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Small Businesses Services
Bookkeeping Calculator
As a
small business owner you have more important things to do than to keep
your own books. We take care of your books for you, so you can concentrate
your time and efforts into running your business. We will also come and pick
up all the documentation needed to maintain your books and we will also drop it
off at your convenience.
Upon request, we will provide you with the
following services (starred services are provided monthly or
quarterly with our Bookkeeping services at no extra charge):
(if required, Clients Agreement available)
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BOOKKEEPING SERVICES
(Our Brochure)
DAILY
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Record sales invoices from client provided documents
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Record daily bank deposits and merchant account receipts
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Maintain detailed accounts receivable records
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Process vendor invoices into accounts payable
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Maintain detailed accounts payable records
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Record debit card transactions
WEEKLY
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Process client-approved vendor payments against accounts payable
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Process client-approved non-payable payments (rent, utilities, insurance, etc.)
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Record payroll processed by client’s third party vendor
MONTHLY
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Prepare bank account reconciliation
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Record individual credit card purchase transactions
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Prepare credit card reconciliation
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Prepare month-end adjusting and closing journal entries
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Prepare sales tax return
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REPORTS AND
ANALYSIS SERVICES (Our Brochure)
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Unlimited Consultations
We are always available to spend time with you so you
fully understand how to interpret and utilize the financial information we provide.
Our consultations are already included in our prices, so please feel free to contact us whenever you have
a question or concern.
If you'd like to receive a Free Consultation
on our Small Business Accounting Service, please complete this form.
To receive your initial quote, please click
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Accounts Receivable Analysis:
Accounts receivable represent sales for which payment has not yet been collected. If your business offers sales on credit to its customers, the collection on accounts receivable is the most important source of the business' cash inflows.
Knowing the average collection period on these accounts will help determining whether
actions should be taken to increase collection activities and reinforce the business'
credit policy.
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Balance Sheet (view sample):
A balance sheet is a snapshot of a business’ financial condition at a specific
moment in time, usually at the close of an accounting period. A balance sheet
comprises assets, liabilities, and owners’ or stockholders’ equity. At any
given time, assets must equal liabilities plus owners’ equity. An asset is
anything a business owns that has monetary value. Liabilities are the claims of
creditors against the assets of the business.
A balance sheet helps small business owners to quickly recognize the financial strength
and capabilities of the business. A balance sheet can identify and analyze
trends, particularly in the area of receivables and payables.
Balance sheets, along with income statements, are the most basic elements in providing
financial reporting to potential lenders such as banks, investors, and vendors who
are considering how much credit to grant the business.
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Bank Reconciliation:
Bank reconciliation is performed monthly when the business
receives the bank statement. It plays a very important part in a business'
cash control procedures. It verifies the amount of cash in the business' checking
account.
The cash balance in the business' books will never agree
with the balance shown on the bank statement because of the delay in checks and
deposits clearing the bank, automatic bank charges and credits that have not been
recorded, and errors that might have been made in the books. Another important
reason to do a bank reconciliation is that it may uncover irregularities such as
employee theft of funds.
Let us prepare your bank reconciliation so that
you can be comfortable that the account balance shown on your books is up-to-date.
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Bookkeeping:
To succeed in business, one of your most important tools is financial analysis,
based on your business records. Accurate financial records will help you answer
some very important questions. Are you making money, or losing it? How much?
A sound bookkeeping system is the foundation on which all of this valuable financial
information can be built.
As a business owner you have more important
things to do than to keep your own books. We take care of your books for you,
so you can concentrate your time and efforts into running your business.
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Budgeting:
Budgeting is a tool to help you to reach your financial goals. It is
intended to be an organized way to compare income and expenditures over a relatively
short time frame (a week, month, or a year). It should allow you to forecast
your income and expenses, monitor your progress, and make changes as needed to achieve
your goals.
Income budgeting: when setting up the business' budget, you should not look
only at the cash outflow (the payments you make), but we strongly advise small business
owners to closely monitor the personal income as part of the budget-creation process.
Budgeting for expenses: although many small business owners would agree that
scrutinizing personal expenditures is a necessary part of a personal budget, setting
up and maintaining control over expenditures is often what you'll find most difficult
and tedious.
Budgeting tools: finally, you can match your income with your expenses and
see what needs cutting back, or where you need to make increases.
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Cash Flow Statements (view sample):
A cash flow statement reports the movement of cash into and out of your business
in a given period. Cash includes currency, checks on hand, and deposits in banks.
Cash Flow Statements are broken down into three sections:
- Operating activities
- Investing activities
- Financing activities
Operating activities (all transactions and events that normally enter into the determination
of operating income) include cash receipts from selling goods or providing services,
as well as income from items such as interest and dividends. Operating activities
also include your cash payments such as inventory, payroll, taxes, interest, utilities,
and rent. The net amount of cash provided (or used) by operating activities is the
key figure on a statement of cash flows.
Investing activities include transactions and events involving the purchase and
sale of securities (excluding cash equivalents), land, buildings, equipment, and
other assets not generally held for resale. It also covers the making and collecting
of loans. Investing activities are not classified as operating activities because
they have an indirect relationship to the central, ongoing operation of your business
(usually the sale of goods or services).
All financing activities deal with the flow of
cash to or from the business owners (equity financing) and creditors (debt financing).
For example, cash proceeds from issuing capital stock or bonds would be classified
under financing activities. Likewise, payments to repurchase stock (treasury stock)
or to retire bonds and the payment of dividends are financing activities as well.
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Corporate Taxes:
Corporate Taxes are imposed by the federal government and the local state government
on businesses based on the profit made.
Preparing your own income tax return can be a task that leaves you with more questions
than answers. According to a study released by the US Government's General Accounting
Office last year, most taxpayers (77% of 71 million taxpayers) believe they benefited
from using a professional tax preparer.
If you own a small business
and haven't kept up your bookkeeping, don't worry. We can help you. We'll prepare
your bookkeeping for the year, prepare a full Schedule C, as well as your personal
income tax return.
If you'd like to receive more information about our Tax Preparation Service, please
complete this form.
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Credit Card Reconciliation:
Reconciling revolving credit card debt can be a challenge for many small
businesses.
Entering the charges as the credit card is used will eliminate the need to do it
when the statement comes each month, plus recording the transactions throughout
the month will result in more accurate interim financial information. In many situations,
for a variety of reasons, this is not practical for some businesses.
There are other alternatives. You could:
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Enter one charge for the month for the total amount purchased using the credit card and
manually reconcile the receipts to the statement. The detail lines can be entered as splits
so the general ledger remains accurate.
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Enter one charge for the month for the total amount purchased and code it to a credit
card clearing account that will be reclassified based on the receipts.
This method can be more cumbersome.
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Enter the detail transactions individually when the statement arrives
and any transactions without a receipt are noted as such in the memo field (so a
report can be generated and cleared as receipts are obtained) or coded to a credit
card clearing account pending reconciliation with the receipts.
The methods mentioned above requires a business owner to spend his/her time and resources
in tasks that take time away from the business. Let A.P. Accounting and Bookkeeping
Services take care of all your needs, so, you can concentrate on spending your time managing
your business' growth.
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Financial Planning:
Financial planning is the task of determining how a business will afford
to achieve its strategic goals and objectives. Usually, a company creates a Financial
Plan immediately after the vision and objectives have been set. The Financial Plan
describes each of the activities, resources, equipment and materials that are needed
to achieve these objectives, as well as the timeframes involved.
The Financial Planning activity involves the following tasks:
- Assess the business environment
- Confirm the business vision and objectives
- Identify the types of resources needed to achieve these objectives
- Quantify the amount of resource (labor, equipment, materials)
- Calculate the total cost of each type of resource
- Summarize the costs to create a budget
- Identify any risks and issues with the budget set
Performing Financial Planning is critical to the success of any organization. It
provides the Business Plan with rigor, by confirming that the objectives set are
achievable from a financial point of view. It also helps the CEO to set financial
targets for the organization, and reward staff for meeting objectives within the
budget set.
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General Ledger Clean-up:
The general ledger is the core of your company's financial records. These records
constitute the central "books" of your system. Since every transaction flows through
the general ledger, a problem with your general ledger throws off all your books.
Having us review your general ledger system each month allows us
to hunt down any discrepancies such as double billings or any unrecorded payments.
Then we'll fix the discrepancies so your books are always accurate and kept in good shape.
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Income Statement (view sample):
An income statement, otherwise known as a profit and loss statement, shows an itemized list
of all your revenues and subtracts an itemized list of all your expenses to come up with a
profit or loss for the period.
An income statement allows you to...
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Track revenues and expenses so that you can determine the operating performance of your business
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Determine what areas of your business are over-budget or under-budget
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Identify specific items that are causing unexpected expenditures. Like phone, fax, mail, or supply expenses
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Track dramatic increases in product returns or cost of goods sold as a percentage of sales
- Determine your income tax liability
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Quarterly Taxes
Do you need to pay quarterly taxes on your business? Do you even know if you need to pay
quarterly taxes on your business? Here's how you can figure out if you need to pay
quarterly taxes on your business. If you do need to pay quarterly taxes on your
business, here is how you can do it properly so that you do not get in trouble with
the government.
How to tell if you need to pay quarterly taxes on your business?
The people who need to make estimated quarterly tax payments are those whose income
tax withholding will not end up covering your tax liability for the next year. The
people who generally need to pay estimated quarterly tax payments are those people
who are self employed, those people who are landlords, and also investors. If you
fall within these categories, you need to make estimated tax payments to the government
every three months. You need to make these quarterly payments because otherwise
any income tax withholding that is made for another job may not cover your federal
income tax by the time that the year ends. You do not need to be nervous about paying
your income taxes. Let the professionals at A.P. Accounting & Bookkeeping
Services do it for you!
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Sales and Use Taxes
In Connecticut the state sales and use taxes are generally imposed at the
rate of 6 percent. The Connecticut sales tax is imposed on the retailer (or
service provider) measured by taxable gross receipts. However, the retailer is entitled
to collect reimbursement of the tax from the purchaser. The use tax is based
on the retail sales price for the storage, acceptance, consumption or other use
by a person in Connecticut. The use tax is not imposed on sales or services that
are subject to the sales tax.
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Ratio Analysis
Financial ratio analysis is the calculation and comparison of ratios which
are derived from the information in a company's financial statements. The level
and historical trends of these ratios can be used to make inferences about a company's
financial condition, its operations and attractiveness as an investment.
We will provide the analysis of your business' liquidity and debt ratios, so, you
can identify where your business is going and make plans as to how you would like
your business to grow.
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Cash Flow Analysis
Cash flow analysis is the study of the cycle of your business' cash inflows and outflows,
with the purpose of maintaining an adequate cash flow for your business, and to
provide the basis for cash flow management.
Cash flow analysis involves examining the components of your business that affect
cash flow, such as accounts receivable, inventory, accounts payable, and credit
terms. By performing a cash flow analysis on these separate components, A. P. Accounting
& Bookkeeping Services will identify cash flow problems and suggest ways to improve your cash
flow.
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