As an accountant, you are going to come face-to-face with plenty of ethical issues. Deciding whether someones business practices and their actions are ethical is something that can be fairly difficult, but holding ethical standards is a vital part of your job. Many people in the accounting and banking industry often find it hard to recognize a serious ethical problem. It is not that they are unethical people, but frequently they are simply aware that an ethical problem is presenting itself. Nearly everything that you do in your line of work has an ethical side of things.

You hold a very important role in each customers and companys life . Accountants play a key part in keeping the integrity and credibility of their clients. Accountant must be not only competent at his job like every other worker, but he must hold the knowledge and experience to keep his professionalism, even at the most difficult times.

Keeping your clients integrity means that you have to communicate deeply to avoid all problems, and make sure that everyone knows what is going on with their own finances. Sometimes people forget that confidentiality is the strength of any professional accountant, and it can be hard. You must keep your clients information completely confidential unless the other party has a legal right to view it. It can be uncomfortable to face that sort of pressure.

I do not think I am going to face any ethical issues? You might think. I know what I would do if I were faced with a hard choice. Think again, because as an accountant, you are going to face countless issues that require you to be clear headed and of sound judgment. More people then you think attempt to take the unethical route, and lie to their company.

For example, going through the records of your firm, you stumble on a huge discovery , a coworker is withholding money from the firm, and has been for a while. How do you approach this situation? Do you talk with the firm? The coworker? This is obviously unethical, but how to proceed?

The most likely solution is to follow your own firms policy to resolve the issue. Every firm has some sort of ethical guidelines that state how to react and treat a situation like this. Maintaining a professional and ethical business practice should be the firms main priority.

If for some reason your firm does not have a policy that dictates how you should treat this situation, your responsibility is to go to your manager. If you feel that he is also part of the issue, then you need to go to the next level of management.

When trying to work with these ethical issues and resolve them, you as an accountant and an employee of a firm must understand your businesses strategies, and motivations. If you are worried that you yourself may be at risk for some sort of ethical dilemma, then the best option is to call your personal attorney. He can assist you in looking at your options, and with your best interest guide you towards a good result.

If you feel that you cannot work with your firm anymore due to ethical conflicts, do not feel bad giving notice for that reason and leaving. If the situation is pressing, or if the concerns are high enough, this is a very valid response.

Remember that it is your duty as an accountant to withhold the integrity of not only your clients business practices, but your own. Many people are not as morally sound as idealists would like to believe, and where money is concerned, there will always be someone trying to outsmart you.

Will help individuals with they bookkeeping, accounting needs.
http://www.mysimpleaccounting.com
http://www.myquickbooksquickstart.com

[tags]accounting, bookkeeping, ethic, money, business[/tags]

I’ll never forget when I first started working with QuickBooks and then established my bookkeeping practice back in 2001. I had never even looked at, let alone touched, QuickBooks in my life before. I had always worked in high-end software like MAS 90, Platinum and SBT. I think I even learned Peachtree in college - the DOS version of course - nonetheless it was nothing in comparison to QuickBooks.

I have now been certified as a QuickBooks Pro Advisor since 2002. Currently I am the top Advanced Certified Advisor in Hartford, Connecticut. So many people have asked me, “Is this a real benefit?” The answer is, of course. Many business owners have now switched over to QuickBooks from their old software systems. It has become one of the most popular accounting software packages for small businesses.

Becoming a QuickBooks Advisor was one of the first things I did once I figured out where I wanted to go with my business. As it turned out, it was the best choice I could have possibly made. It has been one of the best referral sources for new business.

Some of the benefits of becoming a QuickBooks Advisor are:

1. You get unlimited tech support.

2. You always have the latest version of the software. When you meet a new client that has the latest software release you can respond confidently as you already have it. You can also rest assured that you will have the latest release before it hits the marketplace.

3. You get a listing on the Pro Advisor website. This list now also opens when you look up questions for help in QuickBooks 2008 so potential clients know how to find you.

4. You get product discounts.

Some things you may want to consider are:

1. You will need to put aside some time to take the certification exam and pass it. If you get advance certified it could take up to four days to pass the exam. Currently I am certified in QuickBooks, Enterprise, and POS and I am current on all certifications. You can imagine how much time that took.

2. Instead of doing more bookkeeping you could end up becoming more of a consultant which means you will have to learn the new technology.

3. It also means that your firm will be specialized in one specific software, so if the market share changes it could affect you.

Whatever you decide, QuickBooks currently has the majority share of the market. The value you pay is well worth the return in my opinion.

Laurie O’neil, an Advanced Certified QuickBooks Advisor, is the founder of Innovative Financial Services, LLC a national bookkeeping firm located in Hartford, CT who offers advice to other freelance bookkeepers and business owners. For more information go to http://www.infinancialservices.com

[tags]bookkeep, bookkeeping, accounting, QuickBooks, certified, pro advisor[/tags]

With a competitive work environment and changes in the economy, how do you keep the employees you have? You spend so much time and effort on educating your employees, replacing them can be quite costly. Your management style as a business owner can have every effect on your staff. Are you a manager that supports learning, growth, inspires loyalty and creates a work environment that people love? Or are you a Micro-manager who is so hung up on every detail that you are stifling your employees’ growth and inspiring your employees to shop the want ads instead? These are important factors for employees when they accept a position with your company.

Some key factors that inspire employees to stay at a job are:

1. How Supervisors Act: Are they a micro-manager who stifles employee’s growth capabilities or do they inspire hard working loyal employees?

2. Communication: Control your tone and pitch. Body language, expressions and pace of movement can tell it all. Look out!

3. Control Level of Stress: If you are stressed you will convey this to your employees. Stress can bring out the worst in you. Find better ways to deal with it. You may not even notice that you are stressed but your employees will. Do you think they will tell you? Mine do. This was an area I needed help in. I am very crisis oriented, but my staff is not. Be open to learning lessons from your employees. If you don’t you may have mutiny.

4. Motivation: This area is key. Employees want to:
a. Have their talents on the job be utilized
b. Do meaningful work
c. Be recognized for a great job done
d. Enjoy the work environment
e. Have good pay and benefits
f. Agree with the values of the organization
g. Have supportive management

This is what makes the world go round. Employees spend the majority of their lives working. Make coming to work fun!

As you grow your company, management styles will have key effects on your growth. Constant turnover can reflect badly to the clients and clients will lose their confidence in your ability to hire right people. If you notice a trend with new employees quickly turning in their resignation, take a look at the areas mentioned above. Ask your current employees to fill out a survey and add an “Idea Box’ where employees can offer suggestions anonymously. Any and all of these things will not only keep your employees happy, but quickly reduce the amount your business loses from advertising, training, and possible client loss.

Laurie O’neil, an Advanced Certified QuickBooks Advisor, is the founder of Innovative Financial Services, LLC a national bookkeeping firm located in Hartford, CT who offers advice to other freelance bookkeepers and business owners. For more information go to http://www.infinancialservices.com

[tags]bookkeep, bookkeeping, accounting, QuickBooks, employee[/tags]

In my prior life, I was a controller of a recruiting company so I have some insight in this area. Asking the right type of questions and finding the right candidate can be challenging. We often get our personal feelings involved in the hiring process; you like the person but the person may not necessarily have the right skill set for the job. Often we may compromise what we are searching for in a candidate in exchange for an easy fit.

Here are some things that you want to think about before you hire an employee:

1. Put together a job posting that will capture the interest of a potential employee, flexible hours, benefits, and the job requirements.

2. When recruiting for an employee, have a job description put together. This will have a job summary, duties and responsibilities, complexity of work, experience, skills, and education. This will keep you focused on who you are looking for.

3. When interviewing have some behavioral type of interview questions. For example: Tell me about a time when your workload was heavy. How did you complete all your work? Remaining calm under extreme pressure is a difficult skill for many people. Tell me about a situation when you were able to do this. These types of questions give you some good insight on how someone could react with your clients. Sometimes people don’t know how to answer these questions. Not receiving an answer can also be an indicator as to how they think on their feet and respond to pressure.

4. Consider utilizing one (or more) of the many personality quizzes available. These quizzes have been studied and researched and will give you a “scientific” summary of each candidates strengths and weaknesses.

5. Look for someone who has consistent job experience and has spent 4 or more years in one position at some point in their career.

6. Be sure to check references!!!!

Be firm on what you are searching for in a candidate. Be clear about what you stand for and what your values are in your company. You are searching for someone who shares similar values. Finding good employees will not come easy nor should it. In my last job posting, I phone screened all the resumes and only interviewed who I thought was a perfect fit for the job. This may be time consuming but it will cost you in the long run if you do not take the time.

Laurie O’neil, an Advanced Certified QuickBooks Advisor, is the founder of Innovative Financial Services, LLC a national bookkeeping firm located in Hartford, CT who offers advice to other freelance bookkeepers and business owners. For more information go to http://www.infinancialservices.com

[tags]bookkeep, bookkeeping, accounting, QuickBooks, employee, hiring, hire[/tags]

In previous articles we have talked about entering our time into QuickBooks. So now what do you do with the information after it is entered? How many of you actually know what your profitability is per client?

One of the most common things I see among business owners is that they do not put a value to their time. Most business owners are DBA’s or LLC’s. As you know, these types of businesses do not take paychecks, they take draws. So how do you calculate the value of your time?

Another important aspect of knowing the value of your time is making sure that your billable rates are high enough. If you are covering overhead and actual cost, but don’t know how much you are “paying yourself” or if money is short when it comes time to take your draw, these steps will allow you to see in “black & white” just how much you need to raise your rates, why you’re not able to take your draw, and what steps you should take to be sure it doesn’t happen again in the future.

Before we get started with this, you need to think of how much money you want to make this year and break it down to an hourly rate. If you typically spend 40 hours in the office, use that as a basis. Use this formula: Annual Salary divided by 2,080 (52 weeks X 40 hrs a week) = Hourly Rate. Be sure to factor in vacation time, and extra hours if you need to.

The next step is to set yourself up as a vendor and set a rate in the item to code what you provide services for. Link the expense side to a payroll account or an owner’s wage account.

Step 1: Create a check and allow it to pull your time from your timesheets. If you notice all the detail posts to the item tab, just keep in mind that we are not going to pay all of this to ourselves.

Step 2: Click on the expense tab and post a negative dollar amount to the payroll account.

Step 3: Save and close the transaction.
Now when you run your job profitability summary, you have actual cost for your time and you can see if your margins are within 70% of what you billed. If they are not, your pricing is not high enough. Always keep in mind 1/3 cost goes to overhead, 1/3 cost goes toward direct cost and the remainder 1/3 goes to you, the owner.

Check out other articles discussing how to streamline your invoicing process all from recording your time.

Laurie O’neil, an Advanced Certified QuickBooks Advisor, is the founder of Innovative Financial Services, LLC a national bookkeeping firm located in Hartford, CT who offers advice to other freelance bookkeepers and business owners. For more information go to http://www.infinancialservices.com

[tags]bookkeep, bookkeeping, accounting, QuickBooks, payroll, billing, equity[/tags]

All of us start our business for one reason or another. For me, my passion came when I was in my early twenties. I was working for a small CPA firm and sitting for the CPA exam.

I loved the diversity of working in accounting, but I hated doing tax returns. I knew back then that I wanted to own my own bookkeeping firm, but lacked the confidence. It wasn’t until I turned 30, and I was a Controller for a recruiting firm did I take the plunge to be a business owner.

I started the business while I had a full time job still. It was great to have the cash flow, but my boss at the time thought if push came to shove I would quit my business and keep my job. You guessed it; I jumped and I only had a couple of clients at the time. Not enough to support my $1200.00 townhouse and my 300.00 car payment and oh, I am a single parent to boot, my son was twelve at the time.

So, a lot of you are probably wondering what did I do? It’s called the Power of Networking. When I first started out; I went to any networking group I could get in front of. I think I was attending eight events a month. Crazy I know, but I did for four years straight.

For me, it was not about getting the business, but learning who my centers of influence were. Thank you to Bill Kenney who at the time owned The Small Business Network (TSBN), which was the first networking group I joined for $900.00; a big investment when you do not have any money coming in - however one I knew that I needed to make. He educated me on who I was looking to connect with.

I started focusing on people that were marketing to same cliental I was look for as clients, so I was building relationships with CPA’s, Attorney’s and Consultants (i.e. coaches, financial advisors, and other bookkeepers). The events I would attend were Chamber events in several towns, TSBN, American Society of Women Accounts (I was on the board), BNI and a group called The Exchange. You can use the internet or local business paper to see announcement that are in your area. Also sometimes you can get some free press from attending these events.

For me building these relationships was just a stepping stone to open the door to the next phase of my business. So never under estimate getting to know the right people, for me after joining the group, 6 months later I hired my first employee.

Laurie O’neil, an Advanced Certified QuickBooks Advisor, is the founder of Innovative Financial Services, LLC a national bookkeeping firm located in Hartford, CT who offers advice to other freelance bookkeepers and business owners. For more information go to http://www.infinancialservices.com

[tags]bookkeep, bookkeeping, accounting, networking, social,[/tags]

Opening your own business can be very satisfying experience. You will like freedom and flexibility you never imagined. You will also work harder than you ever have before but it feels entirely different when you are working for yourself. Here are some tips to help you get started on the right note with your record-keeping.

Keep Receipts for all transactions: If you pay for everything with a check, debit card, or credit cards this may not seem needed. As an accountant I can guarantee you it is a must. The IRS will reject deductions if you do not have receipts to go with your bank and credit card records.

Avoid Cash: Easiest way to get into difficulty with IRS is to pay for things with cash and then not have a receipt. For many of us we are in a habit of using cash the time we were kids. For your own business, you need to avoid cash.

Deposit all your Income: It is very appealing to withhold cash from your business receipts but I advice you do not. Instead be insistent with your expenses. If you are in an business where cash deals are regular the IRS will look for proof of cash deposits in your checking account. If they are missing you will have a lot of questions to answer.

Use QuickBooks: This software is simple to learn and simple to use. Within a few hours after installing you can be producing your own professional financial statements. It is the software I use for my own accounting/tax business, for my clients accounting to create client Financial Statements and Payroll Reports. I wrote a book which can be a very good tool for any individuals and business owners My QuickBooks Quick Start.

Report Employees Earnings Timely: There are numerous services on the market that will be glad to do your Payroll Reports and process your employee checks. Shop around and get the best deal. QuickBooks is a solution for your Payroll needs as well. In some cases to do the payroll can be very complicated but if you can handle it you will save a lot of money for yourself or your business.

Use a Business Credit Card. Using a business credit card has many benefits. You can regularly find one with no annual fees, 0% introductory interest rate and even cash rewards. At the end of the year you will be given a summary of all your expenses by category. Provide this to your accountant along with your other records at tax time. This will make your accountants job easier which should lower his/her fees.

There are a lot of other items to think when starting your own business as I mentioned in my book My QuickBooks Quick Start but I encourage you to speak with your accountant as soon as possible before you take your accounting needs in your hands.

Will help individuals and businesses with their bookkeeping, accounting, financial and tax needs.
http://mysimpleaccounting.com

[tags]bookkeeping, accounting, business, tips, money, employee[/tags]

How many of you track your time? Do you record it in QuickBooks? Can you see your customer profitabilities? Do you put a value to your time? This is the first thing you need to do as a business owner to become more successful and it is also one of the hardest things to stay on top of.

When your start tracking all of your daily time along with details of what you did in the notes section of the timesheet, you begin to realize where you spend the majority of your time in a day. In my own QuickBooks file, I have my own company set up as a customer with sub-accounts. Some of those sub-accounts would be Marketing, Paid Time Off, Education, Admin Time, Letters/Contracts, etc. I also have a sub-account called “Insert Company Your Company Name Here” which I use when I work on my own company’s bookkeeping. Breaking it out this way has helped me with my hiring process, figuring out the administrative cost of running my company, enabled me to determine how many more new clients I could take on, and has assigned a value to my unpaid time.

If you are an individual bookkeeper, you can enable the timesheets in QuickBooks and use them to keep track of your time and run reports. If you have more than one person in the office like my firm, you can use the QuickBooks Time Tracker, which comes on your QuickBooks Installation CD. You will need to get licenses to load the software on each computer for each employee that needs access to it, and it is a little more cumbersome to maintain, but you may already be performing some of these tasks to generate invoices to your clients. You would need to set up a timer file for each individual employee and export your customer list into the timer files - don’t forget to include yourself. The next step would be to export the time out of the timer and import it into your QuickBooks file either on a weekly or bi-weekly basis depending on where your billing or payroll falls.

Stay tuned, in future articles I will be going more in depth on how to further utilize the recording of your time. Search for articles, “How to Put Value to Your Time With Zero Dollar Checks” as a bookkeeper owner and how to streamline your invoicing process all from recording your time.

Laurie O’neil, an Advanced Certified QuickBooks Advisor, is the founder of Innovative Financial Services, LLC a national bookkeeping firm located in Hartford, CT who offers advice to other freelance bookkeepers and business owners. For more information go to http://www.infinancialservices.com

[tags]bookkeep, bookkeeping, QuickBooks, Timesheet, accounting, value[/tags]

It is not a child’s play to maintain tax books and documents. It can be a real pain while you try maintaining them. The best way to maintain them is to outsource it to a good service.

Outsourcing your tax and bookkeeping needs to a professional service can be a great way to save yourself and your company lots of money and time. It can be a disaster if you do not carefully screen potential bookkeeping services and find one that is competent and qualified.

Here are some things you need to consider while outsourcing your tax bookkeeping to a professional service.

There are several personality traits that are associated with excellent bookkeepers and you should find a service that employs people with these skills and talents. For starters, a good bookkeeping service will have individuals on staff that is passionate about what they do.

Bookkeepers love dealing with numbers and math and should have a grasp of relevant mathematical concepts. Another important quality for good accountants to have is a penchant for details. You want to choose a service that employs people who are good at reading the fine print, and sorting out the important and necessary information from the irrelevant data.

Using time effectively is an essential characteristic of a top quality service. This means that they must be able to prioritize all the required tasks and be able to give full attention to each task at a time and requires its employees to keep an audit of their own time spent on your projects.

Technologically Savvy

Fortunately most bookkeeping services today are technologically savvy to remain competitive. The nature of business and finance today is all electronic and automated, so it is important to find a bookkeeper who is up to date with all required software.

It also helps if they are technical proficient to troubleshoot any problems that come up. The right accounting service will employ analytically-minded employees able to review the data, understand the big picture and see how each component of your finances affects the others.

The best way to find a service with all the right qualities is to conduct in-person interviews and ask questions that will help you look for the characteristics you need. After interviewing several bookkeeping services, you should be able to narrow it down to the one that seems most aware of the essential qualities needed to effectively take care of your finances.

When you need bookkeeping help, New Orleans accountants can make your life easier. They will not only pickup and deliver your bookkeeping materials, but guarantee to pay all penalties and interest if they make an error on your taxes. To learn more, visit http://www.asu-llc.com

[tags]bookkeeping, new orleans bookkeeping, bookkeeping help new orleans, bookkeeping help louisiana[/tags]

This is a tough question, because you are always trying to find the balance of how to make more money and what you are going to pay yourself. Currently, I am in the process of hiring two more employees, so how do you know when to bring on that next great hire?

Initially, I started out doing all of the bookkeeping for my clients. I found that when I was stuck in the day to day operations, it was difficult to market to new clients and grow my company. I no longer do any of the bookkeeping.

Here are some things that you will want to think about before you hire an employee:

1. Focus on how many new potential client meetings you want to have in a week. Generally, I have five new sales meetings in a week and close about two a week. The ones I do not close I farm or keep in touch with until they are ready to come on as a client. Be sure to also consider the number of possible follow-up sales calls you will need to make.

2. Find ways to manage your time and track time spent in your own company vs. client work. If you are consistently doing between 20-30 hours of billable time and trying to maintain consistent marketing appointments for new clients, it’s a good time to consider bringing on a new staff member.

3. When hiring a new bookkeeper, remember it could take up to three months for your bookkeeper to be up to speed to where you want them to be. A good bookkeeper is hard to find.

4. Keep in mind that when you hire employees you need to start thinking about where you want your focus to be in your company. Relinquishing control is sometimes hard to do. What are you going to do with all of your free time?

5. Put procedures in place to measure productivity. Develop a culture that encourages all employees to look for ways to improve the company’s efficiency and productivity.

Growing your company is an exciting time as well as a stressful time. Planning ahead and teaching someone else to take care of your clients with as much care as you did does not always go as anticipated. With a good plan of action and lots of patience you will be on your way to fulfilling your company’s growth potential.

Laurie O’Neil, an Advanced Certified QuickBooks Advisor, is the founder of Innovative Financial Services, LLC a national bookkeeping firm located in Hartford, CT who offers advice to other freelance bookkeepers and business owners. For more information go to http://www.infinancialservices.com

[tags]hire, employee[/tags]