Here are nine reasons why it’s important for businesses to have good financial recordkeeping systems. Use one, two or all of them with your next potential new client. Whether your potential client is devising or revising their bookkeeping routine, remind them that the purpose of your bookkeeping business is to help them manage their business tasks.

#1 Reason for Retaining Bookkeeping Services: Monitor the Financial Success or Failure of Your Business
It’s hard to know where you are going if you don’t know where you’ve been. The same is true with your business – it’s hard to know how your business is doing without a clear financial picture. A good financial system provides answers to the questions: Am I making money? Are sales increasing? How do expenditures compare to sales?

#2 Reason for Retaining Bookkeeping Services: Provides the Information You Need to Make Decisions
Evaluating financial consequences should be part of every business decision. Without accurate records and financial information, it’s difficult to forecast the impact of any given course of action. For example, financial information gives insight as to whether or not it pays to hire another salesperson. Accurate records reveal the profitability of any line item.

#3 Reason for Retaining Bookkeeping Services: Obtain Bank Financing
The best time to seek financing is when you don’t need it. The bank will want to see your income statement, balance sheet and tax returns for the most current and prior years, as well as projected statements showing the impact of the requested loan.

#4 Reason for Retaining Bookkeeping Services: Obtain Other Sources of Capital
If your business has reached the point where you need to take in a partner or investor, any prospective associate will want to become intimately familiar with your financial picture. Suppliers and other creditors may also ask for certain financial records. The source of this information is based on your day-to-day recordkeeping.

#5 Reason for Retaining Bookkeeping Services: Prepare a Budget
All businesses should use budgets for planning purposes. Budgets keep businesses on track by forecasting cash needs and controlling expenditures. When companies seek financing, bankers or prospective investors look for budgets as evidence of planning and stability.

#6 Reason for Retaining Bookkeeping Services: Prepare Your Income Tax Return
No matter what your business entity, you must file an income tax return and pay income taxes. With good records, preparing an accurate tax return will be easier and filing will more likely be done on time. Poor recordkeeping may result in underpayment or overpayment of your taxes. If your CPA prepares your tax return, poor records could result in higher accounting costs.

#7 Reason for Retaining Bookkeeping Services: Comply with Federal and State Payroll Tax Rules
If you have employees, you are aware of the myriad of rules and regulations relating to payroll taxes. Payroll tax must be deposited according to strict deadlines. Late payments of payroll taxes result in severe penalties, including jail time!

Payroll tax returns must be filed quarterly, and must reconcile with payroll deposits made during the quarter. At year end, you’re required to give employees and the government W-2 forms, which must agree with your quarterly payroll returns. Sound bookkeeping practices, even if you use a payroll processor, will make compliance with payroll rules easy. Poor records will make it impossible.

#8 Reason for Retaining Bookkeeping Services: Submit Sales Taxes
If you collect sales tax, good records make it easy for you to compute the tax due and prepare the required reports. Sales tax must be deposited according to strict deadlines. Late payment of sales taxes can result in severe and unnecessary penalties and interest.

#9 Reason for Retaining Bookkeeping Services: Distribute Profits
If your business is a partnership, you will need good records to determine the correct amount of profits to distribute to each partner. If you’re operating as a corporation, profits that you’ll be paying out as dividends to the shareholders must be determined.

Author Laurie O’Neil

Bookkeeping and account reconciliation are both tedious and repetitive tasks that a business must complete on a regular basis. In order to accurately enter and categorize a business’s transactions, it is important that a bookkeeper have a proficient knowledge of QuickBooks and industry terms. In order to accomplish this bookkeeping and reconciliation work, most companies employee a full-time bookkeeper or have an in-house accounting department to complete the work.

Employing bookkeeping staff is an extremely costly venture. The costs of employing this staff include payroll, benefits, worker’s compensation, unemployment insurance, and the expended time and energy necessary to train an employee. In the event that the bookkeeper leaves your business, there will be an additional need for time and funding to train another person.

More and more businesses are now relying on outsource bookkeeping providers to conduct bookkeeping and reconciliation duties. By employing outsourced bookkeepers, a business can save both time and money. Not only are most of these service providers extremely affordable, but they also eliminate the expenditures necessary for payroll, benefits, insurance, and training. Outsource bookkeepers also save space in that they generally work remotely and will not take up valuable office space, as an internal bookkeeper would.

Most in-house accounting departments are not nearly as productive as outsource companies. Outsource bookkeepers conduct bookkeeping and reconciliation duties at all times and are experts in their field, as well as in using their bookkeeping software of choice. In the case of small to medium sized businesses, bookkeepers have many responsibilities and bookkeeping does not take up the entirety of their day. Therefore, outside service providers are able to find shortcuts and time-saving techniques that an in-house accounting team may not have the time or expertise to find. Many outsource bookkeepers also offer money-back guarantees to ensure that you are completely satisfied with the services that they have provided.

Completing year end 1099s and tax returns is also a monotonous, specialized task. Training a new employee in this field can be extremely costly and time consuming. Along with needing to understand the specific software involved, employees will also need to understand the specific tax forms and requirements, along with an array of confusing terms. It is also crucial that the information on these tax forms is completely accurate. When employing outsourced bookkeepers, they have the time and patience to look over everything to ensure that it is completely correct.

Many outsource bookkeepers also provide an array of other services to help save your company time, money, and frustration. To save money and provide your company with the necessary time to focus on more important business matters, consider employing outsource bookkeeping services.

About the Author Art Gib:
Outsourcing bookkeeping to an outside service provider who is an independent contractor is a better solution.

 To succeed in business, accurate and timely financial records are vital. They can help you determine if the business is making money or losing money. Your financial records indicate if your business is financially sound or if adjustments need to be made. Outsourcing your bookkeeping can improve both the accuracy of your financial records and minimize your expenses.

To determine if outsourcing is the best choice for you, consider:

* How much time (time equals money) do you spend doing your bookkeeping?

* Are your financial records accurate and in good order (or do you have a shoe box full of canceled check and receipts)?

You can save time (therefore, money) and get orderly financial records by outsourcing your bookkeeping tasks.

Bookkeeping services can usually do your bookkeeping much cheaper and more quickly than you. Hourly bookkeeping rates generally range starting around $25 per hour. Your total monthly bookkeeping charge depends on the type of services you request and the financial records you provide. A copy of a neat and orderly check register will require less work (versus the shoe box of receipts) and lower your costs significantly. You should be able to get accurate and timely financial information from bookkeeping service for less than $200 a month.

Outsourcing your bookkeeping will also reduce your tax return preparation fees since orderly financial records make preparing a tax return

For a company who wants to reduce costs, outsource bookkeeping companies are heaven-sent. Outsourcing bookkeeping has become the trend for small and medium sized businesses. Such practice guarantees great savings in accounting costs. Outsourcing bookkeeping allows the company to pay either an hourly rate, or a one-time fee as the service is required instead of paying for a fixed cost for salaries and wages. It has become the best solution for small and medium business as well as large companies who wants to reduce cost.

But cost reduction is not the only benefit of outsourcing bookkeeping. There are also many other benefits that make outsourcing bookkeeping very reasonable. Here are the added benefits of outsourcing bookkeeping:

1. Focus on core activities. – This is considered to be the most important reason why outsourcing is popular among small and medium businesses. Business owners will have all their time to focus on developing the business and not be bothered by the things that are not in their line of expertise like bookkeeping. Without having to worry about the financial records, they will havesome mental relaxation hereby conditioning their minds to innovate and make better decisions.

2. Expert services. – Outsource bookkeepers give expert and more professional service than in-house bookkeepers. It is believed that the reason for this is that in-house bookkeepers have the security of tenure unlike outsource bookkeeping companies who have a lot of competitors. Thus, in terms of performance, outsource bookkeeping companies is always motivated with the goal to maintain a competitive edge to stay and be popular in the business.

3. Less paper work. – This is in the aspect of corporate social responsibility. Outsourcing means more computerized works thereby contributing in saving paper. Reports are not presented in printed format at all times for they usually communicate reports and do the work online.

4. Reduced administrative burdens. – In terms of employee issues, this is the greatest benefit in outsourcing. There will be no need to spend revenues in hiring and training potential employees. There is no worry about succession plan, retention plans and employee work descriptions. In addition, no compliance to government authorities relating to employees. The bookkeeping service company is the one responsible for the bookkeepers they provide or assigned to their client.

5. Better use of office space. – Without having to maintain an accounting department means more office space. The business owner can either use this area for more revenue generation or h can save on the rent.

6. Less year-end issues. – Outsource companies guarantee a no-delay presentation or submission of reports. There will be no need of over-time and last hour rush during deadlines or tax season. Outsource bookkeepers work on a daily basis eliminating pending work issues.

7. More employee motivation. – Outsourcing bookkeeping eliminates disputes between accounting department and other departments. There will be no issues on salaries and overtimes which are being handled by the accounting department and which is often a big issue. If the payroll is being handled by a more professional firm rather than by the few in-house bookkeepers, there is an increased transparency – an effective way to motivate employees.

With all the added benefits, outsourcing bookkeeping NY function is more effective than having one permanently in the office. Ponder on this and start searching bookkeepers Manhattan in the web to find trusted and reliable bookkeeping outsource companies like NYC Bookkeepers.

About the Author Stephen Thompson is a businessman. He writes for bookkeeping NY. He agrees that bookkeeping NY is the answer to all your bookkeeping and accounting needs.

In fact, it’s one of the key steps in building a good, and more importantly, successful business. Accurate bookkeeping makes it possible for a business owner to determine the exact financial condition of his company. More significantly, accurate bookkeeping for small to medium size businesses is often the first step in being able to compete in the realm of top competitors in an ever changing market place.

Large companies have the resources to form an internal accounting department to do the books, which gives management enough time to do the more important parts of business management like formulating marketing strategies and creating new networks. But for small to medium-size businesses that have a limited budget and number of staff members, bookkeeping just seems like such a daunting task, especially if you add it to the list of other duties to keep everything running. Fortunately, business bookkeeping doesn’t have to be so grueling anymore. Outsource bookkeeping services are available and are quite affordable. This cheap yet effective means of bookkeeping provides the same efficiency and accuracy a private accounting firm gives its clients. Outsource bookkeeping is a practical way for small to medium-size businesses to get where they want to be, when they want to. It’s like professional bookkeeping made to-go!

Outsource bookkeeping gives the small to medium-size business owner the same standard set of bookkeeping reports a big company would get from an accounting firm. A basic bookkeeping report, when done correctly, should be able to answer these questions:

1. How much income are you generating every month, and how much will you be expecting in the future?

2. How much cash is under your list of receivables and when will they turn to actual cash.

3. Which of your product lines or services are bringing in the most amount of profit, breaking even, and/or draining your resources?

4. How does the data compare with last year or the last quarter?

5. How does the data compare with projections?

6. How does all this information compare with the competition? Are you leading or falling behind?

Providing precise answers to these questions is possible through the “outsourced bookkeeping” advantage of foreseeing the things that matter most for the thriving and successful business. Professional outsource bookkeeping will help you monitor the progress of your business, prepare necessary financial statements for end-of-the-month reports, identify receipt sources so you can separate business from non-business ones, keep track of deductible expenses, and help your CPA prepare your tax returns. This cheap yet efficient way of bookkeeping will also allow you to fulfill your checklist for a well managed company. You’ll be able to put a check on items such as:

• Increased profitability
• Efficient operations
• Properly categorized business assets, liabilities, income and expenses
• Clean tax record
• Good relations with my banker
• Satisfy the IRS

Once you put a check mark on these factors, then you’ll always be able to stay on top of the game. All this with a simple change to a fast and efficient outsource bookkeeping firm. In addition to all the above listed benefits of outsource bookkeeping, you’ll also be a step ahead in making your cash flow plans so you know exactly where you stand on a daily, monthly, and yearly basis. This way, you’ll have a more precise map of which direction to take in the future. Change over to an outsource bookkeeping service and start focusing on what matters. Why not take advantage of outsource bookkeeping?

About the Author: Mr. Aniceto Castro of Right My Books.com Bookkeeping Service is located at 3651 Lindell Rd. Ste D228 Las Vegas, NV 89103. His number is 866-873-0626 and his email is info@rightmybooks.com.

Small business owners and professionals are discovering that outsourcing your bookkeeping saves payroll, overhead cost and it’s a giant step in freeing up valuable time. For many owners, just the effort of hiring, training and managing a bookkeeper can take as much as 5 hours a week and if you’re doing the books yourself the numbers are even worse. As a business owner your time is best spent doing what you do well – working with customers.

There is a common misconception that an owner will lose control if they outsource the bookkeeping. In a properly designed system an outsource bookkeeping service only takes over the process of tracking transactions such as sales, accounts payable and balancing the books. The business owner makes all the management decisions and is the final word on who gets paid and when.

If you have great books or pretty sloppy books for the most part your customers never know. A generally accepted rule in business is to focus resources on tasks that add value to the customer relationship. Time spent on bookkeeping problems add little or no value to your customer relationship. Yet, books that are inaccurate or do not reflect the true health of your business provide no clue to managing your business. Being clueless at any level about where you are making money or who is a good customer is not being in control. Cash flow is never a problem in business it is a symptom of other problems, an outsourced bookkeeper can provide the answers and you will end up with more control of your business.

By outsourcing you solve the problem of hiring. Good bookkeepers with knowledge of accounting software are hard to hire, expensive to keep and in some cases difficult to manage. Your outsource bookkeeping service controls the hiring process and your work is handled by a team so that if one person leaves you will not suffer an interruption of service. Because of new technology advances you now have the same alternative as Fortune 500 firms. Thirty five percent of America’s largest businesses outsource their bookkeeping.

New technology makes this possible. The acceptance and use of QuickBooks software allows the outsourced bookkeeper to ‘reach’ into your computer and do the accounting tasks from their office. The owner in turn can use QuickBooks to look at their books at any time from any connected laptop or computer. This allows the business owner to review in real time the progress of their operation at home or on the road. Some owners log onto their QuickBooks file and review the business health and progress daily rather than waiting a month for financials.

In most cases outsourcing will save you money as well. The most common pricing structure for outsourced bookkeeping is to charge 10% to 20% less than the current bookkeeper’s salary. Not only do you save on salary but also you have no overhead, management, hiring or training cost when using an outsourced service. The overall annual savings can be up to 50%.

The reason an outsource bookkeeping service is able to take over an existing process and deliver it back more cheaply is due to leverage, the most common of which is economy of scale. If the supplier does not have to significantly alter the way its current business function is set up and standardization has occurred, the opportunity for both supplier and buyer to benefit is great.

Technological advances have taken the cycle times in a business from several months to several hours, and our competitors no longer have geological restrictions or the hindrance of large bureaucracies. To remain competitive, it is imperative that a company rethinks its strategies, take a hard look at where they are creating value for their customers, then focus on those processes. The most successful businesses of today have gone to outsourcing and now have time and money to spend on differentiating themselves in the marketplace.

The most common reasons management chooses to outsource certain business processes are to reduce operating costs, improve company focus, improve quality, free up capital, increase capabilities not otherwise available to reduce cycle time. If a buyer cannot receive an improved economic position as a result, then it should not outsource.

The decision to outsource can be an easy one. If there is a company or individual that can do it better, faster, and cheaper than you, then you do not want to keep the work in house. Outsourcing has become an accepted business tool worldwide. By turning over business processes to companies that consider these tasks their core competency, organizations now have the ability to become more profitable, more efficient and far more competitive by focusing on the tasks that are most important.

About the author: Thomas M. Begley is a practicing CPA located at 66 Schwartz Road in Akron Ohio 44319. His phone number is 330-773-8001 and his email is tbegley1@gmail.com