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.

Now it is time to file your tax return.  This is where  you hand over your data and request that a professional complete the tax return and sign their name next to yours.

Why?  To begin with tax laws change every year.  A Certified Public Accountant, ‘CPA’ is required to take continuing education to maintain their accreditation.  It is always best to partner with an expert in a field rather than take time away from your business to do what another professional can do better.

The best reason that I know is you have a professional on the other end of the phone to help you when that IRS or State Tax Authority notice arrives.  And under most circumstances they will accompany you to an audit should that be necessary.

The fact of the matter is, as a business owner it is your responsibility to get the facts prior to paying the vendor so that the correct tax forms can be completed properly and in a timely fashion.  So this year put a process in place to make filing your 1099′s stress free. 

Each time your business works with a new vendor, request a Internal Revenue Service Form W-9 be completed.  If you are working with self employed subcontractors get this documentation BEFORE you send them their check.   (W-9 Instructions & W-9 Online Form). 

Once you receive the completed W-9, enter the information into your accounts payable software for easy year end electronic reports.  Many softwares will complete the 1099′s for you or at the very least export into a file format for easy data entry into the forms.

I like to use an online service efilemyforms.com for my clients.  I can create a secure account and maintain vendor information from year to year eliminating extra data entry.  They create a submission and summary report for the filer to print out, physically mail the recipient their copy and electronically submit the necessary documents to the IRS for a very low per transaction cost.

If you have a tip on how to make 1099′s easier, let us know by posting a comment below.

We know that you are writing the content and providing the pictures.  But what about your Google Analytics, metadata and keywords? Oh and do you need or will someone work with you on 301 redirects? 

If you have had a successful website you don’t want to lose what internet ranking you have gained.  Did you know that if your old web pages suddenly go nowhere (this would mean that your new web pages were not spelled exactly the same as the old – almost always the case) your entire search engine ranking disappears too.  For some it’s not a big deal but, for those of you that have paid to optimize their website or painstakingly taken the time to research keywords and sprinkle the site as well as your page descriptions and metadata with them, it is.   

Your new website development team will have the expertise or at least have a partner that can help you answer all of these questions.  The real key is how to know the right questions to ask and in what sequence to ask them.  This is where the third party project manager with experience managing these types of projects really shines.  Remember the web team project manager is there to move your project through their ‘process’ managing the details ‘they’ need. 

Hiring a project manager to be on top of ‘your’ details assures that your questions and concerns are addressed without you having to learn the web world jargon or step away from your busy business.

What format is the new site going to be coded in?  You know that it will have to conform to how you plan to update it but did you also know that it can determine where you can or cannot host the site?  Hosting is always the last conversation your web designer will have with you.  Trust me I have done this for several clients and myself….it is assumed you will host with whomever your designer is providing or partnering with.  What does this mean to you, the website owner?  Lots……what domain names do you have, where are they registered?  Will your email work or be down during the move and if so for how long? Launch day arrives your new website is working and looks great but your email is hosed….ugh! 

So let’s talk solutions.  Find out the designers format right up front.  If you have a current website and are happy with their performance; no website outages, easy access, good ‘friendly’ customer support and email is fantastic – minimal spam, never down etc. STAY if you can.  This will mean NO email interruption, you know who to call if there are questions or issues and your login and password doesn’t have to change.

Well your hosting provider can host the new format, will you need additional services from them to do this?  If so will updates to your web space be needed – do it prior to your launch date.  If you have to move be sure to get all of your email, domain and hosting questions and concerns as well as current log in and passwords prepared so that they are readily available on the launch date.