Have you prepared all year for tax time? Organization is the key to avoiding Tax Time Crunch.
We all know that time of year willcome! Yes, Tax Time! Many of uswill be gritting our teeth atthe sound of those words. With being business owners, weall find ourselves spending alot of time in the beginning ofthe year gathering receipts, andpreparing the financial statementsfor the previous year to completethe taxes and year end.
My business has grown substantiallyover the last few years and thismakes the year end even larger toprepare and so many details toattend to. Thank goodness for ouraccountant and the knowledge theycan provide us with! Even with anaccountant, we have found the morethat you can do yourself the lessthe accountant has to do. Thisthen does save $$ but does itreally in the end?
We all know that time is money. With year ends, financialstatements, tax returns andcalculation of tax payable; thelarger the company, the largeramount of details that need tobe considered, reviewed andprocessed. Accountants thatdeal with businesses and/orinternet companies have knowledgeand are trained for this area. Tax laws change almost daily,and they are up to date on thesechanges. They truly can save youtime and money if you are prepared.
The best advice I can give anyone,is to make sure you are preparedand organized throughout the year. Do not wait until January to startgathering your receipts. If you haveyour balance sheets done, expenses/income accounted for each and everymonth, this will save you time whenit comes to the preparation work foryour year end. There are many handyprograms now that will help you dothis as well. Enter in your daily/weekly income/expense receipts intoan accounting software, balance yourbooks each month and at the end ofthe year, all you need to do is printout these statements and send themoff to your accountant OR use thisinformation yourself to prepare yourtax returns.
A popular accounting software programis QuickBooks, which is available forUS companies and does offer a freetrial. http://www.quickbooks.com/ This programis not inexpensive, but when it comesto time and preparing your income/expenses it could save you $$ in theend. Another great thing about Quick-Books is that a lot of the onlinepayment processors offer a Quick-Books download of your financialtransactions. By using this andimporting it into your accountingsoftware, you are able to prepareyour monthly statements quitequickly and also with less errors.
Another popular accounting softwareused in Canada is Simply Accounting.http://www.simplyaccounting.com/ce/products/simply.aspThis powerful software is used bymost Canadian accountants, is easyto learn and use and powerfulfeatures for all your accounting needs.
NetSuite offers an integrated onlineaccounting application with ecommerce,sales, inventory, shipping and support. Free Trial is available http://www.netsuite.com/
An easy to use accounting system thatprovides a total business solution tosmall and medium sized companies. Thisis a free accounting software system.http://www.enablecomputing.com/index.jsp
It's a slick little bookkeeping programthat tracks the ins and outs of yourmoney without all the bells andwhistles. Big E-Z has lots of coolprogramming that makes good useof your Excel program. It doesn'tmatter what your skill level is--anyone can use it. And it's soaffordable--it's almost free!http://www.bigez.com/
If you are just starting out with yourbusiness and can not justify spending$$ on accounting software or want touse a very simple system, using Excelspreadsheets is a fairly easy andinexpensive way to organize yourincome/expenses. If you were to do asearch on Google for "accountingspreadsheet template" you will bepresented with many spreadsheettemplates, which will assist you withthe proper format of your financialdocuments. All that is needed is foryou to customize the accounts andfields for your own company, thenstart inputting your financialtransactions into it.
Here are just a few I havefound through my searches:
http://www.exinfm.com/free_spreadsheets.htmlhttp://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/templates/CT011377021033.asphttp://www.excelbusinesstools.com/solutions.asp?q=Accounting&l=1http://www.itssimple.biz/biz_tools/tools/trialb_m.htmlhttp://www.sbsbusinessservices.com/download_page.htmhttp://www.ozgrid.com/Services/profit-loss-spreadsheet.htm
If you are using an accountant foryour year end preparation, it is agood idea to check with them to seewhat type of accounting system willwork best for both of you. They mayhave some good suggestions and letyou know what software they are ableto work with.
Organization throughout the year willsave you frustration and time anddefinitely money when it comes totax time. We all know Organizationis the key to any successful business! When you are organized, it frees upmore of your precious time, whichthen can be used productively ingrowing your business
Is there a REAL person on the Receiving End of your email
Email Correspondance between customers and companies is getting harder and harder with each passing day. This is due to the filtering done by email account services and it makes it harder for the customers to receive the responses they require. There are a few steps a business and also a customer can take to minimize this issue.
Scammed - To be or Not to be!
There are steps each person can take to minimize being taken by a scam. Research is key when looking to become a customer of a company. By doing your research you can get a clear outlook on the company and if you should do business with them.
Is YOUR Password SECURE?
Doing any kind of business or shopping on the internet we are required to set a password for the accounts we use. When was the last time you reviewed these passwords? Are they secure? Can they be easily guessed? There are steps you can take to ensure your accounts are secure which mainly is your password used.
