which is best spent working on your business and making it thrive, rather than balancing books. And as we all know, time IS money…
by Joyce M. Washington, CPA
Q: I have started a small business. How do I report (tax purposes) payments to me as the owner? Is that considered income for self-employment or is the net profit from the business used for self-employment taxes?
A: For tax purposes, if you are a sole proprietor, the net profit of the business is used to figure out your self – employment taxes. Other types of organizations have different rules, but most use the amount actually paid to you to figure self-employment tax upon. This can vary from one geographic area to another.
However, no matter what business structure you have, corporation, LLC, partnership, or sole proprietorship, you should accurately track amounts that the business pays directly to you or to others for your personal items as these are paid out. Create an equity type account, use your name & the word “draws” as the account name (example: “Joyce Washington – Draws”), record these payments in this account.
In the long run, it helps to keep better track of how your business is performing if you input the payments as they are paid. Then when it comes time to figuring out your self-employment tax, you will have everything you need to determine the tax amount in one easy location.
by Joyce M. Washington, CPA
Exporting a list of Donors and their addresses
Q: I have QB Pro 07. I am trying to find an efficient way to create a report or list that includes donors AND their addresses to export for a mail merge for a donor letter.
The main problem that I can see is that when I “modify report” in my donor report, I do not have the option of adding address columns as I can in a customer contact list. However, in a customer contact list I cannot find the filters that I need, such as “amount” and “item.”
A: Based on my assumption that you are using customers for donors, export your customer list with addresses. To do this go to chose:
- FILE-> UTILITIES -> EXPORT -> ADDRESSES TO TEXT FILE.
- In the dialogue box, select the category of names you want to export, click OK.
- In the “Save Address Date File” dialog box, select a folder & type the filename, click SAVE
FYI, your file will have a “.txt” extension. You should be able to utilize this list for the mail merge in Word or whatever word processing software you use.
Hope this helps.
by Joyce M. Washington, CPA
I have a similar blog post in December, 2008. Enjoy ~ Joyce
Excerpt: Throughout the 2008-2009 recession we have seen a rash of articles about why it’s a good time to start a business. Sometimes I feel those articles are more a matter of the writer trying to convince himself or herself that it’s a good time to start a business, than convince anyone else! After all, some people lose their jobs and then become unwilling entrepreneurs.
Still, it’s true that a recession can be a rare opportunity to start a business. One reason: competitors (especially large corporations) are distracted by their own market challenges.
That can be good for you if you are thinking of starting — or expanding — your business. It means others in the marketplace are not minding the store. It could provide just enough of an opening in the market to get a toehold to scale new heights.
If you’d like to read more – Another Reason Recessions are a Good Time to Start a Business
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by Joyce M. Washington, CPA
If you own a business and are doing your own accounting then you are costing your company money. Too many owners think they are cutting costs but keeping accounting internal but the price they are paying is actually higher than hiring an outsourced accountant/accounting department.
Procedures & Professionalism
If accounting were nothing but addition and subtraction, then it wouldn’t be necessary of accountants to attend college to learn the ins and outs. Since accounting is a framework of smart business practices that ensures financial records are current and complete, it’s clear to see that it is more than just a sophisticated system of tracking cashflow.
Professional bookkeepers are not trained in accounting practices. This is one reason to hire an outsourced accounting department rather than a bookkeeper. Outsourcing to an accountant will bring needed discipline to financial operations to “close your books”.
Taxes: Laws, Breaks & Incentives
Few business owners understand the tax laws as they apply to their businesses. Payroll tax, sales tax, unemployment tax, Social Security tax, etc… they all have to be calculated correctly and paid on time. Then as soon as you learn the rules of the game, they change.
Business owners have more important things to do than pour over IRS regulations. An outsource accountant gives the owners access to an expert who is familiar with the tax laws and filing requirements.
In addition to making sure your business is compliant, accountants often have insight into tax breaks that business owners may not be aware of. Some of these can amount to significant tax savings to the company’s bottom line, savings that are more than the cost to hire an outsourced accounting department costs.
Analysis & Advice
Professional accountants can provide a level of analysis of a company’s finances well beyond what a layman could. Reports can show patterns in revenues and expenditures that a superficial examination may not have revealed. With detailed information and review, the owner can focus and develop strategic plans that will bring future prosperity.
A business owner can ask the outsourced accounting department for advice. Ranging from basic business practices that can cut expenses and increase revenue to evaluations of major expenditures, this could be huge for a small business ventures prospects of survival and growth.
The value of an outsourced accounting department is difficult to measure but almost always exceeds the cost of the operation.
Summary
In short, as a business owner, you can’t do it all. By outsourcing your accounting, payroll and tax needs to a virtual accounting department, you get back that time to use on other things… like building and growing your business.
