Feb 28 2019
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5 Best Practices When Outsourcing Your Bookkeeping

By qSdCcPjb

Here’s the good news: your business is growing, and you and your team are busier than ever before. The bad news? You’re quickly realizing a few things: the recruitment, hiring and retention process for an internal bookkeeper is costly, and you just don’t have the time you need to do your bookkeeping. It’s time to explore outsourcing your bookkeeping. But how do you know you’ll get the quality you expect? Here are some of the best practices you should follow when considering to outsource your bookkeeping. Best Practice #1: Seek Out Experience The last thing you want is to put your books in the hands of an unestablished, inexperienced company. You need a company that has the know-how and the hands-on experience to handle anything you throw their way. Sure, a brand-new company might offer you a “deal,” but is it worth risking your business’s bookkeeping to take advantage of a discount? Better yet, an experienced bookkeeping firm reduces risk by taking several risk mitigating measures including being insured. You’re far less likely to fall victim to theft and be on the hook when you work with a company who has a longstanding reputation for excellent work. When you can read glowing reviews about the work that’s been done over the years, it gives you something truly priceless: peace of mind.   Best Practice #2: Ensure the Company Can Grow With You You don’t want to fully onboard a new bookkeeping service only to discover that they can’t grow with you or…

Aug 25 2017
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Bad Advice We’ve Heard About Bookkeeping

By qSdCcPjb

  Read about bad bookkeeping advice you should shy away from. Like anything essential—eating, sleeping, running a small business—we all strive to maximize the impact of our efforts. That makes us eager knowledge seekers, looking to learn as much as we can and apply our newfound insights to our own lives. Our eagerness often has the unintended consequence of sending us into the open arms of some bad advice. And unfortunately, there’s a lot of it out there. The business realm is, unfortunately, no exception. While we’ve seen plenty of bad business advice, some of the worst is reserved for bookkeeping. If you’re looking for advice on bookkeeping, chances are good you’re trying to improve your business, which means bad advice can set you on the wrong path. We’ve rounded up some “tips” it would be wise to disregard. #1 – Use a Family Member to Save Money When you’re starting your business, it’s OK to  start with family help, but as you grow, this can become a serious problem, especially if they are not a bookkeeping expert.  As a business grows, bookkeeping becomes a time-consuming task and becomes more complex.  If you don’t keep up with it you’re going to be in trouble.  And it’s not something you can put off. Here at Steiner Business Solutions, we’ve heard countless stories from well-meaning family members who have been overwhelmed by their bookkeeping efforts as a business grows, watching in frustration as their to-do list grows longer while bookkeeping takes more and more of their time. And this isn’t the only…

Jul 21 2017
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7 Ways Bookkeeping Impacts a Small Business

By qSdCcPjb

Bookkeeping can make several impacts to a small business, including the customer experience and profitability if only business owners would manage it. Richmond runs on the success of the many small businesses that provide services and products to the local community.  As a small business owner, it’s essential that you manage all financial aspects of your operation to go to the next level. Even the best business plan and product offering can result in business failure if you don’t keep track of finances to truly understand your revenue and expenses. That’s where bookkeeping becomes essential to your business. What Bookkeeping Items Should You Manage in Your Business ? To make effective business decisions, you need to know where your cash is coming from, and where it’s going. Details of sales and expenses are critical, as well as an understanding of accounting principles that apply to your business, including any tax implications. This knowledge – or lack of – can impact your business in many ways: 1. Tracking Expenses It’s easy to lose track of where your capital goes, with business meetings, purchasing supplies, labor expenses, and so many other day-to-day activities. Bookkeeping processes accumulate all such expenses not only to get an accurate audit of where the money goes, but to keep a record for tax purposes, as well. 2. Missed Opportunities There are times when it may be advantageous for your business to purchase larger volumes of supplies or invest in new product development. Without an accurate picture of your cash flow and account balances,…

May 17 2017
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5 Bookkeeping Best Practices for a Small Business

By qSdCcPjb

Most small business owners we talk to think that running a successful business involves hard work and loving what you do. While those two things are important, if you actually own a business, you know there are a few more details involved. One extremely important factor is bookkeeping. Bookkeeping is frequently an overlooked area in small business as it does not hold the flash and appeal that some other areas of owning a business hold. The good news is when it comes down to it, there are only a handful of things that actually matter. The sooner you incorporate the following five bookkeeping best practices, the sooner you can get back to focusing on working hard at what you love. 1.  Not One-Size-Fits-All Bookkeeping is something that will differ from one small business to another. Specifically, you need to find a way to structure your accounts that makes sense for your unique business. Far too often, small business owners pick a template that works for others and assume they can fit their finances into this structure. Unfortunately, this practice comes at the cost of efficiency and accuracy, two things that should always be a part of bookkeeping. It’s fine if you need to revise your approach a bit as time goes on. The important thing is that you come up with an account structure that fits your business like a glove. 2. Organize Your Expenses Over time, you’ll most likely increase the number of credit cards and checking accounts you use for your…