Accounting Information
 
 
March 2008

Top 7 Strategies for Writing Accounting Procedures

You have permission to publish this article free of charge, as long as the resource box is included with the article. If you do run my article, a courtesy reply to sean@bizmanualz.com would be greatly appreciated. This article is 909 words long including the resource box. Thanks for your interest.

Part Two of Cash to Cash Cycle Series

Part One: http://www.bizmanualz.com/articles/01-05-05_inventory_procedures.html/?ART78

Next Week: Sales

We’ve already found $250,000…so let’s find another $250,000…

Laying the Foundation

Last week, we raised the question: what would your business do with $1,000,000? To lay the foundation we introduced inventory as the first of four areas that will lead toward our million dollar goal. And you saw exactly how to achieve the first $250,000 in cash savings by avoiding delays with an increase in velocity, as well as an increase in discipline and competency. But how exactly? With time – as you saw with inventory and as you’ll see this week. Read the rest of this entry »

 
 
March 2008

mmaterial Values in Business Management

Article Title: I
Author: Stephan Szugat
Word Count: 915

mmaterial Values in Business Management

Maybe you have already heard that in some ways immaterial values are important for business management. But you might not found how to bring them into your management processes or into your reporting packages. However, first of all we should be clear, what immaterial values are? Well, this includes the balance sheet information about intangible assets, but is going far behind it.
As we all know, decisions are mostly based on feelings or emotions, than on logical judgement. A feeling is an energy. Energy is not material, it is immaterial. The overall emotions or motivation of employees in a business is a immaterial value, it could have positive and negative impact on the business development. Does sound very esoterical for you? Might be, but today we know that our emotions drive a lot of our life. Read the rest of this entry »

 
 
January 2008

HOW TO STAY FOCUSSED AND BUILD YOUR BUSINESS

You have a detailed business plan, which showed the overall intent of your company. You presented the business plan to your bank before start-up and they submitted funding in the amount that you both deemed acceptable. The original business plan contained the basis of the procedures that will help you stay focussed while the company grows. Let’s examine some of these processes that you will use to give your business the focus it needs to grow and succeed.

1. A marketing plan. If sales are a part of your operation (and it seems that some form of selling is always a big part of every company), then, you will need to have your sales group focussed on a marketing plan. Short term and longer-term analysis should be a part of this planning and will likely contain an analysis of your competition, market potential and sales projections. Read the rest of this entry »

 
 
January 2008

Outside The Box

Thinking “outside the box” or as it is sometimes called, “coloring outside the lines” is a popular idea in the business world today. People and organizations are told to think outside the box or color outside the lines as a way to stimulate creativity when they need to solve problems like streamlining production, establishing a new product, or developing a new process. And it’s true that creativity and innovation often arise from unexpected and unconventional thinking.

But there is a serious problem with trying to apply such thinking too broadly.

For instance, creativity is valued in art and advertising, but not in banking and accounting. An accounting firm recently ran an ad suggesting that it could think “outside the box.” Do you really want your business to be associated with creative accounting? Aren’t accountants supposed to put the numbers in the right box? Wasn’t creative accounting a serious problem for Enron? Read the rest of this entry »

 
 
January 2008

3 Essential Tools for Starting and Maintaining a Small Business

We believe that there are 3 factors that drive the success of small businesses.

1) Acquiring start-up capital
2) Finding customers
3) Accounting for, budgeting and controlling sales and expenses

The following resources will help your small business achieve these success factors.

Acquiring Start-Up Capital Read the rest of this entry »

 
 
January 2008

Understanding Depreciation: It May Be More Simple Than You Think

Depreciation is defined as a portion of the cost that reflects the use of a fixed asset during an accounting period. A fixed asset is an item that has a useful life of over one year. An accounting period is usually a month, quarter, six months or one year. Let’s say you bought a desk for your office on January 1, for $1000 and it was determined that the desk had a useful life of seven years. Using a one year accounting period and the “straight-line” method of depreciation, the portion of the cost to be depreciated would be one-seventh of $1000, or $142.86.

Most non-accountants roll their eyes and shudder when the topic of “depreciation” comes up. This is where the line in the sand is drawn. Read the rest of this entry »

 
 
January 2008

Explode Your Consulting Income

Here are just a few ways to increase and diversify your
income from your consulting business.

1. Sell More Services to Your Existing Clients

Instead of spending all that time and money trying to get
new business, why not try to sell more services to your
existing client base?

If you are an accounting and tax consulting firm, for
example, you likely have clients who need some assistance
in their record keeping and documentation. Read the rest of this entry »

 
 
January 2008

What Software Do You Need For Your Small Business

When running a small business there can be several jobs and
tasks to take care of. Obviously knowing where the money is
coming from and going is essential to running your business.
That’s why it is good to find out which small business
accounting software is best for you to help you run a well
organized and efficient small business.

There are hundreds to thousands of small business accounting
software out there to help you with reports and tools needed to
use your financial data. Depending on the one you go with will
depend on how much you’re going to pay for it. The more you
pay, the more accessories and programs there will be that come
with it. Some come with a billing and time module, various
amounts of financial and management reports, and more. Read the rest of this entry »

 
 
November 2007

Internal Control: A Preventive Maintenance Program

You read about this in every newspaper in every town in the entire country: Some bookkeeper, trusted by the owner of a small business, embezzles thousands of dollars. If the theft doesn’t put owner out of business, it certainly causes a major headache.

The reason we hear of these cases so often is that, in a small business, there may only be the owner and a bookkeeper. The owner doesn’t like doing the books, doesn’t understand them, and relies on this one person to take care of things. The bookkeeper, who is usually having personal financial difficulties, takes a small amount of money intending to pay it back. No one seems to notice, so more is taken. Over a period of time, it starts to mount up to a lot of money. Read the rest of this entry »

 
 
November 2007

How to Stop Waste, Fraud and Abuse

Each year, businesses write-off six percent of revenue to waste, fraud and abuse. But why would managers throw all that hard-earned money away when there is a reliable way to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse using accounting policies & procedures to create internal controls. Internal controls eliminate uncollectible receivables; prevent theft or embezzlement; optimize inventory; and stop waste, fraud, and abuse. Utilizing just a single control will add real money to your bottom line each month.

Look for Easily Customizable MS-WORD files to Save Time

You can quickly and easily develop customized procedures and internal controls for your organization, no matter what size it is. WORD templates reduce the stress of writing clear internal controls, policies or procedures; of staying late at the office to research “best practices” or of worrying over what format to use. Read the rest of this entry »