Let’s, figure out where are you?  How…list what you know:

 What does each product or service cost you?

How much profit margin do you have on each product?

What is your overhead (technology, rent, employees, etc.)?

What is your average monthly cash flow and expenses?

Is your cashflow seasonal?

How much inventory do you carry at any one time?

Many of you will have your financial information in your head.  More times than not this is the true story…but what if it is not?  What if the numbers show another story?

What tools do you need to be intimate with these figures:

You will need one place to collect all of the companies financial details.  That can be as simple as a ledger book, an excel spreadsheet or a software such as QuickBooks.  Once the details are input you will be able to extract the following reports.

                Basic Income Statement (http://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/incomestatement.asp)

                       An income statement or financial statement measures a company’s financial performance over a specific accounting period by summarizing the revenue less expenses perfomance. It also shows the net profit or loss incurred over a specific accounting period, typically over a fiscal quarter or year.              

                Income by customer/type

                   When recording sales in your accounts receivable you will group them by type (groups); customer, cash, credit card etc.  By breaking them into groups you can run reports helping you recognize cash flow by customer and type of sale.  Let’s take an example… you have a customer that you spend a lot of time working with, however, they do not purchase as much from you as let’s say another customer.  You may choose not to work with the customer that consumes your time but look to attract more customers that purchase the higher profitable product with less work.

                Expenses by vendors/type of expense

                    When recording your expenses either in accounts payable (accrual basis) or as you pay your expenses (cash basis) you will want to monitor them by the vendors who provide the product or service to you.  This may help you negotiate a price break or a better delivery time.  When negotiating, review your vendor history, what have spent with them over the last several months/years?  Also you may plan to increase your volume by ___% over the next 12 months – with that in mind they may consider favorable pricing for you.  You might even consider or offer that you use them exclusively.

                 Standard Balance Sheet (http://www.investopedia.com/articles/04/031004.asp)

Assets = Liabilities + Shareholders’ Equity

•  Assets – checking account, inventory, accounts receivable
• Liabilities – Bank loans, accounts payable, credit cards
• Shareholders Equity – Past year profits/losses, loans to the company from owner/partners

 Basic Profit & Loss or P&L Statement    (http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/plstatement.asp)

           Summarizes Revenue = Income less Expenses (costs of goods sold and operating expenses) resulting in a profit or loss analysis.

How do we know that these numbers are accurate?  You tie them to your bank statements a third party.  This is a good accounting principle as they have no interest in your business hence their statement is considered a third party audit so to speak of your account.  They too are doing an accounting of your cash for a different reason.  Remember if you have a petty cash, cash drawer etc. that too will need to be counted monthly to record the revenue and expenses flowing through it. 

If the numbers confirm what you have calculated or gathered in your mind than you are validated in your thinking. This will be an excellent foundation to plan for the future; new services, marketing, recognize your niche etc.  Maybe you have been extremely successful with one product you analysed – now can you apply that knowledge to your other products or services?  Or can you take that lesson and realize that another product may never be profitable?

If the numbers do not confirm your thoughts it is a good time to consider a new beginning or belief.  In the accounting world we say that numbers do not lie….they tell a story.  For instance we may have one product or service that makes all of the profit in the company. So we may focus all of our marketing efforts and process streamlining on that product.  This may in turn allow us to work less, make more or better yet do the fun thing in our business that we are passionate about even though it is not the money maker.

So how does it happen?  Create a process and assign each responsibility.

Will the process be perfect right off the bat?  No.  Once you institute your process you will have to monitor it.  Celebrate your successes, make modifications to enhance the output or include the ‘something’ you forgot.  After it has been running for a while, you will find that you are no longer tweaking the process and it is just a normal course you and your team take in your day.  Once you have one process down, move to another area.

When you know where you data and paperwork go, and why, you save time, money and create that audit trail that so often eludes companies.  Of course another by-product of process is that you can trust all of your business details are at your fingertips and always current.

When you have process to catch all of your business details down to a science, watch out, you are opening the door to take your business to the next level!

How will it save you money? A virtual bookkeeper is like working with your accountant.  No payroll or unemployment taxes to pay and no insurance benefits or vacation to be considered.  You only pay for the hours of work you require.  If you have a slow month, your bookkeeping costs reflect it. 

Costs can be estimated by the volume of sales/disbursements you do on a monthly basis.  Once a few months of recordkeeping has been completed you can budget what those costs can be….want to spend less?  Figure out what additional items you can perform or maintain on your own so that it takes your virtual bookkeeper less time to record and maintain your records. 

Additionally – time is money.  What is your time as a business owner worth?  If you were to have 4 – 10  hours more a month, could you increase your income?  Just think how wonderful it would be to eliminate the stress of maintaining your financial records.  You may even find you are asking how the virtual bookkeeper can help you in additional ways to make your earning possibilities even greater.

I have a proven process that works for any type of industry or business.  What kind of businesses do I work with; landscapers, coaches, marketing research firms, industry associations, even state and federal election campaigns to name a few.   

Take advantage of today’s technology. Decide on this affordable service to have accurate and up-to-date financial records with a detailed audit trail by a 35 year experienced virtual bookkeeper. 

Contact me for more information TODAY!

There is an easy solution….use a credit/debit card!

How do you choose which is best to use, credit or debit? First rule of thumb, NEVER mix personal and business transactions.

Use a Debit Card

If you have access, or your employer grants you access, to a business checking account. So the funds paying the business expense would be swept directly from the business bank account that the expenses are being incurred for.

Use a Credit Card

If a debit card is not available to you, or if you would prefer to pay your expenses on a monthly or extended credit period (maximizing cash flow). Putting a process around how you utilize a credit/debit card to monitor your business expenses is the real key. Follow these simple tips to optimize recouping your business expenses:

1. Apply for a totally separate card for business purposes only.
2. Save all of your paper receipts in one place.
3. Maintain a specific calendar or journal with your business appointments and travel. (Included company, contact, address, date, time, mileage log and purpose). If these details are kept electronically I highly recommend that you print a copy each month.
4. Use the monthly card statement as your reminder to file reimbursements to your employer or if you are self-employed, match your paper receipts with the card statement, attach your printed calendar/journal for the same time period and pay the statement with a business check. (Enter summary charges manually or import transactions directly from card provider into your accounting software.)

Capturing details month by month ensures that you are reimbursed in full for any business expense you may have incurred, as well as maintains the IRS required business expense documentation for tax purposes.

Let’s take that cringe out of reviewing reports and replace it with the power of knowledge.

I have worked with numbers for years. They don’t lie and they always tell a story.

The real magic to numbers is trusting they are true, listening to the story they are telling and utilizing their story to create the vision you have for your business.

Where do you start?  Keep it simple.  Each month review your Profit & Loss Statement.  Look at what your income and expenses are.

What are you looking for, a trend or a question?  Do the numbers make sense or do they bring questions to your mind?  Questions are the first step to analyzing your numbers. You will find yourself running drilled down income or expense reports to answer your questions.

Start to compare. Run a comparison report with last year’s same period or compare this month to last month.  You will start to see a picture of your business.  You will know why expenses are up this month or why last year’s sales in July were high because you closed on your biggest account that month but this year they are buying less.

If the trend or story begins to be one you do not like you can make a change.  The sooner you recognize a down trend the sooner you can make it an upward trend.

Then there are the times where you analyze the sale of a product or service and realize it was not what you started out to sell or do but that your profit margin on it is fantastic…..decision time……less work, better profits or more work, lower profits.

Reports are nothing to be afraid of…..not analyzing reports is.  Do you know the story your reports are telling?

Developing a new process starts with the end in mind.  What goal or end result are you trying to meet?  Reverse engineer it.  Example: If you want to know how much business you get from a specific client or what that client owes you at any given moment….follow the quote, sales order, invoice and payments.  Is there one software solution that has all of this in one place for easy access?  If not look for one, if so do you take the time to analyze the reports on a monthly basis?

Do you need to streamline your processes?  Ask yourself, are you entering the same data in more than one place?  If so you need to streamline.  Database management is one area where you often find this situation. One simple solution to double entry is find software solutions that you can easily import and export your data to/from.  Example: Maintain your client database in QuickBooks, export to Excel and import into your eMarketing software such as Constant Contact.

Good processes can save you money when working with subcontractors such as a bookkeeper or by freeing you and your employees up to put more effort into the sales cycle generating additional revenues.

Managing ‘the details’ brings you piece of mind and allows you the ability to make good business decisions based on ‘the facts’ of your business.

Processes and details empower you in your business.

Empower yourself today!

There are two periods that this requirement applies as well as speical elections:

Primary Election -  period of August 30th, 2011 - September 19th, 2011

General Election – period of October 25, 2011 – November 7, 2011

Special Elections - notified of with specific special election dates

Any contribution or loan that exceeds $1,000 must be reported within 24 hours of receipt.

Notice should be filed via fax to 518-486-6627 (24 Hour Notice Form) or electronically via the NYSBOE website . (The Board prefers electronic submission wherever possible.)

Be sure to alert all parties that collect contributions for your campaign/committee that they will need to alert the party responsible for filing disclosure reports.

1. Generate and sign letters of Indebtedness for each loan made to the committee.
2. Gather a copy of ALL printed campaign materials – be sure that the Candidate Name and Committee number is on each piece.
3. Submit all with a letter to the New York State Board of Elections (address listed below).
4. Have Treasurer complete and sign a CF-18 Resignation Request.
5. Termination Report with a ZERO $0.00 balance must be filed electronically.
6. Send letters of Indebtedness, Debt Forgiveness and CF-18 should be sent to:

New York State Board of Elections
Campaign Finance Unit
40 Steuben Street
Albany, NY 12207

Email us to request samples of these letters

This year you PROMISE will be different.  No more struggle at year end to prepare for the accountant.  You are going to keep your business records balanced and up to date. Year end is going to be a push of the button.  Excellent goal!  Now how do you make it happen?

There are simple solutions like hire a bookkeeper, a project manager or an office manager and make your goal their responsibility.  Or make it your task to implement processes that will lead to the same success.

Either path you choose, review your paperwork processes.  Do they start with prospects and end with your accounting software? If the answer is no, this would be the place to start.

Many companies have a great sales cycle but lose the‘process’ after the sale has been made. Why stop there?  If you have a successful process all the way through to your accounting software your bank account will be healthy and customers will be happy.  Who could ask for more?

More is what you will get though.  You will have current sales, expense and overall financial reports to review. Next step, review the reports on a monthly basis.  I know you are not sure what you are looking at…..but once you start looking you would be surprised at the questions they
answer and bring to mind.  Then put one month next to another.  What story do the numbers tell?  Keep this up for a full year you will be surprised the knowledge that you have of your business, your numbers and your bank account.

Best of all tax time will be just a push of the button and you will be armed to answer all of your accountant’s questions or at least know
where to look for the answers.