As business owners, we may be so busy making sure the bills get paid and the product gets out the door that we may not be quite as proactive about our own compensation. To pay themselves, many new business owners take what’s left after employees and vendors have been paid, and that ends up being their paycheck. I’d like to propose a whole new way: entrepreneurs should be paid three times, once for what they do, second for … [Read more...]
Planning for an Awesome 2013
For businesses with fiscal years that coincide with the calendar year, the slate of revenues and expenses will be wiped clean on New Year’s Day. Starting with a clean slate gives us a chance to reflect on our 2012 results before we enter 2013 and experience the hope that comes with a new year. Hindsight is always valuable, and we can learn important lessons from our past mistakes that we can now more objectively look back … [Read more...]
Five Hidden Talents of Your Accountant
When you think of an accountant’s duties, you might think about traditional tasks, such as tax preparation, bookkeeping, and financial statement preparation. Here are five additional tasks that accountants can help with that you might not think of. 1. Evaluating Current Accounting Employees How can you know if your accounting employee is a star that does everything right, is organized, and is fast or if you’ve accidentally … [Read more...]
Seven Year-End Adjustments to Make to Your Books
Year-end is coming up for many businesses, and it’d be nice to know what your final revenue and profit numbers will be for the year. Before we can calculate these key numbers, there are year-end adjustments that may need to be made to your books that will change the numbers. Here are seven common ones. Bonuses It’s great to give bonuses to employees at year-end, but it’s not so great to forget about the tax part of it. … [Read more...]
Five Things You Can Do to Make Tax Season Smoother
We know we’ll never make tax season your favorite time of year, but perhaps we can make it easier. Here are five things you can do now to smooth out the time required to pull your records together for your tax preparer. 1. Contractor Clean-up In preparation for 1099s, take a look at your vendor list now and identify who should receive a 1099. Perform a mini-audit and ask for any W-9s that are missing so you can plug in … [Read more...]
