Top 7 Tips For Solicitors - Bookkeeping By Lisa M Newton

Solicitors' accounts can be a minefield. Solicitors have enough on their plate without the additional stress of trying to remember and apply all the Solicitors Accounts Rules (SARS) that exist, and so for this task, they may well rely on their Legal Cashiers. In this article, we attempt to outline the top 7 tips that all solicitors should know when it comes to Legal Accounts.1. Purchase invoices/counsel / expense receipts must be retained for VAT purposes. It doesn't matter what the amount is, any expenses need to be supported with a receipt. If a vat inspection took place this information needs to be produced.2. Outstanding bills with money in client account - need a weekly report. SARS states that monies in client accounts, relating to payment of bills need to be transferred 14 days from receipt. If these are left for more than 14 days you will be in breach of SARS. So solicitors do need to be on top of their books, to be able to ensure that the relevant postings are made in good time.3. Balance in client account must be returned it to the client. It is important the balance is not billed to clearall funds. Any balance must be returned to the client regardless of the amount. For small amounts for example, anything under �1.00, then it's best to return that in the form of stamps as you often find that many people won't cash small value cheques, and so you are left with lots of unreconciled cheques waiting to be cleared in the bank. Many solicitors have small balances going back many years. As an exercise, it might just be worth trying to contact these past clients and returning their funds to them. It will simplify matters, and who knows, they may need your services again - you could be contacting them at the right time.4. Use the office account when you want to draw a cheque against uncleared funds. You actually don't have to sit and wait for funds to clear... if you get the authority from a practise partner, then you can draw a cheque against uncleared funds. On the one hand, this can save you time in your practice, but you need to be aware, because if the cheque is returned as unpaid you are in breach of SARS. Drawing funds, which ultimately turn out to not exist will result in an overdrawn client account. This is not allowed, because it means you've used client A's fund to support the activity of Client B. Client B needs his own money. Overall, the best way to avoid any of the above is to have your unpaids go through the office account.5. Have a process for sending funds back to the client. This is similar to tip 3, but it's slightly deeper. Despite many solicitors 'knowing' that they really ought to return clients funds to the client, very few actually get around to it. Failing to do this results in cumbersome books, and you don't want this. What you need is a process for sending funds back to the client - particularly when the cheque has not been cashed. You can't just close these accounts, if they have uncleared cheques sitting there. Nor can you just keep the money. You need to show that you have attempted to return the funds more than once. Failing this, then the solicitor needs to make an arrangement to send the funds to the Law Society. They have a Benevolent Fund, and they make the decision whether it will go to the charity or whether you can keep it. If it's for under �50.00 then it can normally go to a charity of your choice e.g. The MS Society. But what you cannot do is send the client a bill for it. Some solicitors do it, but it is wrong.6. Cheques drawn should be sent to the client immediately. Large cheques drawn and not banked after two weeks should be queried. If you haven't sent it out, it should be returned to cancel with possible interest added to the cheque. Solicitors have been known to draw cheques and sit on them while they benefit from the interest. This is wrong.7. Documentation for yearly audit must be retained and filed in date order. Paying in books, bank statements and bank reconciliation's signed by partner, are items that the auditor needs to refer to, to perform the yearly audit. Ideally, archive the records, and keep them for 6-year minimum in case an Inland Revenue inquiry arises.To avoid the headache, you can always outsource the legal bookkeeping job to an experienced bookkeeping company such as Boogles Ltd. Visit: http://www.boogles.org or call 0844 8844 622 for more details.Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lisa_M_Newton

Using Quickbooks to Detect Fraud By David S Roberts

IntroductionQuickBooks is by far the easiest program to use with the most complicated and diverse applications in it that never get used by most business owners. Fraud happens every day and as I have said before, small businesses lose more money every year due to fraud than some of the largest corporations. What a lot of Fraudsters, who happen to use QuickBooks don't know is that every move they make, every step they take, is being 'watched' by the QuickBooks software.PreventionThe key to preventing fraud of course is making sure that it is not the same person who handles more than one accounting function in a business. You don't want the same person who is opening the mail, being the one who sends the checks. You don't want the same person who can sign checks being the one determining the amounts to put on the checks.Upon setup, QuickBooks allows the business owner to set up users. The owner should always be the Administrator, not the bookkeeper, not the CPA or accountant, but the Administrator. Anyone else using the program can be limited to the parts of the program that they can access by the Admin. Sales persons needing to enter sales can do so, but they don't need access to the bank account information. Purchasers need to be able to create purchase orders and invoices, but not able to adjust inventory on hand or create checks to pay for invoices. Only the admin should be able to make these adjustments. Name the users of QuickBooks so you know who is doing what and when. This will give you an eagle eye on the security of the QuickBooks transactions.DetectionThere is a little known feature of QB that is called the Audit Trail. The Audit Trail records any changes made to original transactions, any deletions of invoices, checks, etc. You'll want to do this when the place is closed or when you have plenty of time because this report can take a very long time to generate. Go to the Reports tab on the menu bar and click on it. Find the Accountant's Reports and you will see the Audit Trail as one of the options. Click on it and apply the dates you wish to check, (the longer the period of time and more transactions, the longer the report will take) and wait.In the audit trail, if an entry has been altered or deleted there will be two or sometimes three lines for one transaction. The one on the bottom is the original entry, the one(s) above it have been altered or deleted and the report will give what was changed, the payee, the amount, or an account and tell you which user entered the original, which user changed it and the day and time it was done.So how do you tell if it's fraud or just someone making changes? First, deleting an invoice should rarely be done, if there are a large number of deleted invoices then chances are, your company is not using the Estimates icon. The invoice should only be created when you know for sure a customer is going to go through with the arrangement, if you are using the invoice feature to send estimates, those estimates are posting to your accounts receivable account which should not be done.So how would someone commit fraud by altering an invoice? If the same person that prints the invoices also sends the checks, it is very easy to print the invoice for your approval at $200 or more than what was actually invoiced for. Once you've approved what should be a $5000 invoice for $5200, the clerk will change the $5200 to $5000 and send the vendor the right amount, and at the same time issue themselves a check for $200 which would be written off to another account somewhere in the books. The bank reconciliations would always match and no one would be the wiser. This is one reason that you cannot print an invoice without saving it first.Another common method of fraud is altering the payee of existing invoices to benefit the relatives, friends, etc of the crooked clerk. So an invoice may come in that has been created at home and submitted to you for payment by the person creating the invoice. Or, you may be cutting a check for a legitimate expense only to have the funds redirected to the crooked clerk.You might also be on the lookout for checks being issued for identical amounts, during the same period every week, every month, etc. Sometimes the fraudster will send two checks to the same vendor and call up a day later and ask the vendor to return the check 'mistakenly' sent. If the fraudster is the same person who opens the mail, he will take the check and 'wash it' and make himself the payee. (If your bookkeeper seems to be continually doing her nails, you smell nail polish remover constantly, your company is at risk as that is what is used to remove ink off of checks) You can catch this by exporting the check detail to Excel and sorting it according to amounts, if you have one or two more checks a month for identical amounts, call your bank and ask for a copy of the cashed checks, front and back. The back of a check tells you which bank cashed it, and often, the name of the person who cashed it as well.If you get your bank statements already opened by your bookkeeper, watch for checks that have cleared but that aren't placed into the envelope with the statements. Compare your bank register to the images of the checks on the statements and confirm that the person or company you wrote the check to is the actual person or company that cashed the check.ConclusionIf you take the basic precautions, it makes this kind of fraud much harder to commit. But you have to be vigilant and ready to take action should fraud be occurring in your business. Remember, however, that this is America, home of the Free Land of the Lawsuit. NEVER directly accuse your bookkeeper of stealing, especially in front of others. Find the services of a Certified Fraud Examiner in your area and they will be able to help you put a successful case together for prosecution, should you choose to go that route.David Roberts, CFE, CQBPA, MBA, lives in Kissimmee, Florida with four girls, three dogs, two snakes and one wife. He has been a member of the ACFE for four years and has been studying fraud for longer than that. He is the owner of Homesoon Accounting Services which specializes in Quickbooks Consultations and Fraud Prevention and Detection.Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_S_Roberts

Finding the Right Accountant For Your Business By Michelle L Kirkbride

When you start up in business or turn towards self-employment, you're going to need to manage your own money and keep your books nice and clean. You may not have skills in accounting, but you'd better find someone who does -and fast.Accounting isn't just keeping track of income and expenses. By law, you must keep certain records on file. If you're not an expert at knowing which documents you need and how to file them properly, then you need someone to help you.Getting an accountant to help with your financials is a good idea anyways. Accountants can help you save money by providing advice on your expenditures, or they can give suggestions on maintaining or increasing your income. They can tell you when you're running into issues that need your attention, and they can maximize your business tax credits.Accountants train for years, too. They're experts with numbers and math, and they have the ability to help you keep more money in your business where it belongs. Sometimes, accountants can save businesses thousands of pounds each year. That's well worth the cost of their consultation and accounting services!Ignoring your record keeping is the fast track to business failure. You need to be on top of this aspect of your business, ending up with all the proper records at year's end. Neglect your records and books, and you face hefty fines or even the closing of your business. Is that what you always dreamed of? Of course not.Organizing your records and accounts according to an accountant's recommendations isn't a big deal. It's a habit that you'll quickly fall into, with every paper in its place and every penny accounted for properly. At a glance, you'll be able to see the health and vitality of your business - or notice impending trouble so that you can attend to the situation before you have problems.Choose an accountant that makes you feel comfortable. This person is going to be taking a close look at your financial information and working with you to maximize your company's income. That means you need a strong bond of trust and a sense that this person is the right person for the job. Your accountant should have the best interests of your business at heart.Hire a professional. Plenty of people dabble in accounting, but they can sometimes do more damage than good or miss cashing in on a big tax credit. Ask other business owners whom they recommend or call associations that can point you towards an accountant with a good reputation. The ACCA or CIMA are two good places to contact.Shop around. Call a few people that you feel might be good accountants for your business to get a sense of their expertise, professionalism and personality. Ask about credentials, experience and past history, too. Ask about the type of services offered and see if one accountant doesn't offer more than the next.Ask questions - lots of them. Where your money is concerned, there are no silly questions, so don't be shy. Make sure that you get clear answers that satisfy you, too. If the accountant doesn't answer questions clearly or seems dodgy, don't hire that person.Also make sure your accountant is discreet. If the person you're talking to discusses other business owner financials or the affairs of people, then they'll chat about your money matters to others, too.Find out who you'll be dealing with. Will you be talking to the accountant directly or will you have to deal with staff when you call in with questions? Is the staff knowledgeable and friendly? Can they provide real help in a pinch or are they only there to field calls and take messages.Speaking of messages, ask about how long you'll have to wait to get answers or help when you need it. You may want to know about business hours, too, and if it is possible to schedule meetings when you have issues to deal with or when a quick phone call isn't going to be enough.Lastly, don't be afraid to question rates. Don't shop for your accountant by price. Always shop by quality of services and information first and shop by price second. Remember, the person you'll be dealing with needs to be someone who can help you and your business, and that person should be someone that you can feel good about, no matter what the cost.Online business is growing rapidly but there is still such a large number of businesses missing out on this opportunity. Kaplang is a unique design firm that provides quality services for web design, web development, search engine optimization and all other web solutions. Make sure your business stands out from the crowd when adding an online presence to your new or existing business. http://www.kaplang.comArticle Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michelle_L_Kirkbride

Using Quickbooks to Detect Fraud By David S Roberts

IntroductionQuickBooks is by far the easiest program to use with the most complicated and diverse applications in it that never get used by most business owners. Fraud happens every day and as I have said before, small businesses lose more money every year due to fraud than some of the largest corporations. What a lot of Fraudsters, who happen to use QuickBooks don't know is that every move they make, every step they take, is being 'watched' by the QuickBooks software.PreventionThe key to preventing fraud of course is making sure that it is not the same person who handles more than one accounting function in a business. You don't want the same person who is opening the mail, being the one who sends the checks. You don't want the same person who can sign checks being the one determining the amounts to put on the checks.Upon setup, QuickBooks allows the business owner to set up users. The owner should always be the Administrator, not the bookkeeper, not the CPA or accountant, but the Administrator. Anyone else using the program can be limited to the parts of the program that they can access by the Admin. Sales persons needing to enter sales can do so, but they don't need access to the bank account information. Purchasers need to be able to create purchase orders and invoices, but not able to adjust inventory on hand or create checks to pay for invoices. Only the admin should be able to make these adjustments. Name the users of QuickBooks so you know who is doing what and when. This will give you an eagle eye on the security of the QuickBooks transactions.DetectionThere is a little known feature of QB that is called the Audit Trail. The Audit Trail records any changes made to original transactions, any deletions of invoices, checks, etc. You'll want to do this when the place is closed or when you have plenty of time because this report can take a very long time to generate. Go to the Reports tab on the menu bar and click on it. Find the Accountant's Reports and you will see the Audit Trail as one of the options. Click on it and apply the dates you wish to check, (the longer the period of time and more transactions, the longer the report will take) and wait.In the audit trail, if an entry has been altered or deleted there will be two or sometimes three lines for one transaction. The one on the bottom is the original entry, the one(s) above it have been altered or deleted and the report will give what was changed, the payee, the amount, or an account and tell you which user entered the original, which user changed it and the day and time it was done.So how do you tell if it's fraud or just someone making changes? First, deleting an invoice should rarely be done, if there are a large number of deleted invoices then chances are, your company is not using the Estimates icon. The invoice should only be created when you know for sure a customer is going to go through with the arrangement, if you are using the invoice feature to send estimates, those estimates are posting to your accounts receivable account which should not be done.So how would someone commit fraud by altering an invoice? If the same person that prints the invoices also sends the checks, it is very easy to print the invoice for your approval at $200 or more than what was actually invoiced for. Once you've approved what should be a $5000 invoice for $5200, the clerk will change the $5200 to $5000 and send the vendor the right amount, and at the same time issue themselves a check for $200 which would be written off to another account somewhere in the books. The bank reconciliations would always match and no one would be the wiser. This is one reason that you cannot print an invoice without saving it first.Another common method of fraud is altering the payee of existing invoices to benefit the relatives, friends, etc of the crooked clerk. So an invoice may come in that has been created at home and submitted to you for payment by the person creating the invoice. Or, you may be cutting a check for a legitimate expense only to have the funds redirected to the crooked clerk.You might also be on the lookout for checks being issued for identical amounts, during the same period every week, every month, etc. Sometimes the fraudster will send two checks to the same vendor and call up a day later and ask the vendor to return the check 'mistakenly' sent. If the fraudster is the same person who opens the mail, he will take the check and 'wash it' and make himself the payee. (If your bookkeeper seems to be continually doing her nails, you smell nail polish remover constantly, your company is at risk as that is what is used to remove ink off of checks) You can catch this by exporting the check detail to Excel and sorting it according to amounts, if you have one or two more checks a month for identical amounts, call your bank and ask for a copy of the cashed checks, front and back. The back of a check tells you which bank cashed it, and often, the name of the person who cashed it as well.If you get your bank statements already opened by your bookkeeper, watch for checks that have cleared but that aren't placed into the envelope with the statements. Compare your bank register to the images of the checks on the statements and confirm that the person or company you wrote the check to is the actual person or company that cashed the check.ConclusionIf you take the basic precautions, it makes this kind of fraud much harder to commit. But you have to be vigilant and ready to take action should fraud be occurring in your business. Remember, however, that this is America, home of the Free Land of the Lawsuit. NEVER directly accuse your bookkeeper of stealing, especially in front of others. Find the services of a Certified Fraud Examiner in your area and they will be able to help you put a successful case together for prosecution, should you choose to go that route.David Roberts, CFE, CQBPA, MBA, lives in Kissimmee, Florida with four girls, three dogs, two snakes and one wife. He has been a member of the ACFE for four years and has been studying fraud for longer than that. He is the owner of Homesoon Accounting Services which specializes in Quickbooks Consultations and Fraud Prevention and Detection.Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_S_Roberts

Finding the Right Accountant For Your Business By Michelle L Kirkbride

When you start up in business or turn towards self-employment, you're going to need to manage your own money and keep your books nice and clean. You may not have skills in accounting, but you'd better find someone who does -and fast.Accounting isn't just keeping track of income and expenses. By law, you must keep certain records on file. If you're not an expert at knowing which documents you need and how to file them properly, then you need someone to help you.Getting an accountant to help with your financials is a good idea anyways. Accountants can help you save money by providing advice on your expenditures, or they can give suggestions on maintaining or increasing your income. They can tell you when you're running into issues that need your attention, and they can maximize your business tax credits.Accountants train for years, too. They're experts with numbers and math, and they have the ability to help you keep more money in your business where it belongs. Sometimes, accountants can save businesses thousands of pounds each year. That's well worth the cost of their consultation and accounting services!Ignoring your record keeping is the fast track to business failure. You need to be on top of this aspect of your business, ending up with all the proper records at year's end. Neglect your records and books, and you face hefty fines or even the closing of your business. Is that what you always dreamed of? Of course not.Organizing your records and accounts according to an accountant's recommendations isn't a big deal. It's a habit that you'll quickly fall into, with every paper in its place and every penny accounted for properly. At a glance, you'll be able to see the health and vitality of your business - or notice impending trouble so that you can attend to the situation before you have problems.Choose an accountant that makes you feel comfortable. This person is going to be taking a close look at your financial information and working with you to maximize your company's income. That means you need a strong bond of trust and a sense that this person is the right person for the job. Your accountant should have the best interests of your business at heart.Hire a professional. Plenty of people dabble in accounting, but they can sometimes do more damage than good or miss cashing in on a big tax credit. Ask other business owners whom they recommend or call associations that can point you towards an accountant with a good reputation. The ACCA or CIMA are two good places to contact.Shop around. Call a few people that you feel might be good accountants for your business to get a sense of their expertise, professionalism and personality. Ask about credentials, experience and past history, too. Ask about the type of services offered and see if one accountant doesn't offer more than the next.Ask questions - lots of them. Where your money is concerned, there are no silly questions, so don't be shy. Make sure that you get clear answers that satisfy you, too. If the accountant doesn't answer questions clearly or seems dodgy, don't hire that person.Also make sure your accountant is discreet. If the person you're talking to discusses other business owner financials or the affairs of people, then they'll chat about your money matters to others, too.Find out who you'll be dealing with. Will you be talking to the accountant directly or will you have to deal with staff when you call in with questions? Is the staff knowledgeable and friendly? Can they provide real help in a pinch or are they only there to field calls and take messages.Speaking of messages, ask about how long you'll have to wait to get answers or help when you need it. You may want to know about business hours, too, and if it is possible to schedule meetings when you have issues to deal with or when a quick phone call isn't going to be enough.Lastly, don't be afraid to question rates. Don't shop for your accountant by price. Always shop by quality of services and information first and shop by price second. Remember, the person you'll be dealing with needs to be someone who can help you and your business, and that person should be someone that you can feel good about, no matter what the cost.Online business is growing rapidly but there is still such a large number of businesses missing out on this opportunity. Kaplang is a unique design firm that provides quality services for web design, web development, search engine optimization and all other web solutions. Make sure your business stands out from the crowd when adding an online presence to your new or existing business. http://www.kaplang.comArticle Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michelle_L_Kirkbride

Diagnosing Common Errors in QuickBooks Part Two - Excessive Amounts in Undeposited Funds By

This next article deals with a very common problem in that many business owners using QuickBooks don't follow through on all three steps in entering QuickBooks information. Often, upon examining the Chart of Accounts of a new client, I will find excessive amounts in their Undeposited Funds account which typically means that their bank balances will not match their statements and reconciliation is made virtually impossible to do accurately.The ErrorThere is a three step process in dealing with customer payments. First, the invoice is created with the items, expenses, etc that you are charging your customer for. The invoice amount is then automatically put into the Accounts Receivable account anticipating that a payment will be received.Second, when the customer does pay, it must be done through using the "Receive Payments" icon. Once the customer's name is entered, you will see the list of invoices that this customer still owes you money on. You enter the amount of the payment made and check off the invoice that the customer sent the payment in for. Click on save and close and you have now officially received the payment from the customer for that invoice.But wait, the invoice now is considered paid according to QuickBooks, so the customer's balance will be what it should be. The amount however, stays in the Undeposited Funds account, which is where QB puts it after the second step. I have seen as much as four or five year's worth of received payments that have been put into the Undeposited Funds account, and yet have never been Deposited into the appropriate bank account. This third step is what many people miss. Third, you must click on the Make Deposits icon, group all the payments, checks, etc as you would do on your bank's deposit slips and put them into the account on the day you physically took those checks to the bank and deposited them. For example, if you receive ten checks and you take all ten to the bank, your bank will record the total deposit, not the individual checks and amounts. When you reconcile the bank statements, the deposits in QB should match the deposits on the statements. So if your bank statement shows a deposit of $10100, the QuickBooks deposit should have a deposit of $10100.If you have the Intuit Merchant services all the credit card transactions that have been processed will group together according to the day you processed them. You must click on the 'Get Funding Status' button which will link you to the Intuit Merchant Services site to verify that those payments have indeed been deposited. If you fail to do this in a timely manner, the information about their funding status is deleted from the Merchant Services server three months from the day you entered them and you will not be able to verify that the amounts have been funded.A Costly MistakeWhat some people have done is that they have 'forced' a deposit into the bank register when their statements don't match, and they still have the excessive amounts received in their Undeposited Funds Account. Now they reconcile the bank statements, and true, they will now tie out nicely, the financial statements will be completely wrong. How?First, if you are having your taxes prepared using the QB reports, you have now told the preparer, AND the IRS that you have been paid twice as much as you actually have. And you will pay taxes on the money that you are forcing into your bank register as a deposit, and on the money that the customers actually paid you.Second, now you have to have someone go in to correct these mistakes in the QuickBooks file by deleting the deposits forced in and applying payments received in Undeposited Funds to those deposits. This can take hours depending on how far back the issue goes and how many months need to be corrected.Third, now you have to rereconcile the accounts, because by deleting these forced deposits that you have reconciled, you have thrown the reconciliations off by the amounts you have deleted. You will have to go into the bank reconciliation screen and click on the 'Undo Last Reconciliation' button until you get to the point at which these errors began to be made. Having a professional do this for you can be upwards of $100/hour and if you calculate at about 2 hours for each month's work that can add up quickly.Can I Do It Myself?There is no fast way to do this, but this is the procedure I would follow if I were completing this project. One, print out the deposit detail record going back to the time these mistakes were made complete with the dates of each deposit, the amounts, etc.Two, use this printout and the 'Make Deposits' button to match the amounts of each deposit for each day it was deposited. Continue until you get up to the current period where you should start receiving and depositing payments correctly.Three, delete all the 'forced' deposits from the bank register. Be cautious so as to not accidentally erase the corrected deposits. Fourth, using the 'Reconcile Bank' screen click on the 'Undo Last Reconciliation' button until you get to the month where the mistakes began to be made. If there are several months or years involved here, you still have to go back to the beginning so be patient. Fifth, re-reconcile each month to its own bank statement. This is the right way to do it and you should do it this way if you at all can.Is There A Faster Way?I do not recommend doing it this way! It is much easier, faster and tempting, but doing so can lead to an IRS auditor looking closer into your books than you wish them to and staying longer than you'd like. But yes, there IS a faster way. I have to caution that I do not recommend this in any way, shape or form but here is the easy way.Choose the month at which you want to begin doing things 'right'. Let's say, October of 2008. Now, create a fake bank account called adjustment bank, whatever you'd like to call it. Go to the Make Deposits screen and click all the received funds from September 2008 to the beginning of the problem.Make one lump sum deposit for the year into that fake bank account for all those payments that have been received. If it's more than one year's worth make sure to deposit them according to whatever year the money was received.Make a general journal entry with the fake bank account and debit the fake bank account for that amount of money, the credit would be in the adjustment income account and would delete that amount. Now make that fake bank account inactive and make the adjustment income account inactive after zeroing it out.Again, I do not recommend this at all, but you are done in less than half the time it would take you to do it the right way. And remember that whichever way you decide to solve this issue, to start and to keep doing it right from now on.David Roberts, CFE, CQBPA, MBA, lives in Kissimmee, Florida with four girls, three dogs, two snakes and one wife. He has been a member of the ACFE for four years and has been studying fraud for longer than that. He is the owner of Homesoon Accounting Services which specializes in Quickbooks Consultations and Fraud Prevention and Detection.Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_S_Roberts

Finding the Right Accountant For Your Business By <a href="http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Michelle_L_Kirkbride">Michelle L Kirkbride</a>

When you start up in business or turn towards self-employment, you're going to need to manage your own money and keep your books nice and clean. You may not have skills in accounting, but you'd better find someone who does -and fast.Accounting isn't just keeping track of income and expenses. By law, you must keep certain records on file. If you're not an expert at knowing which documents you need and how to file them properly, then you need someone to help you.Getting an accountant to help with your financials is a good idea anyways. Accountants can help you save money by providing advice on your expenditures, or they can give suggestions on maintaining or increasing your income. They can tell you when you're running into issues that need your attention, and they can maximize your business tax credits.Accountants train for years, too. They're experts with numbers and math, and they have the ability to help you keep more money in your business where it belongs. Sometimes, accountants can save businesses thousands of pounds each year. That's well worth the cost of their consultation and accounting services!Ignoring your record keeping is the fast track to business failure. You need to be on top of this aspect of your business, ending up with all the proper records at year's end. Neglect your records and books, and you face hefty fines or even the closing of your business. Is that what you always dreamed of? Of course not.Organizing your records and accounts according to an accountant's recommendations isn't a big deal. It's a habit that you'll quickly fall into, with every paper in its place and every penny accounted for properly. At a glance, you'll be able to see the health and vitality of your business - or notice impending trouble so that you can attend to the situation before you have problems.Choose an accountant that makes you feel comfortable. This person is going to be taking a close look at your financial information and working with you to maximize your company's income. That means you need a strong bond of trust and a sense that this person is the right person for the job. Your accountant should have the best interests of your business at heart.Hire a professional. Plenty of people dabble in accounting, but they can sometimes do more damage than good or miss cashing in on a big tax credit. Ask other business owners whom they recommend or call associations that can point you towards an accountant with a good reputation. The ACCA or CIMA are two good places to contact.Shop around. Call a few people that you feel might be good accountants for your business to get a sense of their expertise, professionalism and personality. Ask about credentials, experience and past history, too. Ask about the type of services offered and see if one accountant doesn't offer more than the next.Ask questions - lots of them. Where your money is concerned, there are no silly questions, so don't be shy. Make sure that you get clear answers that satisfy you, too. If the accountant doesn't answer questions clearly or seems dodgy, don't hire that person.Also make sure your accountant is discreet. If the person you're talking to discusses other business owner financials or the affairs of people, then they'll chat about your money matters to others, too.Find out who you'll be dealing with. Will you be talking to the accountant directly or will you have to deal with staff when you call in with questions? Is the staff knowledgeable and friendly? Can they provide real help in a pinch or are they only there to field calls and take messages.Speaking of messages, ask about how long you'll have to wait to get answers or help when you need it. You may want to know about business hours, too, and if it is possible to schedule meetings when you have issues to deal with or when a quick phone call isn't going to be enough.Lastly, don't be afraid to question rates. Don't shop for your accountant by price. Always shop by quality of services and information first and shop by price second. Remember, the person you'll be dealing with needs to be someone who can help you and your business, and that person should be someone that you can feel good about, no matter what the cost.Online business is growing rapidly but there is still such a large number of businesses missing out on this opportunity. Kaplang is a unique design firm that provides quality services for web design, web development, search engine optimization and all other web solutions. Make sure your business stands out from the crowd when adding an online presence to your new or existing business. http://www.kaplang.comArticle Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michelle_L_Kirkbride

Diagnosing Common Errors in QuickBooks Part Two - Excessive Amounts in Undeposited Funds By

This next article deals with a very common problem in that many business owners using QuickBooks don't follow through on all three steps in entering QuickBooks information. Often, upon examining the Chart of Accounts of a new client, I will find excessive amounts in their Undeposited Funds account which typically means that their bank balances will not match their statements and reconciliation is made virtually impossible to do accurately.The ErrorThere is a three step process in dealing with customer payments. First, the invoice is created with the items, expenses, etc that you are charging your customer for. The invoice amount is then automatically put into the Accounts Receivable account anticipating that a payment will be received.Second, when the customer does pay, it must be done through using the "Receive Payments" icon. Once the customer's name is entered, you will see the list of invoices that this customer still owes you money on. You enter the amount of the payment made and check off the invoice that the customer sent the payment in for. Click on save and close and you have now officially received the payment from the customer for that invoice.But wait, the invoice now is considered paid according to QuickBooks, so the customer's balance will be what it should be. The amount however, stays in the Undeposited Funds account, which is where QB puts it after the second step. I have seen as much as four or five year's worth of received payments that have been put into the Undeposited Funds account, and yet have never been Deposited into the appropriate bank account. This third step is what many people miss. Third, you must click on the Make Deposits icon, group all the payments, checks, etc as you would do on your bank's deposit slips and put them into the account on the day you physically took those checks to the bank and deposited them. For example, if you receive ten checks and you take all ten to the bank, your bank will record the total deposit, not the individual checks and amounts. When you reconcile the bank statements, the deposits in QB should match the deposits on the statements. So if your bank statement shows a deposit of $10100, the QuickBooks deposit should have a deposit of $10100.If you have the Intuit Merchant services all the credit card transactions that have been processed will group together according to the day you processed them. You must click on the 'Get Funding Status' button which will link you to the Intuit Merchant Services site to verify that those payments have indeed been deposited. If you fail to do this in a timely manner, the information about their funding status is deleted from the Merchant Services server three months from the day you entered them and you will not be able to verify that the amounts have been funded.A Costly MistakeWhat some people have done is that they have 'forced' a deposit into the bank register when their statements don't match, and they still have the excessive amounts received in their Undeposited Funds Account. Now they reconcile the bank statements, and true, they will now tie out nicely, the financial statements will be completely wrong. How?First, if you are having your taxes prepared using the QB reports, you have now told the preparer, AND the IRS that you have been paid twice as much as you actually have. And you will pay taxes on the money that you are forcing into your bank register as a deposit, and on the money that the customers actually paid you.Second, now you have to have someone go in to correct these mistakes in the QuickBooks file by deleting the deposits forced in and applying payments received in Undeposited Funds to those deposits. This can take hours depending on how far back the issue goes and how many months need to be corrected.Third, now you have to rereconcile the accounts, because by deleting these forced deposits that you have reconciled, you have thrown the reconciliations off by the amounts you have deleted. You will have to go into the bank reconciliation screen and click on the 'Undo Last Reconciliation' button until you get to the point at which these errors began to be made. Having a professional do this for you can be upwards of $100/hour and if you calculate at about 2 hours for each month's work that can add up quickly.Can I Do It Myself?There is no fast way to do this, but this is the procedure I would follow if I were completing this project. One, print out the deposit detail record going back to the time these mistakes were made complete with the dates of each deposit, the amounts, etc.Two, use this printout and the 'Make Deposits' button to match the amounts of each deposit for each day it was deposited. Continue until you get up to the current period where you should start receiving and depositing payments correctly.Three, delete all the 'forced' deposits from the bank register. Be cautious so as to not accidentally erase the corrected deposits. Fourth, using the 'Reconcile Bank' screen click on the 'Undo Last Reconciliation' button until you get to the month where the mistakes began to be made. If there are several months or years involved here, you still have to go back to the beginning so be patient. Fifth, re-reconcile each month to its own bank statement. This is the right way to do it and you should do it this way if you at all can.Is There A Faster Way?I do not recommend doing it this way! It is much easier, faster and tempting, but doing so can lead to an IRS auditor looking closer into your books than you wish them to and staying longer than you'd like. But yes, there IS a faster way. I have to caution that I do not recommend this in any way, shape or form but here is the easy way.Choose the month at which you want to begin doing things 'right'. Let's say, October of 2008. Now, create a fake bank account called adjustment bank, whatever you'd like to call it. Go to the Make Deposits screen and click all the received funds from September 2008 to the beginning of the problem.Make one lump sum deposit for the year into that fake bank account for all those payments that have been received. If it's more than one year's worth make sure to deposit them according to whatever year the money was received.Make a general journal entry with the fake bank account and debit the fake bank account for that amount of money, the credit would be in the adjustment income account and would delete that amount. Now make that fake bank account inactive and make the adjustment income account inactive after zeroing it out.Again, I do not recommend this at all, but you are done in less than half the time it would take you to do it the right way. And remember that whichever way you decide to solve this issue, to start and to keep doing it right from now on.David Roberts, CFE, CQBPA, MBA, lives in Kissimmee, Florida with four girls, three dogs, two snakes and one wife. He has been a member of the ACFE for four years and has been studying fraud for longer than that. He is the owner of Homesoon Accounting Services which specializes in Quickbooks Consultations and Fraud Prevention and Detection.Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_S_Roberts

Accounting - Using a Pencil and Paper to a Complex Accounting Management System By <a href="http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Alice_Lane">Alice Lane</a>

For many of us our only involvement with the subject of accounting is simply the balancing of our checkbooks. Some people might even go one step further and input all of their transactions into their favorite software program. There are even a great many of us who simply do not balance their checkbooks at all! But there are many individuals out there who work in the accounting industry for a living. Some professionals work in large accounting firms where anyone barely knows who you are in the whole scheme of things. These professionals might even work with web based accounting software. Other professionals own their own accounting practice and simply prepare the basic tax returns or assist in the preparation of an assets and liabilities chart.There are many different ways to go about keeping track of the crunching of numbers that accountants do. Some people who tend to be somewhat from the old school thought of doing things. These individuals merely do their accounting computations with a pad of paper and a pencil. Although this way of doing things may seem strange and slow for those of us who were raised during the technology boom, those who utilize their pencil and paper swear by it. You will never hear them complaining that they just lost all of their data because the computer froze and they had to start all over. Always having a hard copy of your work is one of the benefits to employing this method rather than using an accounting management system.For those professionals who are more computer savvy, they simply use some sort of accounting software. With this specialized computer program, the users are able to just type in the information that the computer is asking for next and the software generates a perfectly complete tax return. This can come in quite handy and can save valuable time, especially when it comes to preparing the more complex returns. This is generally when you are dealing with a partnership return, a trust return or even someone who has several rental properties they manage.When it comes to saving time and money, one of the best ways to go about doing this is through the use of web-based bookkeeping. When using web-based accounting software, people who work for your company all around the country can have ready access to your accounting. Plus there are no setup fees and you also get to keep your initial costs lower.No matter what method of bookkeeping you or your company uses, there is really no correct way. When it comes to getting the job done, the best you can do is to use whatever system makes you the most comfortable. Even if that means using a pencil and a pad of paper!So if you are looking for more information on web based accounting software or accounting management system make sure you click on http://www.phase2int.com today. Phase 2 also has further information on webbased bookkeeping as well.Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alice_Lane

Accounting Outsourcing - Easy to Maintain Your Accounting Records By Michelle Barkley

Is your accounts department not delivering the desired output? Or you have plans to expand your business? Well then try for accounting services... Most of you would have heard about it but still would be unsure, what it is all about? Some might have plans to hire a company delivering competent accounting services but don't know how this service could be beneficial to you?Well, it is not easy to get skilled and trained manpower. And when deadlines are hovering around you and there is lot other work left then there is the need of expert. So to get the task done by reliable professionals, it is necessary to hire them. Recruiting a team of professionals can be quite expensive, so to cut down the cost you can hire a company for doing the business of accounting outsourcing... For their services they charge comparatively low amount. Once the task comes in their hand, they keep track of all the accounts related issue and help in giving complete financial solutions. Some of the features of good financial accounting outsourcing services are:* If you have plans to expand your services then with the help of this service you can easily concentrate on other important things for your business.
* Further, now you no need to worry to keep a track of all employees and records.
* For the complicated data now you don't have to spend much time. With the help of accounting outsourcing one automatically and quickly get accurate reports. The process is much faster as the work is done by the professionals.
* As the accounting process is done timely and efficiently, you can make quick decision.Depending on the size of business, the accounting outsourcing service providers give customizable solutions. For example, for small and medium size units they may include features like:* Comprehensive details account receipts and payments
* Well planned budget process
* Cash flow statement
* Provide techniques on cash management
* Full proof data security
* Financial reporting statements
* List of inventory reconciliation
* Payroll administrationAfter seeing the various benefits and features you would be thinking what if "I have a big business"? Not to worry at all. These days there are number of firms offering competent accounting outsourcing services regardless of the size, status and nature. They ensure that your business is not at all affected and runs smoothly without any hassle. Their services would increase and would not be restricted to payroll tax, accruals, verification of accounting data, etc. It would sound to be a great option to all. But starters would be thinking what if I need help?Here you go... for them various accounting outsourcing firms, provide guidance on accounting protocol and according to ones requirement render prompt solutions. This includes developing complete financial accounting software as well.Seeing the growth in the industry and increasing demand for accounting outsourcing, there are new companies and service providers coming up in the global market. Some of the countries, where one can easily find an accounting outsourcing provider include developing countries like India.Michelle Barkley is a CPA who advises people on tax preparation and tax calculation. She specializes in Bookkeeping outsourcing, accounting outsourcing, back office outsourcing. To know more about Accounting outsourcing Service visit http://www.ifrworld.comArticle Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michelle_Barkley