Running and maintaining a successful business can be difficult even under the most ideal circumstances. Having the proper support is crucial to your business success. If you are experiencing any of the scenarios listed below you need to invest in professional bookkeeping services.
10 PLUS SIGNS YOU SHOULD INVEST IN BOOKKEEPING SERVICES
1. Do you have unopened bank statements stacked in a corner?
This might seem harmless but can significantly affect your business. It is extremely important that your bank statement is opened and reviewed within a day or two or receiving it and reconciled at least monthly. Most business owners don’t realize that there is a limited amount of time to catch and report any fraudulent activity on your bank account – anywhere from 2 – 60 days after receiving your bank statement depending on the type of fraud. If you find fraudulent activity outside of this time frame you can bear full liability. Aside from fraudulent activity monthly reconciliation is paramount to the financial health of your company.
2. Are you struggling to balance your check book?
Sometimes business owners truly make an attempt to balance their checkbook each month, but are just completely lost; either because they are not entirely sure what they are trying to accomplish or because there are so many transactions unaccounted for in the check register that they have long since forgotten what they are for.As a result they just do what they can and move on. This is never a good idea. Your check register needs to be kept current at all times.
3. Are You Writing Bounce Checks or Paying NSF Fees?
The balance in your bank account on any given day is almost never your available balance. Calling the bank to check your current balance before writing a check is not the best way to avoid writing bounced checks. You have to keep track of all your un-cleared checks, your deposits in transit and any scheduled automatic payments including bank fees in order to have a handle on your available balance.
4. Do you have bills thrown in a pile hoping they will disappear?
Sorry, they are not going anywhere, no matter how hard we wish for it.“Try closing your eyes, and clicking your heels three times”.Are they still there? Yes, I bet they are. They keep coming and coming. Not managing and paying these bills on time does not only affect your credit and the credibility of your company, you will be unable to generate any kind of useful financial reports… You can’t be an ostrich with its head in the sand and run a successful business, it simply doesn’t work! Even if you are unable to pay all your bills on time, it is important that these transactions are recorded and tracked accurately.
5. Are you having difficulty managing your cash flow?
Positive Cash flow is paramount to the survival of any business. There are a number of factors that can contribute to your cash flow problems.Not sending customer invoices out on time so you can get paid on-time, still extending credit to customers who are slow payers simply because you are completely unaware, loosing customers because you didn’t properly apply their payments, not charging interest on past due accounts, paying bills twice and the list goes on. The fact is when running a business several things have to align to maintain a healthy positive cash flow.
6. Do you have bags or boxes full or receipts you don’t even want to think about?
All those receipts have valuable information you need to properly run your business. While it might be time consuming, the longer you avoid it the more overwhelming it becomes. Making informed decisions about your business is the only way to maximize your business’ potential. Every missed transaction will affect your ability to do that effectively.
7. Are you constantly running out of inventory?
You can’t sell what you don’t have and losing sales is never good for business. If you are constantly running out of inventory, not only are you losing the sale at the moment but you could loose the customer all together if they become frustrated with never being able to get what they want with any kind of consistency. You need to establish and maintain an effective inventory management system.
8. Are you unsure of how much you made last year or even last month?
Knowing how much profit you have made and how much your business is worth gives you to power to make informed decisions. You can plan accurately for taxes, which could lead to savings of hundreds or even thousand of dollars on your year-end tax returns. You can quickly comply with reporting requirements for business loans. You can know when it is the right time to grow or when t o hold back. You can immediately respond to any suppliers or customers request for financial information. Knowledge is power, don’t lose it?
9. Do you have to call your vendors to find out if you paid your bill?
When you find yourself in a position where you don’t know if you paid a bill and you have no choice but to call that vendor and ask if you paid them, what do you think their answer will be? Can you be 100% certain that this vendor will be honest with you? You can never be sure. Even more difficult is calling your customer to ask them if they paid you. That will reflect badly on you as a company and might affect your customer’s faith in you. This is a position you never want to be in.
10. Are you unsure which of your customers are behind in paying you?
You never want to be in a position to ask your customer if they paid you, because that is only way you have to figure it out. The answer to the question might always be yes and you can’t risk that. Not only is this bad for your cash flow but it reflects badly on you as a company and might affect your customer’s faith in you.