Accounting

Author : Victor IvlichevMaking a software or Web-based product for the financial sector? Today’s standards in GUI design demand the use of matching, easily recognizable icons even in database-style financial applications

Ordering icons from a dedicated design studio or hiring a designer to make them in-house can give you fine icons, but associated costs and possible delays limit the effectiveness of this method Purchasing royalty-free images from the Web might be a better idea if you are on a budget and/or have a deadline Ready-made graphics is handily available for immediate purchase, allowing you to save significant investments due to the usually low costs of icons Before ordering, you can always preview what you are getting, and have an option to choose among multiple offerings

The collection of Accounting Toolbar Icons by Perfect Icon http://www perfecticon com/ contains over 130 financial icons tailored to applications and Web-based products for bookkeepers, accountants and financial specialists Offered as a matching set, Accounting Toolbar Icons are ideal for making professional, slick looks throughout the entire product

The collection of royalty-free financial icons contains over 130 downloadable icons such as the Dollar icon, Money icons, and images representing a variety of financial objects and symbols There are images for Accounting and Bookkeeping, several images representing the world’s currencies such as Dollar icon, Pound icon, Euro and Yen icons Financial icons include Money Turnover, Money Transfer, Currency Conversion, Loan, Capital Gain, Insurance, and many other symbols for the financial sector There are icons for Report and Book, Folder Index and Documents, Folder and Schedule among many others

Technically, Accounting Toolbar Icons are available in a wide variety of sizes, and include 16×16, 20×20, 24×24, 32×32, and 48×48 pixel images The library of financial icons contains icons with all color depths, including True Color and 8-bit variants Three different styles are supplied with every order: normal, disabled, and highlighted File formats include Windows Icon (ICO), Bitmap (BMP), GIF, and PNG for simple integration with Windows software and Web sites

It costs nothing to have a look at the royalty-free collection of financial icons Have a free look at http://www perfecticon com/stock-icons/accounting-toolbar-icons htmSince Aha-Soft’s founding in 2000 and as of 2007, Victor Ivlichev develops image processing software for Windows. He works for quality products, which will help to other computer users.

Read full story

Author : Tracy PridemoreOne of the biggest objections I hear about accounts receivable factoring is that it is much more expensive than bank loans When I hear this complaint, my initial response is to tell them that if a bank loan provides an adequate amount of working capital for their needs, they should go that route But if the bank rejects their application for financing, they should keep an open mind about invoice factoring

There are several reasons why comparing factoring to bank loans is like comparing apples to oranges:

First, factoring is not a loan You are not borrowing money Rather, you are selling a non-productive asset for a discount for immediate cash Because of that, it is hard to compare a factoring discount of fee to bank interest rates

Second, setting up an invoice factoring relationship is a simple and fast process Funding can occur as fast as one week from the time the application is received Compare that to the typically long and often difficult process of getting a bank loan Even in the best of times, you must provide the bank with a lot of historical information, answer a lot of questions, and wait a long time to get approved by a loan committee With the current chaos in the credit markets, the requirements are even more strict and difficult Factoring offers immediate cash flow after the relationship has been established, with funds wired into your bank account within 24 hours of receiving your invoices

Third, many factoring companies offer additional services that banks don’t provide For example, if you wish to add a new customer’s invoices, the factoring company will provide credit screening free of charge Collections can be done by staff members of the factoring company in a professional and courteous manner, which tends to lessen bad debt Timely reports are provided on an ongoing basis, which helps the client keep an close watch on their outstanding receivables

Fourth, Bank loans most always require personal guarantees from the business owners and they must often pledge other collateral Factoring companies only require a first position on the business-to-business accounts receivable No personal guarantees are required and no other assets need to be pledged This arrangement not only gives the client the working capital it needs The amount that can be factored is limited only by the pool of accounts receivable

Fifth, start-up companies have a very difficult time getting financing in this era of tight credit Not so with factoring As long as you are selling to credit-worthy customers, a start up company should qualify for invoice factoring

In summary, the business that has been turned down for traditional financing should not get hung up on the cost of factoring On the contrary, they should be more concerned with the cost of not using this alternative form of financing In other words, they should look at the opportunity cost

Let’s say you’ve got a potential new customer that is ready to place orders with you, but you don’t have the working capital on hand to produce the products they need If you could use factoring to provide the cash flow necessary to pay the labor, buy the materials, and incur the overhead, would your business come out ahead? Using incremental profit analysis is something I strongly encourage business owners to do in order to determine if invoice factoring is good fit for their company Ozarks Capital Funding provides working capital to businesses that are growing or struggling with cash flow.
Would you like free invoice factoring quote? Visit our site or call us at (417) 849-7394

Read full story

Author : Wayne MessickSuccessful farm accountants wholeheartedly embrace farm accounting software because it makes them and their clients more effective When someone, the farmer, the accountant, or their bookkeepers input the correct information correctly into the farm accounting software - something a cave man can be trained to do, the output is accurate and provides the farm accountant with the information they need to do their most important job

Filing taxes, creating P&L statements, doing the work up for audited balance sheets and all the compliance work farm accountants do - well those are tasks Their job is to provide their clients with insights, strategies, and support from their perspective as both an accountant and as a confidant

A typical farm accountant keeps track of the money, files the various reports with the various agencies and entities the farmer is involved with A typical farm accountant spends a large percentage of their time in compliance - defense and putting out fires

Successful farm accountants, the type of advisor every successful farmer should be looking for uses compliance as it was intended, to report on what has happened - and they use farm accounting software to reduce the amount of time it takes, while remaining as accurate as it is possible to be

Successful farm accountants focus their efforts on the offence - doing the planning, directly or indirectly, in advance that will make the next round of reporting more favorable than the last and the next even more so and so on and so on

A successful farm accountant is above all an advocate and advisor to their clients They know, for example that when two or more brothers/cousins etc work together - that there will be issues

Invariably those issues involve money And since one brother can’t pick up and leave - taking his land with him, and move to the other end of the county and start over, the successful accountant will help them discuss creative ways to handle the money issues so the whole farm doesn’t sink because of a conflict about dollars The accountant is ever vigilant, on the look out for any hanky panky with the farm’s property and resources too

Whether estate taxes, federal and/or state inheritance taxes etc are part of the equation or not - cash is still going to be required when one of the principles of the farm dies There must be enough money, without bankrupting the farm, to buy out the heirs of a deceased partner so the farm can go on and so their family gets a fair return for their life’s work

Successful farm accountants will recognize when it is necessary to reorganize the farm in order to shift some of the farm’s growing value to the next generation before the farm gets too big for one or the other partner to buy

And the successful farm accountant has contacts they trust - so the farmer can trust them too, who have extensive experience in matters of estate planning, succession strategies, management transfer etc And it is their job to insist that the farmer talks to these specialists!

Every farmer, even if he or she does plans to live forever, must have an exit strategy Successful farm accountants are key advisors who help the farmer understand how much money they will need to live on, how many dollars from the gross revenues of the farm that will take, and where will the money come from They can help the farmer select assets that can be liquidated today - with some of the proceeds set aside for retirement and the rest used to replace the land (for example) that was sold

Successful farm accountants know the importance of making decisions regarding money, sooner rather than later - so less interest is paid and the farmer has longer to benefit from compound interest!

These are but of few examples of ways successful farm accountants spend their time for the benefit of their clients Whenever they can harness the power of farm accounting software to crunch the numbers, giving them accurate information sooner, rather than later - they will jump at it

If your farm accountant says that they “don’t believe in farm accounting software” or something silly like that - you need to find a new one This person is not ever going to be a successful farm accountant for you For them, maybe, since they are padding their bill - but for you, I don’t think so If you want to be successful, put together a team of professionals to help you. Typically, management of the progress of the team falls to the farm accountants you have on board. They understand that the valuable insights of their
farm accountants can help them focus on what is important to them, their family, and the business - for years to come.

Read full story

Author : Wayne MessickFor small businesses the roles of their business accountants depend, more often than not, on the size of their company In the case of a very small company, the small business accountant may handle everything: payroll, internal auditing, taxes, keeping the books up to date, etc In the case of a larger company these important tasks and functions will be broken down between groups of internal personnel or handled through outside small business accountants and their firms

Some examples of internal accounting related functions would be the internal auditors who are responsible for monitoring and record keeping of cash in-flow and expenses in a company Needless to say this is for companies that are probably much larger than yours The good news is that small business accountants often have colleagues or contemporaries - people they know and trust, that they will recommend on a project by project basis

Either internally or externally - perhaps a referral from your small business accountant, someone can be found who would be responsible to make sure that money was being appropriately used and all monies were accounted for This may be an experienced bookkeeper on your payroll, a bookkeeping service, or an outside small business accountant who works through your accountant

Tax accountants, a specialty unto themselves - would be responsible for compliance matters such as the filing of your taxes In addition they should be knowledgeable regarding all the legal ramifications, strategies, record keeping, etc that go along with it Again, this is someone you can hire as a permanent part of your operation - although it may more effective to engage their services at the recommendation of your small business accountant

Small business accountants who are involved in payroll related areas would, in addition to oversight of all things related to payroll tax management, withholding, and reporting This is usually handled through bookkeeping or payroll specialists who are not necessarily accountants, however it is up to your small business accountant to be on top of their work

Your small business accountants know your business, understand financial management and are up to date on ways to maximize profits Their involvement in your business provides you with every opportunity to make every dollar coming in to the business as valuable as it possibly can be

While it takes some effort on your part to make a relationship with your business accountant pay off consistently for your business, the investment of time and money can reward you in many many ways

When it comes to engaging the services of any professional, not just small business accountants - you have 100% of the power to define the relationship and if it is not working for you, to discontinue it

You can and should make them accountable to you for the actions they take on your behalf You certainly should give them as much authority and responsibility as they earn, based on their continuing track record

But remember, small business accountants do not have to write the check That’s your responsibility If you want to be successful, put together a team of professionals to help you. Typically, management of the progress of the team falls to the business accountants you have on board. They understand that the valuable insights of their
small business accountants can help them focus on what is important to them, their family, and the business - for years to come.

Read full story

Author : Jose LuisWhat’s your job profitability? Do you know?

Many business owners are unsure of their profitability at a company or job level They "think" they are making money because they have a few dollars in their checking account Having money in your checking account doesn’t mean you are profitable It might simply mean you haven’t paid all the bills yet, so you have a little cash Cash and profit are two different concepts If you don’t know your exact income and expenses for each job and your overall business, then how can you know whether you are making a profit? And, if you aren’t profitable, your business won’t last long

Analyze Each Job

Regardless of the size of your business or your industry, profitability is something you should be monitoring on a monthly basis To determine your profit, you must know how much you make and spend on each job Expenditures should be tracked for direct labor and material costs on each job In addition, you should also be tracking overhead costs and allocating them to your various jobs as applicable There is always going to be some general overhead, but too often dollars are thrown into general overhead, when those dollars could easily be attached to specific jobs

Intuit’s QuickBooks software program has easy-to-use features that allow you to do job-costing for time and materials, so you don’t have to worry about having to track it all manually Rely on tools to help you run your business more efficiently and effectively

Are you curious how you are doing with job costing measurements? Here are some quick and easy questions to gauge your job costing performance:

1 Do I track each customer’s revenue information through a detailed invoice?
2 Do I have a way of breaking down my direct job materials cost by customer?
3 Do I associate all time spent to each job accurately with actual dollar amounts?
4 Do I have access to reports to monitor profitability on each job in a timely manner?
5 Do I have a way to trend the fluctuations in job profitability from job to job, month to month, etc?

If you answered "no" to any of these, then it’s time for you to take an objective look at your financial goals It’s time for you to implement a job costing mechanism to help you answer "yes" to all these questions How can you track your profitability and long-term growth plans if you don’t have detail at a job level?

QuickBooks Can Help

Here are some easy ways to utilize QuickBooks effectively to help you with your job-costing process:

1 Set up the QuickBooks Item list so that you’ll have both an expense and an income aspect to each of the items This will allow you to track your costs and your income, and will provide you profit by item
2 Record your sales through the invoicing or sales receipt process This will record the income aspects of the items
3 As you purchase the product or service items, make sure that you utilize the Items tab so that it will record the cost to the appropriate item In addition, make sure to assign your customer/job information to each line item so that you’ll have the costs associated to the appropriate customer/job for job-costing
4 Utilize the time-tracking mechanism in QuickBooks so that you and your employees can track time by item and customer/job No dollar value is associated with this time until you actually pay the employees within QuickBooks
5 QuickBooks has preformatted reports that you can access to have job-costing information right at your fingertips These are found under the Reporting menu and the Jobs/Time/Mileage option
6 QuickBooks has the ability to provide reports for any time period you select This will allow you to have a variety of detail over the growth of your business and to produce trending reports You can modify the report as needed to meet your needs

A good accounting professional can help you understand what these reports are telling you, in terms that you can use Reports alone don’t provide value if you don’t understand them So it is key that you understand the reporting information and how you can use that information to assist you in decision-making as you grow your business profitably

Job-costing is easier when you set-up your accounting/bookkeeping software package and know how to use it So, challenge yourself today to become more adept at running a financially savvy business through job-costing Then, you’ll know, without a doubt, whether your company is profitable A place to find 1000s of Useful Articles
A place to Quickly and Easily Find Someone You Lost Track Of
Accounting Articles

Submitted By ArticleUnited.com

Read full story

Author : Shaun ParkerBusinesses are having to make sacrifices at the moment as almost every single business sector has been hit by the credit crunch and the economic downturn and one way in which smaller businesses are cutting corners is by ditching their accountants and using business accounting software to keep track of their finances

There are many types of business accounting software geared to sort small independent companies to corporate giants, but they all offer simple to follow bookkeeping programmes, payroll, quoting, invoicing, electronic payment processing, and stock control programmes which get the job done efficiently and with the minimum of fuss

Business accounting software is commonly made up using a series of modules that are all relevant to the running of a successful business Keeping on top of finances has never been more important during these difficult financial times Companies are becoming insolvent in their droves, and although the bulk are mainly liquidating due to a lack of consumer confidence, high unemployment rates and the inability to borrow funds as readily as prior to the credit crunch, a lot of companies have been able to stay afloat by effectively cutting cost, but also by improving business efficiency

In order to improve the efficiency of your business you need to have access to your expenditure and it needs to be accurately broken down into clear and concise forms in order to make life that little bit more simple, and thus allow you to be more efficient with your time Once you can pin point the inefficient areas of business which need addressing, actions can be implemented to cut costs accordingly

Business accounting software is a vital resource purely because it keeps track of a company’s cash flow, which is the main objective of a business Small businesses may be sceptical and may not think that business accounting software is a worthwhile investment, but the benefits are so great that surely a company would want to lower stress levels of management and staff, which in turn will improve working conditions and thus will improve the efficiency, as will the time saved by using easy to follow software

Stock control is also a vital business component for many companies - there’s nothing worse than getting business in only to realise that stock levels cannot meet demand How convenient it is to keep track of exactly what your company has in stock, just at the click of a button

Many companies opt to buy off the shelf business accounting software, which can prove to be a cheaper alternative to software that is tailored specifically to your company, but bear in mind that there may be functions on generic software that you never use, therefore you’re paying for something that will never benefit your company

Alternatively bespoke business accounting software will be geared towards a company and will only include components that will improve your business In many cases, long term, bespoke business accounting software actually proves more cost effective for businesses as the benefits are often vital in lifting a company and improving performance

So if you are seriously considering ways to improve your business, analyse your accounting - if you’re a small business paying high rates to an accounting company then look into business accounting software as a cost effective alternative that can improve the everyday running of your business It will prove to be a prudent move Shaun Parker is a Business Analyst with many years of experience in IT solutions. Find out more about business accounting software at http://www.e1business.com

Read full story