The Importance of Clean Books: How We Help Small Business Owners Stay on Track
As a small business owner, keeping your financials in order is crucial—especially when it’s time to file taxes. Many small business owners come to us for cleanup services because they realize their books don’t reflect their actual business activity. Without accurate financials, you’re flying blind when it comes to planning, decision-making, and tax compliance.
Here’s how we help small businesses clean up their books and get back on track:
Step 1: Assess the Situation
Our first step is to review your books and identify:
- What looks incorrect: We spot errors like negative balances, uncategorized transactions, or inconsistencies.
- What needs to be cleaned up: Issues like unreconciled accounts or miscategorized expenses.
- How to improve going forward: Suggestions to ensure your books remain accurate and useful.
Common Issues We See in Small Business Books
Here are some of the most frequent problems we uncover:
- Uncategorized transactions: These don’t show up in your financial reports, leaving you with an incomplete picture of your business.
- Bank and credit card accounts not reconciled: Without reconciliation, you can’t trust the accuracy of your financials.
- Large balances in the undeposited funds account: Often caused by customer payments not applied to invoices, leading to double-recorded income.
- Negative balances on the balance sheet: This usually indicates recording errors, like misapplied payments or incomplete loan setup.
- Inconsistent expense categorization: For example, telephone bills recorded under different accounts, making it harder to compare year-over-year trends.
Step 2: Clean and Reconcile
Once we’ve assessed your books, we tackle the cleanup process step by step:
- Categorize all transactions in holding: Ensuring they appear in your financials.
- Reconcile every bank, credit card, and loan account: Without reconciliation, there’s no confidence that your numbers are accurate.
- Apply customer payments to invoices: This prevents double-counting income and ensures your sales figures are correct.
- Review accounts with large balances: For example- A large sales tax liability may indicate payments are being recorded as expenses instead of reducing the liability. A negative loan balance could mean the original loan wasn’t recorded properly.
- Check for consistent categorization: We run reports to ensure, for example, that all telephone bills are categorized under the same expense account.
Step 3: Build Confidence in Your Financials
After cleaning up the books, you’ll gain:
- Accurate financials: Confidence that your reports reflect reality.
- Insights into past trends: So you can make informed decisions about the future.
- Ready for filing taxes: Avoid overpaying taxes by ensuring income is recorded only once.
For instance, if customer payments are recorded as new income instead of being applied to existing invoices, you’ll overstate your revenue—and could end up paying taxes on double what you actually earned!
Step 4: Prevent Future Problems
We don’t stop at cleanup. We provide training and tips to help you:
- Keep your books accurate moving forward.
- Spot and fix issues early before they become major problems.
Why Accurate Books Matter
Accurate financials allow you to plan for the future of your business. Whether it’s forecasting cash flow, preparing for growth, or filing taxes, clean books give you the clarity and confidence to make smart decisions.
Ready to clean up your books and take control of your financials? We’re here to help! Reach out to get started.
Written By: Diane Roberts
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As a service-based business owner, managing finances effectively is key to growth and profitability. When looking for financial support, you may come across terms like "outsourced accounting" and "fractional accounting." While they may sound similar, they serve different purposes and offer unique benefits. Understanding the differences can help you decide which approach best suits your business needs. What is Outsourced Accounting? Outsourced accounting refers to hiring an external firm to handle bookkeeping and financial reporting tasks on an ongoing basis. This solution is ideal for businesses that need consistent, reliable financial management but don’t require a full-time, in-house accounting team. Key Benefits of Outsourced Accounting: Cost-Effective: More affordable than hiring an internal accounting department. Scalability: Services can be tailored to your business size and needs. Access to Expertise: Work with professionals who specialize in bookkeeping, payroll, and tax preparation. Technology-Driven: Many firms use cloud-based software like QuickBooks Online for efficiency and real-time reporting. What is Fractional Accounting? A fractional accounting firm provides higher-level financial strategy and decision-making support, often acting as a part-time CFO or controller. This approach is best for businesses that need more than basic bookkeeping but don’t yet require a full-time financial executive. Key Benefits of Fractional Accounting: Strategic Financial Oversight: Helps with budgeting, forecasting, and financial planning. Higher-Level Expertise: A fractional CFO or controller can provide insights beyond day-to-day transactions. Customizable Support: Businesses can engage a fractional firm for a few hours a week or month based on their needs. Growth-Focused: Ideal for scaling companies needing financial strategy without the full-time cost of an in-house CFO. Which One is Right for Your Business? The choice between outsourced and fractional accounting depends on your business size, complexity, and financial goals. Choose Outsourced Accounting if: You need reliable bookkeeping, payroll management, and financial reporting but don’t require deep financial strategy. Choose Fractional Accounting if: Your business is growing, and you need financial leadership, cash flow management, and strategic planning without the cost of a full-time CFO. The Best of Both Worlds Some firms, like First Steps Financial, offer both outsourced accounting and fractional CFO services. This allows businesses to start with outsourced accounting and scale up to fractional services as they grow, ensuring they always have the right financial support. Both outsourced accounting and fractional accounting firms can play a crucial role in your business’s success. The key is understanding where your business stands today and what level of financial expertise will help you achieve your long-term goals. If you’re unsure which option is best for you, First Steps Financial can help! Contact us today to discuss your needs and find the right financial solution for your business.
Don’t overinspect or oversupervise. Allow your leaders to make mistakes in training, so they can profit from the errors and not make them in combat. -Col. Glover Johns We had just hit the jackpot. A Chinese submarine crossed our path in an area where no one expected it to be. This should have been a massive win for U.S. intelligence, our ship, and us as SONAR technicians. But there was one problem: no one made the call. The submarine was only discovered in post-analysis days later. What should have been a career-defining success became a failure for our SONAR team due to hesitation and lack of confidence. One of my teammates saw the submarine—its frequencies matched, it behaved like a submarine, and all the indicators were there. But he didn’t speak up. He was afraid of being wrong. When this failure came to light, our team had a meeting to figure out what went wrong. The teammate who had seen it was devastated. He felt like he had failed the entire crew. Our immediate supervisor didn’t help—he picked apart every mistake, repeatedly asking, “How could you miss this? I’ve shown you this a million times!” After a few minutes of this, his boss stepped in. He asked how we were being trained. The answer was obvious to all of us. Our supervisor was a doer, not a teacher. He couldn’t stand to see mistakes, so instead of letting us learn, he micromanaged and took over. The result? We lacked the confidence and knowledge to make decisions because we had never been trusted to. At this point, you might think, “What a terrible leader!” And you’d be right—at least in this instance. But what you might not realize is that even good leaders fall into this trap. And you’re not immune to it either. If you have kids, I guarantee you’ve stepped in and done something for them because they were taking too long. If you run a business, you’ve likely taken over a task because you didn’t trust an employee to do it right. It feels like the right move in the moment, but it’s not. It is the easy way out. The answer is simple: real leadership requires patience. It’s easier to take over than to teach. So how do we break this cycle? It takes discipline. Step one: provide the right training. No one becomes an expert overnight, but they need a foundation strong enough to work from. Encourage questions and never make people feel stupid for asking. If they’re afraid to ask, they’ll be afraid to act. Step two: let go. You have to trust the people you train. Set expectations clearly and then step back. Resist the urge to jump in. Step three: debrief. Go over the work. Point out successes and failures. Then, instead of just pointing out what went wrong, show them how to do better. Follow these steps, and I guarantee you’ll build a team that has the knowledge and confidence to make the call. Written by: Marc Chianese, CPA Candidate
Running a small business is no easy feat. From managing day-to-day operations to serving customers and planning for growth, the responsibilities can feel endless. One area where small business owners often struggle is keeping their finances in order—and that's where a QuickBooks ProAdvisor can make all the difference. If you want customized service find an accounting firm that specializes in QuickBooks Online. You will be supporting another business like yours while gaining insight from another business owner. A QuickBooks ProAdvisor is a certified expert in QuickBooks, trained to help small business owners maximize the software’s features while ensuring accurate and efficient bookkeeping. Here’s why partnering with a ProAdvisor can add immense value to your business. Expert Guidance You Can Trust QuickBooks ProAdvisors undergo rigorous training and testing to become certified. They are skilled in everything from basic bookkeeping to advanced accounting practices and can help you set up your QuickBooks account to suit your business needs. There are two levels of certification- Level 1 is basic and Level 2 is advanced. Whether you’re a startup just beginning to track your finances or an established company looking to optimize your accounting processes, a ProAdvisor ensures your system is tailored to your unique business model. They also stay up to date on software updates and new features, ensuring your business benefits from the latest tools and technologies. Saving You Time and Reducing Stress For many entrepreneurs, bookkeeping and financial management can quickly become overwhelming. Reconciling accounts, tracking expenses, and running payroll can eat up valuable time that could be better spent growing your business. A QuickBooks ProAdvisor takes these tasks off your plate, ensuring they’re done correctly and efficiently. They can also identify and correct errors that may otherwise lead to costly mistakes down the road, like unbalanced accounts or inaccurate tax filings. Maximizing QuickBooks Features QuickBooks is a powerful tool, but many business owners only scratch the surface of what it can do. A ProAdvisor can unlock its full potential for your business, including: Custom Reports: Gain deeper insights into your finances with tailored profit-and-loss or cash-flow statements. Job Costing: Track expenses for specific projects to ensure profitability. Automation: Set up workflows that save time, such as recurring invoices or payment reminders. By leveraging these advanced features, a ProAdvisor helps you make data-driven decisions that drive growth. Preparing for Tax Season and Audits One of the biggest stressors for small business owners is tax season. Ensuring your books are accurate and compliant with tax laws can be daunting, especially if you’ve fallen behind on your bookkeeping. A QuickBooks ProAdvisor helps you stay ahead of tax deadlines by keeping your financial records audit-ready year-round. They can work with your tax preparer or CPA to streamline the process, ensuring deductions are maximized and filings are accurate. Planning for Growth As your business grows, your accounting needs will evolve. A QuickBooks ProAdvisor can help you transition to more advanced features, such as multi-user setups or industry-specific tools. They can also provide strategic financial advice, helping you forecast cash flow, manage budgets, and plan for long-term success. Hiring a QuickBooks ProAdvisor is an investment in the health and future of your business. By providing expert guidance, saving you time, and optimizing your financial systems, a ProAdvisor helps you focus on what you do best: running and growing your business. If you’re ready to take control of your finances and unlock the full potential of QuickBooks, consider reaching out to a certified ProAdvisor today.
