In my field of Accounting and Bookkeeping and especially at this time of the year, I see a lot of last minute, hurried small business owner’s asking that we do their fiscal bookkeeping for the upcoming tax season. Our answer, of course we will! We are here to serve. But when meeting with our hurried business owners, I always pose the question is there a specific reason why you do not take care of your books monthly, quarterly or even semi-annually?
This is not an accusatory question, rather curiosity and a desire to help business owners achieve their financial and business related goals. Sometimes the answer to that question is, I can’t afford it, I’m busy and just don’t have time to deal with it, I had to compile my information and never got around to it, I don’t think it’s necessary.
My friends in business, I would like to propose another frame of mind.
Even if you have small books. It is cheaper, faster and easier if you keep up with them at least quarterly if not monthly. Why you may ask?
Answer #1: Many of my business owners are in a state of chaos, not that they are unorganized individuals, but rather, by nature and necessity, they are 20 places at once and pulled in a multitude of directions. They are the masters of multi-tasking, but even the masters need help and support. If the support staff is not there to assist them in their financial organization, papers, receipts and important invoices are misplaced. We can certainly allocate these items for you if you cannot find them, however, in an audit, Canada Revenue Agency would disallow the expense and thus you would have to pay them back for this expense whether or not it was legitimate.
The other answer to this is you waste precious time hunting things down, whereas had you dealt with them on a monthly basis, you would find out right away if something was missing and it would be much more manageable. It also allows offices such as mine to sort the information quickly and thus save you money rather taking the time to really split things out monthly or by category!
Answer #2: My office or one like mine has a question for you and now you have to remember back one, two, three or even more months ago to the time you incurred the expense, again this is not something you as a business owner want to be doing and we are here to help, itis simply easier to get it in fast and have it dealt with fast!
Answer #3: If you don’t know your bottom line and unfortunately if you don’t keep up with your bookkeeping and accounting records, you may be sadly be surprised how far off you are in relation toyour profits and losses as well as the net worth of your business. A lot of business owners believe they “know where they are at” and when shown differently are quite surprised. How can you plan for the future, if you don’t know where you are today?
Answer #4: Important deadlines are missed, HST remittances, Payroll remittances, WSIB remittances,even money saving tax planning strategies are missed and what a shame, now ontop of getting your accounting matters in order, you will be submitted to unnecessary penalties and interest an expense we would all rather avoid if possible! You also will have a multitude of bills to contend with apart from these remittances in attempting to gather the information all at once.
Answer #5: The business owner needs a business loan from the bank and they (the bank) have asked for Financial Statements (to see if you can handle the loan) and the business owner is in a panic as they don’t have the financial statements to present to the bank and now we are waiting for money and desperately hoping our financial guru’s have the time to compile this material overnight!
This all sounds terribly unnecessary, traumatic and rushed and it is! Take the worry out of your business financial life and hand this stuff over to the professionals on a monthly basis and this will not be you. Even if you are a very small business owner just starting out, it is easier to handle financially in small increments rather than in one large bill and you get the benefits of the big business owners which you will soon be!
At FBZ Accounting Solutions located in Barrie, Ontario we are able to handle your monthly bookkeeping and accounting needs and take this stress off of your back allowing you to sleep at night without having missed opportunities or scrambling at the last minute! Call us and we’d be happy to show how we can allow you the business owner to focus on doing what is most important to you! Growing your business in the area that you are passionate about and the expert on!