5 surefire ways to find and hire a good bookkeeper

Bookkeeper is person who control your business finances by keeping and calculating payments, invoices, payroll, revenue and other business critical transactions. Thus, it is essential to hire a skilled and experienced bookkeeper who can save you time and money.

Find below 5 surefire ways to find and hire a good bookkeeper for your business:

• Look for a person with a university degree, if possible a bachelors or higher in business management, finance, accounting or relevant areas of study. You may consider somebody with an associate degree with significant amount of relevant experience.

• Discuss detailed skills i.e. acquaintance with computer programs, bookkeeping software, reporting requirements, conducting tax filling, payroll processing and management. Make certain that the person can meet up all of the requirements for the position and can manage additional tasks as the company’s requirements develop.

• Evaluate the person’s bookkeeping experience and check his/her professional work history to authenticate what is included on the resume is genuine.

• Review the interpersonal and communication skills, multitasking ability, workload and pressure, working as a team member. If you think his/her behavior or quality is a best fit, then let other staff to interview this person and provide you opinion.

• If required, plan a bookkeeping hiring exams (several versions are available online) to test capabilities.

• Evaluate the person’s bookkeeping experience and check his/her professional work history to authenticate what is included on the resume is genuine.

• Review the interpersonal and communication skills, multitasking ability, workload and pressure, working as a team member. If you think his/her behavior or quality is a best fit, then let other staff to interview this person and provide you opinion.

http://www.hitechbookkeepingservices.com is a premium provider of bookkeeping Services, accounting services, tax preparation services for small, mid-size and large businesses. To know more about bookkeeping and accounting drop an email at info@hitechbookkeepingservices.com

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com

How to Set Up Easy, Efficient Bookkeeping

Probably one of the hardest things you are going to have to do when you begin your new Homebased Business is decide to "be the bookkeeper."

"What? Why, I don't know the first thing about ‘bookkeeping'!"

And believe me, as a business owner your days of filling out the "simple Income-Tax form" are over! Being a business owner, especially a Homebased business owner, your life has just become somewhat complicated.

"Is there an easy way out of this mess," you ask?

Why yes, as a matter of fact, there is.

First, get a notebook and put it beside your telephone. Now record carefully every business call you make and approximately how long you talked on that business call. This gets you a percentage of your telephone bill as a deduction.

Next, get a pocket note pad and pen, put them in your car, and record the start mileage, destination(s) and finish mileage of every business trip. This gets you a percentage of your automobile and automobile expenses as a deduction.

Next, get two sets, of two different colors, of 12 large envelopes. Label set 1 JAN OUT thru DEC OUT, and then label set 2 JAN IN thru DEC IN. During the course of the year, every time you have a business expense put the receipt in the appropriate monthly OUT envelope. During the course of the year put a copy of the receipt or sale or product order confirmation in the appropriate monthly IN envelope.

Finally, the ultimate part of your Homebased Business Tax Plan: Do you have a personal income tax preparer. And no, H&R Block simply does not qualify here (sorry, H&R, this is my opinion, based upon a lifetime of stories and experience.). If you do, you're home free, and if not….

Perhaps the most complicated part, now run through your mind all the people you know. There's a very good chance that you actually know a "Tax Accountant." Wouldn't that be nice? But if you don't, you are going to need to find one --- or spend the time to become one yourself.

You can try the yellow pages or the white pages, but I'd suggest you contact everyone you know and take it from there. Surely at least one of your many friends or acquaintances will use the services of a private tax person. Success --- or --- success. If you find one, well and good, and if you don't then you begin your networking career by networking to find a tax man. Once you have him or her, you are now ready for all the slings, arrows and pitfalls Internal Revenue can send your way.

Just work your Homebased business, begin making money hand over fist and you're laughing all the way to the bank.

Article Source: http://www.businesshighlight.org/

Why You Need To Outsource Bookkeeping For Your Online Business

As a business owner, for tax purposes, you need to document all the income and expenses. This will serve to track all these finances and you must make sure that there in no lose of money. You may need to outsource bookkeeping for your online business. There are lots of reasons why you must outsource bookkeeping services.

One reason is that you are able to lessen the work load. Instead of making it yourself, you can hire someone to do it for you and this through outsourcing. Another advantage in outsourcing bookkeeping jobs would be much more cost effective than having your own bookkeeper at the office. This means that you are able to save more money for your business and even minimize your overhead cost.

Bookkeeping involves the handling of every financial aspect of the business. Everything is going to be recorded here. From the business revenues, to profits and the losses incurred by your business, as well as the other expenses. You should consider the time of tax session, you may get overloaded with work as bookkeeping work can be quite time consuming.

You will literally have a lot of work to do and may not have the time to manage your business. Because of the work load in bookkeeping, you must remember that a mistake in these records can incur serious penalties, especially if you are submitting it late. These days you will see many online bookkeeping websites that are offering bookkeeping services for a fee.

You could consider outsourcing your bookkeeping which will not only save you a lot of money and time, but it will increase the efficiency of the business and the way you run it.

Before you get the services of a bookkeeper and outsource it to a bookkeeping service company, you must remember that you need to make sure that the bookkeeping company you plan on outsourcing your books to should only provide you with the highest quality of bookkeeping jobs. You should make sure that their staff is well trained professionals who are experienced in bookkeeping.

Also through outsourcing you can be sure that you never have to do the bookkeeping work yourself. By doing so, you are able to attend to more important matters in your business, which means that you will maximize profit and efficiency of your business. If you want to save on money and run the business more efficiently, you should try outsourcing bookkeeping for your online business.

Article Source: http://www.articlecounty.com/

Small Business Bookkeeping Basics: What is Double-Entry Bookkeeping

Double-entry bookkeeping is an accounting technique that records each transaction as both a debit and a credit, thus making it easier to double-check your financial transactions. To illustrate:

You conduct a sale but do not collect the payment.

• Your receivables would increase.
• Your sales revenue would also increase.

You buy from a supplier on credit (you do not pay them right away).

• Your payables would increase.
• Your inventory would also increase.

Let’s say you buy an asset and pay immediately.

• Your assets would increase.
• Your cash would decrease.

These are just a few examples, there are many other types of transactions found in double-entry bookkeeping. Each change in one account must be balanced with a change in another account. You might have heard of bookkeepers trying to “balance the books”; this means that the bookkeeper is trying to find a change in one account that balances a change made in another.

The double-entry method is based on the following accounting logic: Assets = Liabilities + Equity

If there is a change in one side of the equation, there should be a change in the other side to balance the difference. Or, if there is a change in one side, there should be an opposite change on the same side. For example:

If assets increase (you buy equipment), there should be a decrease in assets (cash) or an increase on liability (you bought the equipment with borrowed money). If you enter a decrease in cash or an increased liability, you will balance out the increase in assets.

The double-entry method of bookkeeping can get confusing, especially if there are many transactions taking place in your company. If your company keeps inventory and does purchases and sales on credit, the books might get very hard to maintain. Luckily, thanks to accounting software, keeping accurate records is much easier, and, due to the limitations created into the software, it will not allow you to make an entry that is not “balanced.”

Consult with your financial professional for information relevant to your business needs

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com

Small business bookkeeping Simplified

Small business bookkeeping could be one of the tasks most generally avoided today in industry. The majority of entrepreneurs begin their small business companies because they have a passion for their product or service – bookkeeping is frequently seen as drudgery which must be tolerated to remain in the business. For this reason, hiring a small business bookkeeping service can be a great way of maintaining your energies concentrated on the business, leaving an expert take care of the financial details.

In bookkeeping, an accountant keeps a complete trace of how much your small business owes creditors and how much is owed to you. The accountant also traces how much you have invested in tools and inventory. In general, accounts receivable, accounts payable, bank reconciliation as well as financial statement preparation such as balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements are all included in small business bookkeeping.

The cost of small business bookkeeping depends on your company’s explicit needs; however, accountants typically charge a flat rate per month for basic services. The cost rises while the volume of work increases – the more transactions and statements you expect your bookkeeper to prepare, the more you will pay.

The bookkeeping rates can vary depending on your geographical sector, the size of the company, and the experience and seniority of your accountant. For the most basic bookkeeping services, you can intend to pay $500 to $1,500 per month for a skilled accountant to handle your finances.

In certain cases, the accountants will charge an hourly rate until they get a feeling for your business and how much hours is implied in the work that you wanted to be done. Following a few months, they will have clarity of your needs and you will be able to discuss a long-term flat monthly fee.

This article has been provided courtesy of http://www.hitechbookkeepingservices.com – specializing in bookkeeping and accounting services such as Accounts Payable, Bank Reconciliation, Financial Statement and Balance sheet Preparation, General Ledger Maintenance, and Payroll Processing. To know more about bookkeeping and accounting drop an email at info@hitechbookkeepingservices.com

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/

Small business bookkeeping outsourcing

At the present time small businesses bookkeeping services suggest the development of effective bookkeeping software and it helps business to track financial transactions and related reports to control and handle day to day activities of business.

Bookkeeping work include account receivable, financial reports, account payable, payroll services, and billing. Hitech Bookkeeping Services has makes it possible, do these task accurate, flexible and in-time to save your invaluable time and resources.

Hitech Bookkeeping Services provides small business bookkeeping solutions to the customer’s necessities. If you are a small business owner and do not have time to organize your books then outsourcing becomes simple option with the help of Hitech Bookkeeping Services.

Outsourcing bookkeeping and accounting services is the good option for small or even for large businesses, because it reduces not only time but also the resources.

Hitech Bookkeeping Services is totally committed to a personalized approach in assisting customers. We operate your back office for your small business accounting and bookkeeping services needs. We work with customized applications and web based bookkeeping software such as quickbooks, iris, myob etc depending on the financial data given to us.

If you would like to get detailed information about our bookkeeping services, please feel free to contact us at info@hitechbookkeepingservices.com or log on http://www.hitechbookkeepingservices.com and get 60% discount on your requirements.

Small Business Accounting Software Equals Simple Bookkeeping Spreadsheets

Accounting software is used by accountants to enter many complex financial transactions

into the financial books of account and is almost invariably based upon double entry bookkeeping principles. A major advantage to those companies and the finance staff is the extent to which financial information contained in the database can be queried for financial control purposes.

An accountant needs to not only ensure the financial records are accurate but also retrieve any part of the accounting records to answer accounting questions on the accounts, provide a legal basis for the transactions and report the financial statements at regular periodic intervals.

The small business has different accounting needs which are better described as bookkeeping than accounting. For non limited companies that do not need to produce a balance sheet then a simple income and expenditure account can be produced much simpler using single entry bookkeeping principles.

Less financial control is often required from small business accounting software as the bookkeeper is often the owner manager who already has an intimate knowledge of each transaction. Books are still required for tax purposes and a solid requirement of preparing a set of financial books for tax purposes is that each entry is supported by third party evidence.

Examples of third party evidence would be sales invoices, purchases invoices and bank statements. Financial transactions where no receipt exists can still be entered in the business books although all transactions not carrying third party evidence could subsequently be disallowed for tax purposes and certainly would be if the amounts entered indicated unusual income or expenditure.

Producing an income and expenditure statement using single entry bookkeeping is little more than making two lists of financial transactions. Those lists being one of sales income received from sales invoices or receipts issued to customers and the other of purchase expenditure being from purchase invoices received from suppliers.
read more:

Proper Bookkeeping Helps An Organization To Increase Profits, Reduce Taxes And Improve Cash Flow.

Accounting is the process of analyzing, classifying, recording, summarizing, and interpreting business transactions in financial or monetary terms. In order to summarize the results of a business activity, each financial transaction must be recorded in a bookkeeping system.

Basics of Accounting:
The owner’s right or claim to assets is expressed by the word equity, or investment. Other terms that may be used include capital, net worth, or proprietorship. Liabilities represent debts and obligations of the business. The business may have a liability to the owner, however, creditors’ claims to the assets have priority over the claims of the owner.

An equation expressing the relationship of these elements is called the fundamental accounting equation.Assets = Liabilities + Owner’s Equity

Revenues are the amounts of assets that a business or other economic unit gains as a result of its operations. For example, revenues represent earnings derived from fees earned for the performing of services, sales involving the exchange of goods, rent income for providing the use of property, and interest income for the lending of money.

Expenses are the amounts of assets that a business or other economic unit uses up as a result of its operations. For example, expenses represent the amount of cash paid for services received, such as wages expense rent expense, interest expense and supplies expense.

Revenues and expenses directly affect owner’s equity. If a business earns revenue, there is an increase in owner’s equity. If a business incurs or pays expenses, there is a decrease in owners equity. So, we place revenue and expenses under the “umbrella” of owner’s equity.

Assets = Liabilities + Owner’s Equity Capital + Revenue - Expenses

Steps to be followed for good Bookkeeping Systems :
Many methods may be used. At a minimum, certain procedures should be done on a monthly or other periodic basis to make sure that your accounting records are accurate. Some of these steps are as follows:

• All checks written and deposits made should be entered into a check register.
• A monthly bank reconciliation should be done to make sure that all transactions have been recorded (including bank originated charges) and that the ending cash balances to the adjusted bank balance.
• All expenses should be classified into business expense categories to record the various expenditures.
• All deposits made to the account should be identified and classified (e.g., boarding income, interest income and owner contributions).
• A financial statement should be prepared on a periodic basis to understand the results of your operation.

Read more

Choosing The Right Book Keeping Provider For Your Online Business

The law requires that all businesses, whatever its size must keep a record of each financial transactions done through the business. These records will be presented to the government during tax time and this determines how much tax businesses must pay and how much tax returns they will get. If you are the owner of an online business, then you should find book keeping services for your online business because this will make it a lot easier for you to run your business.

Looking for the right book keeping service can be hard. There are several companies that can offer book keeping services but you have to remember that there are only a few that can offer the service that you want. Even if you are a small online business owner, you should remember that you deserve nothing less. Having a good book keeping team, will give you a chance to bring your business to succeed. If you choose a company that doesn't provide high quality book keeping service this can lead to losing money, even complete bankruptcy.

If you are not familiar on what you are looking for in a book keeping company, here are some of the basic things you should look for. First, the book keeper or book keeping company you will outsource the book keeping jobs should be qualified.

The online business owner will be the only one who is able to judge if the book keeping company will be capable of doing the job well. However, you need to remember that there are general qualifications that you must look for. An example is that a good company can offer you good services will not only have qualified people to do the job, but they also have people that are experienced enough to do it.

Always remember a book keeper is not required to hold a degree in accounting. He or she should have experience in this kind of job and must also understand the mechanics in the business, especially about the financial transactions.

A second would be that the book keeping company must have the right technology. It means that they should already have the program or software designed for book keeping. This will then save you a lot of time and money, also a big plus to your business as the book keeping programs were designed in giving comprehensive reports and services. More importantly, the staff in the book keeping services is able to know how to work them.

Remember these suggestions and surely you will find the right book keeping service for your online business. With these things, you are sure that you are able to save time and money which will translate to focusing more on the business.

Article Source: http://www.articleadventure.com/