Category: business finance

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Accountants and Small Manufacturers

rollingballGetting in Front of the Ball

There’s a lot more to accountability in a manufacturing or inventory-based business than simply keeping track of money in and money out.  Particularly in an economy when nobody can afford to build or stock products too far ahead of demand, it is essential that these businesses have a means to not only track and manage purchasing, manufacturing, distribution and stocking activities, but to understand conditions or trends which impact the flow of materials and cash through the business.  Further, this understanding must come in a timely manner in order for the business owner to make decisions and take action when it matters most.  Unfortunately, many business owners find themselves “behind the ball”, constantly pushing to make forward strides, and often due to not having the information they need to make business decisions that matter now, today.

Why is it so critical for these businesses to have more and better information to help them make strategic decisions and answer daily operational questions?  In a word: connectedness.  The Internet has truly made the world smaller when it comes to participation with even the smallest of local businesses.  Globalization of markets has impacted manufacturers in significant ways, and these businesses (like so many others) must now be prepared to address the realities of global supply chains, outsourcing, and a remote or mobile workforce and market.  While many of the software solutions addressing the functional business requirements of manufacturing and inventory or warehouse management are “locally implemented” solutions, extending and integrating these solutions to address the new global and mobile paradigm may represent a significant expenditure in time and resources for the small enterprise.

Application hosting and web-based solutions have emerged to help businesses address the need to “modernize” legacy applications and enable greater levels of system management and access.  Introducing the applications into a centralized and remotely accessible environment allows the business to immediately deliver the necessary support for remote work and mobile access, and positions the system to facilitate collaboration within the business and with outside participants, such as outsourced bookkeepers, accounting and finance professionals.

These professionals can be instrumental in assisting their clients manage the change to new collaborative computing paradigms.  Where accounting was previously viewed as an after-the-fact process, accountability through detailed activity tracking and reporting is now a focus which begins at the front end of the business, and accounting professionals are finding far greater value in helping structure and manage this daily activity in order to deliver greater operational information and insight.  Rather than being the last people to know what is happening in the business, accounting professionals are recognizing that their ability to positively impact business performance requires getting “in front of the ball”, initiating process structure, data control and collection which ultimately results in better and more informed decision-making through better and more timely access to more meaningful information.

Businesses at all levels are realizing that new computing paradigms can ease the burdens of collecting and sharing information, yet most small companies need help in determining exactly how to approach this “enabling” of the business and systems.  While accountants are also experiencing dramatic change in how they do business, it makes sense for them to embrace the opportunity and recognize that enabling client systems will ultimately allow the accounting professional to work more closely and to deliver more tangible value to their client on an ongoing basis.  Online accounting approaches are no longer a fad but are the new reality supporting how many bookkeepers and accountants work with their business clients.  Extending access beyond accounting and bookkeeping systems, and incorporating support for operational and line-of-business solutions, is the next step which will bring the accountant closer to the client business, and position both to benefit from deeper collaboration and useful insight.

Make Sense?

J

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Working Online With Clients: How to leverage the internet and cloud computing to work closer with your clients

Working Online With Clients: How to leverage the internet and cloud computing to work closer with your clients

When it comes to using technology and the Internet to work closer with bookkeeping and consulting clients, it is important to recognize that there is never only one way to accomplish something, and different clients will have equally different ideas on and tolerances for how you work with them.  In order to serve each and every client to the best of your ability, you have to carry around a “toolbox” of solutions and services which will assist you in delivering the most effective and efficient service in each situation and under each set of conditions.  While you must do what you can to streamline and standardize your processes to be as efficient as possible while delivering a high level of service, but you can only work within the parameters allowed by each client and circumstance.

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I think we can all agree that, whenever possible, it is wise to avoid situations where you have to get in the car and drive somewhere just to pick up information or paperwork.  These are the activities which are most costly in terms of time and resources.  Using file sharing solutions, such as DropBox or ShareFile, is a great way to get documents from clients.  That is, if the documents are in electronic form already.  If not, then either scanning the files and saving to the Dropbox or web folder, or faxing them to a service such as eFax, is the process.

Sometimes Internet connectivity is the issue.  Using a fax-to-email solution like eFax takes that out of the picture, in terms of getting documents and other paperwork from the client.  But let’s face it… there is no good way to electronically exchange or share QuickBooks or other computer data files safely and quickly unless the client has broadband Internet access.  You can always go back to dialup modems and connect using the old version of PCAnywhere, the way we did it years back, or you can recognize that sometimes you just have to get in the car and bring a USB drive with you.

Internet-based remote control solutions, such as LogMeIn, provide you with the ability to connect your computer directly to the client computer in order to perform tasks on their system and with their data.  This is a better approach than going to the client office and doing the work there, but it doesn’t address a situation where both you and the client need to be working at the same time.  If you are controlling their computer, you take over the workstation while you are connected, which prevents the client from doing independent work while you are doing your job. The better option is to use a solution that allows you to both work at the same time, even when connecting to the same computer.  MyQuickCloud does this. MyQuickCloud is a remote access solution that can be applied as both a remote access and remote working solution. It is better than remote control because it can allow many users at the same time to connect to the computer and run applications.

In some cases, working online with the client may mean working in the same applications and data files by accessing a centralized online solution, such as QuickBooks Online Edition or hosted QuickBooks (QB Online and hosted QuickBooks are not the same thing).  When both people (the client and the accountant/bookkeeper) have access to the same programs and data files in real-time, it allows them to work together more closely yet at times and from locations which work for the individuals.  This arrangement works quite well when the accounting professional and the client can both serve their requirements with the same software solution.  If the client uses QuickBooks to perform their daily tasks, the bookkeeper and accountant are able to simply log in and use the same solution to perform their work.

A model which more people are beginning to recognize as valuable is the model where each user or functional area in the business has the solution which works best for them, and the various solutions in the business each integrate and share data as necessary.  For an accountant or bookkeeper working with a small business, this may mean that the software or solution used by the client to handle their daily tasks is different from the solution used by the accounting professional to do their job.  Just as a tax preparer will use accounting data to prepare a tax return using a tax preparation solution, accountants may use transactional or financial data from other systems to perform accounting functions in an accounting software solution.  As long as the data is easily accessed, via built-in integration or sync tools, it makes a lot of sense to give each user a solution designed to meet their process needs because they will use the solution more effectively.  Giving a user way too much functionality can be confusing, and expose them to areas of business activity or information they should not have access to (or which is meaningless to their job) can waste time and introduce risk.

Examples of this approach might be where a small business owner uses FreshBooks accounting to manage their daily invoicing, but the information is then exported to and integrated into QuickBooks financial software, where the accountant or bookkeeper handles the rest of the business accounting functions. Another example may be when services such as Bill.com, TSheets, Expensify, Concur, and other “point” solutions are in use. These web-based solutions provide specific functionality, such as bill payments and approvals, employee timesheet management and reporting, expense management, and more.   They make it easier for the client to handle certain functions and address related information management and reporting needs, and facilitate the data integration with core accounting and finance.  In many cases, this approach delivers not only more relevant functionality and process support for the business users, and still allows the accounting professional to do their work with the tools which work for them.

Providing a high level of service to your client while embedding as much efficiency in your processes as possible can be a challenge for any outsourced accounting or bookkeeping professional.  Your profitability and the goodwill you develop with your client depend on finding the best way to engage and deliver on the promise of great service.   Your toolkit  – the connected services and solutions you leverage to this task – can positively impact the “degree of success” you experience with each client or project.

Make Sense?

J

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Changing the Way You Work With Clients | Intuit News Central

What makes one tax return better than another, if they are both accurate?

Many accountants and tax preparers simply don’t recognize the additional value they could deliver to their small business clients, if only they would become more involved at the beginning of the accounting process where the information is generated and collected rather than taking a purely after-the-fact position and reporting only at the end of the cycle. Providing information after it is too late to do anything about it has little value in today’s fast-paced and competitive landscape. Small business owners tend to rely on those who help them; if your professional practice isn’t helping your clients in tangible ways, they will find someone else who does.

 

via Changing the Way You Work With Clients | Intuit News Central.

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You Spent What?! Keeping Tabs on Travel Expenses

You Spent What?! Keeping Tabs on Travel Expenses

In the world of business, it sometimes becomes necessary to travel. Whether it’s sending an employee to your client’s business in the next town or across the globe to make a deal, travel incurs expenses. How do you track those? Usually by painstakingly collecting receipts and keeping a copy of any travel itinerary. That’s an awful lot of paper.

Think about it. You get a receipt every time you make any kind of transaction. Let’s say you stop for gas on the way. You get a receipt. Take your client out for lunch? Receipt. Fly across the country? Another receipt, and an itinerary. It almost becomes necessary to get a folio just for receipts, you get so many. As a matter of fact, many do. Folios, folders, organizers. I’ve seen them all. Not one of them makes compiling the expense report easier. It still requires sorting and entering the data by hand. Such a waste of time. Time better spent on what you really need done. Making money and growing your business. Getting a report on what was spent, where it was spent, and how much to bill or reimburse should be as easy as clicking a couple of buttons. It’s not, but it should be.

Look at it from the other side of things. Let’s say I’m an employee and you’re sending me to Nashville to attend a conference. I’m also supposed to have a “meet n’ greet” with some clients, just to ensure that they’re happy and content. I’m stressed because I have to remember to keep every piece of paper I get on this trip. Plane tickets, rental car, hotel, food for myself, food for the clients. Everything. Not only do I have to keep track of it all but I don’t get compensated until after I get back, and only if I manage to keep all of those receipts.

Making the process easier is the next logical step when it comes to tracking expenses. Finding a way to cut down on the time it takes to compile the report, cut down on the number of receipts kept, or even getting rid of the need to keep the receipts at all. Everything under the sun is online these days. Online and paperless. It’s just easier than keeping a pound of receipt paper in your carry-on. With all of the technology that is readily available on today’s market, shouldn’t it be easier than that? One click should be all it takes. Okay, maybe two. My point is that it shouldn’t be pulling teeth just to keep everything in line and under control.

Which is why Concur is such a good thing. Concur.com has taken the headache out of the entire process. Snap a photo of your receipt with your smartphone and send it using Concur. It filters all of the data and attaches it directly to an expense report. It even integrates with Tripit, which allows you to maintain an up-to-date itinerary and travel management capabilities. Concur even tailors travel options based on company policy and individual preferences. Paperless and painless. Just what the doctor ordered.

Make Sense?

See Concur’s innovative and incredibly useful travel and expense management solutions at Cloud Summit 2012.

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Arrest for Sales Tax Evasion in Tennessee | TaxRates.com

Business owners and CFOs are experiencing a crackdown on tax liability nonpayments. Cash is tight everywhere, and agencies will only increase collection and enforcement efforts – especially when it involves a public trust. Whether it is sales tax or payroll tax, noncompliance can mean a whole lot more than just fines and penalties.

http://wp.me/p2hGOJ-ft

via Arrest for Sales Tax Evasion in Tennessee | TaxRates.com.

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Cash flow troubles can get you in more than just debt: CFOs can be liable for Payroll Tax liability, potentially criminal

Cash flow troubles can get you in more than just debt:

CFOs can be liable for Payroll Tax liability, potentially criminal

With the economy being sluggish and, in some regions, stalled and even worse, a lot of businesses both large and small are feeling the crunch.  Cash isn’t coming easily for anyone, and the cost of running the business and employing workers just keeps going up even if revenues don’t.  Managing cash flow is important when there is cash to manage, but keeping it all going when there isn’t much coming in takes real skill and planning.   Knowing where to cut or limit expenses is essential, but knowing what NOT to forgo when paying the bills can be just as critical if not more so.  You don’t pay the light bill, maybe the lights to out.  You don’t pay payroll taxes, maybe you go to jail.

A recent article on CFO.com discusses the findings where, in cases where payroll taxes were unpaid by the business, specific individuals were held directly and personally responsible for the liability.  And the liability is not contained solely within the walls of the C-level; it may extend to any and all individuals considered to be responsible.   Those who control the purse strings, making the daily decisions on what to and what not to pay, are the folks being identified as responsible for the failure to pay whether they were able to come up with the funds or not.

Responsible individuals, according to the penalty, may include corporate officers, directors, shareholders, bookkeepers and even third parties, such as CPAs, or corporate counsel. In exceptional cases, responsible individuals can have criminal tax liability for failure to pay payroll taxes.
CFO.com (http://s.tt/1p9wf)

To be fair, insufficient funds may seem like a logical reason for not paying payroll taxes. But the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in another case, United States v. Easterday, 564 F.3d 1004 (9th Cir. 2009), determined that Easterday could be convicted of a crime even though he may have been able to prove that his company didn’t have enough funds to pay the payroll taxes.
CFO.com (http://s.tt/1p9wf)

Accounting professionals working with businesses and acting as the Trusted Advisor can help their clients avoid facing this type of decision and risk by helping them to monitor and actively manage their businesses more closely – at an operational as well as financial level. Rather than relying upon a current bank account balance or after-the-fact financial reporting to provide the information for making decisions each day, business owners need continuous, real time, actionable data to help them keep the business going forward, and to help keep them out of trouble.

With better information, trend analysis and a little forecasting, accounting services and consultative advice from a trusted accounting professional does not simply help the business stay in business, it could help prevent the business owner, CFO or controller from having to wear an unfashionable orange jumpsuit and shackles.

Make Sense?

J

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