Leverage: Use It To Your Advantage

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If you’ve heard of Virtual Assistants and understand the concept, then Virtual Bookkeeping/Virtual Accounting is not too far from that.  The main difference is the area of specialization – instead of administrative tasks, the tasks outsourced are of a bookkeeping and accounting nature.

Who should care about virtualization?  YOU, Mr & Ms Small Business Owner.  Why should you care?  LEVERAGE.  Outsourcing to a service provider can give you the leverage, the leg up that you need and help put you on equal footing with bigger companies.  Think about it, big businesses have been doing it for years (leveraging and centralizing their resources).  Big businesses may have satellite locations all over the state, all over the country, all over the world but they have a centralized location that handles certain “global” business functions such as marketing, advertising, and accounting at the “corporate office”.

So what’s the difference between outsourcing (small business) and centralization (big business)?  To be honest, if you give it some thought and consideration, there isn’t much difference at all – except the numbers – the number of people employed and the dollars available to spend.  How can you leverage and use this big business model of operations to your advantage as a small business owner?  Use economies of scale.  Think about it…it’s less expensive to share an accounting department with other small business owners than it is to create, manage and maintain one in-house.   When you hire a virtual bookkeeping and accounting service provider, that’s exactly what you’re doing – sharing an accounting department with other small businesses.  And, let’s take it one step further – in most cases, hiring a service that will function as an ENTIRE department is less expensive than employing ONE bookkeeper!  Providing you with MORE experienced professions for LESS money…more bang for your buck, talk about LEVERAGE.  Don’t believe me?  Give me a call and I’ll SHOW you the numbers…

Agree?  Disagree?  Have questions?  Post a comment…I look forward to hearing from you and reading your comments.

Image Credit: Filomena Scalise/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

Cloud Computing – Are You Ready?

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What exactly IS cloud computing?  As I understand it and in it’s simplest terms, it’s remote software hosting.  If you’ve created and stored a document or presentation using Google Docs, then you’ve been exposed to a version of “the cloud”.

Why is this important?  As a SME (small/medium enterprise), why should you care?  Well, to be honest – it kinda levels the playing field, making it so that the small guys can play with the big boys – at least when it comes to IT.  By using remote software hosting/utilizing the cloud, SME’s can do things they couldn’t afford to do before – such as – allowing their employees & contractors to telecommute.

Allowing and encouraging telecommuting is just the beginning of the snowball effect that the cloud can bring.  Telecommuting can lead to not only outsourcing your IT functions but now that your staff (employees & contractors) spend less time in the office, they can share space… if they share space, you need less space.  Instead of providing 1 desk/1 office space per person, you may be able to cut back to 1 desk/1office space for every TWO or THREE staff members (referred to as “office hoteling”).  So in addition to saving on the capital expenditures on IT… converting those to operating costs, you can also save on the overhead costs of office space, computers, telephones, etc.  How big the snowball gets is up to you.

Enough about the other benefits…back to the cloud itself.  Here are some IT benefits to The Cloud…

  • Reduced Costs –  instead of buying all the hardware/software yourself, you pay a provider incrementally (monthly, quarterly, yearly) – therefore lowering the “cost of entry”
  • State of the Art Hardware/Off-Site Backup
  • Increased Mobility – staff is no longer tied to the office or their desks
  • Greater Flexibility & Security – SME businesses don’t necessarily have the most secure internal infrastructures when it comes to IT; with the use of the Cloud, these same businesses can reach and exceed compliance & industry security standards
  • Automation & Shift IT Focus – Using the Cloud, the SME no longer has to focus on server updates, maintenance, backup issues or software updates.
Are you ready for The Cloud?  The choice is yours… but I’m ready to take the leap.  And I taking my clients with me … even if I have to drag them there, kicking and screaming!

 

Q&A: Importing Transactions From Online Merchant Account

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Q: We have a software division that charges people monthly on subscription plans. It’s all done automatically. What’s the FASTEST way for me to manage this? I don’t really want to manually enter thousands of monthly charges into QuickBooks every month, but at the end of the year, my accountant will want detailed records. any suggestions?

We’re using authorize.net and cybersource. I can look into importing them. I can import them from the bank, but that seems to a big pain too, as QuickBooks asks me to do each one individually pretty much.

A: Look into what your choices are available regarding the various formats that you can download the information from authorize.net & cybersource. A lot of companies offer a way to export your transactions in a way that’s ready to import them directly into your QB file. It may take some effort on your part to set it up correctly on the front end but will be well worth it not to post transactions one at a time.

I use another payroll provider that allows me to do exactly what I’ve described to import the information with no problem.

If you have additional questions regarding setup, I really think you should seek the advice of your accountant. If they aren’t available or versed in this kind of set up, shoot me an email. (remind me of our forum discussion)… I’d be happy to help.

Good luck! ~Joyce

originally asked & answered on QuickBooks Forum