However, you can still have the benefits of pro-active bookkeeping by submitting your books and having them brought up to date now!  In a few months, we will be closing out the 2011 year and thus you will miss out on a variety of tax planning implementations as well as proactive ways to save on expenses!

Do not hesitate, you can not make sound business decisions without knowing your bottom line and what your numbers mean!  Start this fall off with a clean set of books and an education that will last a lifetime in your business!  There is a reason multi-million dollar corporations have extensive accounting departments.  They rely on their numbers to Plan, Manage and Grow!!

FBZ Accounting Solutions is here to help the small business owner achieve the same results as a multi-million dollar corporation.

Our friendly and highly skilled staff is here to assist you with all of your accounting and bookkeeping needs!

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!

But what about your business?  Do you have a business budget or do you just take it as it comes?  Do you spend your expense funds appropriately getting the most results for the amount of money you spend or just kind of throw money where it seems to be needed at the time?

Well frankly, it’s a risky road to take and an unnecessary risk not to budget your business.  Funds are tight with small businesses, we don’t have the big corporate budget we’d all like to have, necessary expenses like administrative assistance, bookkeeping, general office overhead, telephone lines, website expenses, travel expenses, networking expenses, meals and entertainment, promotion and advertising are just some of the areas that you may very well wish you had a better grasp on financially!

What is the acceptable amount to spend in each of these expense areas?  What goals are you trying to achieve by paying for these daily expenses?  “How’s it working for you?”

By creating an annual and monthly budget, you truly keep your business spending more in line with your actual goals.   An obvious goal would be to eliminate the unnecessary spending, but in order to do that we must first analyze where and how you are spending your funds.

QuickBooks and some other accounting programs actually provide a module allowing us to put the budget in for you so that you can compare it to your Income Statement (Profit & Loss) and the rest of your financial statements so that you can see how much of your budget you have used to date, how much you have left to spend and are you in line with what was set out for your spending?  If you are over spending, we can analyze why you are spending more than previously allotted. Has your business grown and thus you are incurring higher overhead expenses?

Budgeting also allows us to further plan for growth within your business and the meeting of financial goals!  The end result always being to increase profitability and get the most “bang for your buck”.  We look into your previous spending habits,needs and wants and start building a budget from there!  We also sit down and consider plans and the goals of the business to make sure we maximize the spending so it profits your business!

Be a smart business owner and as we approach 2011 make it a goal to prepare a budget for the upcoming year.  For assistance, please do not hesitate to contact FAYEZBOOKKEEPING and we will be delighted to sit down,prepare one with you and help you keep your business spending in line!

We truly are your partner in financial management and growth!

One thing that I noticed in several consultations throughout my career is small business interviewing skills. When we meet, I certainly expect you to ask me questions and to ask for references which we are always happy to give. Something that never ceases to amaze and discourage me is some of the interview questions I am asked which is why I am adding to my blog and sharing some tips with you the business owner.

It is not the best idea to ask yes or no questions and in fact, I do not expect that the owner would know everything about what it is that we do. However, asking simple questions such as do you know how to do this or that does not lend itself to a proper answer, and most importantly, it does not tell the owner whether or not that individual is qualified.

If you ask me if I know how to log a general journal entry, my response will be, yes! Now, I certainly will take the opportunity to expand on this and tell you how I would do it, but again, that does not tell you if I am a qualified bookkeeper.

Tip #1: Get your bookkeeper referrals from people who have been happy with their bookkeeper for some time. Do you know these individuals in business and how are they qualified to tell if they have a good or a bad bookkeeper? Have they been with that bookkeeper for any amount of time and has their Accountant made any mention of the bookkeeper or the state the books are in when they have been submitted.

Tip #2: Get a referral from your Accountant. Chances are she or he knows someone who is qualified that they have worked with for some time and they know their work. You cannot expect the Accountant to guarantee the work, but you can ask for a recommendation!

Tip #3: Ask your Accountant for some questions to ask your bookkeeper when interviewing them. Ask them for the answers as well as an explanation of what they are speaking of so that you understand and can determine whether or not we know what we are truly talking about. Ask your Accountant for specific questions in relation to your industry. There are little hidden things we should all know about different businesses. Law offices are different from retail stores, farms are different than an accounting firm. But Why?

Tip #4: Call the references! Everyone tells us to do this, but often in a state of hurry, we do not. Check them out! A bad bookkeeper can cost you a lot of money with no legal recourse!

Tip #5: In your first year with a bookkeeper, do not hesitate to ask your Accountant to review the books midway through the year. This could save you a huge expense! There could be unfinished work, however, if the majority of the work is clean, the Accountant will be able to tell you this! It’s worth the price of a review as you want to build a long term relationship with your bookkeeper! If you have a bad egg, better to find out now than at tax time deadline!

Tip #6: Call FBZ Accounting Solutions, we are qualified bookkeepers who care about the best interests of our clients over our own! We have references and referral sources as well as excellent qualifications!