I am all for outsourcing bookkeeping.  However, I am very hesitant to outsource bookkeeping to someone that I have never met it person.  After all, if they do a bad job they could cause me to lose money or end up with a mess to clean up, which is expensive also.

That is why I outsource my bookkeeping to a company that is located within 30 minutes of my office.

Dashboard Accounting can work with anyone, anywhere via the web.  However, if you are looking for Akron Bookkeeping or Canton Bookkeeping – or even Cleveland Bookkeeping – then you are in special luck because Dashboard Accounting is a local outsourced bookkeeping company and you can stop down in their offices and meet the real people that will be helping you better manage your business.

Give them a call and schedule a visit.  They are located just north of Akron, Ohio and it is easy to get to, right off of Route 8.

Are you a Quickbooks pro?  Probably not if you are not a CPA or a bookkeeper.

That is why every business owner needs to think about outsourcing their bookkeeper needs or finding a virtual CPA to work with.  These people will be Quickbooks pros and they will be able to answer your Quickbooks questions, help you set up Quickbooks to work with your business well and to keep your Quickbooks books up to date and accurate.

Being able to dabble with your Quickbooks is one thing.  Being able to manage the financial portion of your business in a book keeping system accurately and regularly is entirely another issue.

If you are not going to take the time to become a Quickbooks Pro then find someone that is within your budget and offers outsourced bookkeeping services and have them help you build a bigger, stronger and better managed business.

You might wonder how popular outsourced bookkeeping services are.

Among business owners that value their time and efficiency, outsourced bookkeeping is very popular.  Having a team to back you up is something that will help any business succeed.

One way you can tell it is popular is by the number of referrals an outsourced bookkeeper gets.  You only give referrals after you start to trust someone and really depend on them.  Once an outsourced bookkeeping firm starts getting a steady steam of referrals you can be sure they are doing something right.

It is easy to refer out a good outsourced bookkeeping firm because people always have trouble keeping their books up to date, working with Quickbooks and paying taxes and payroll.  These are all things your book keeper can take off your hands so you can get more done.

If you are considering hiring an outsourced bookkeeping company, be sure to ask them for referrals and make sure to call them.

Pricing your product or service is one of the most important things you will do in your business.  Not only can Dashboard Accounting assist you with outsourced bookkeeping, we also help our clients set or review the pricing of their product or service. 

Your prices must be high enough to cover your costs and return a profit, but still appeal to customers. 

Businesses have two types of costs:  Variable Cost and Fixed Cost.  Variable costs are the actual costs of your materials, product or service.  They are “variable” because they are linked to volume. The more you make or sell, the higher your costs.  Fixed costs are  include such things as rent, rates, wages, etc, which remain the same regardless of volume. —A common reason why people under price their products is they fail to add up all their fixed costs. 

 There are several methods of pricing, which can be combined to create the correct price for your product or service:

Four methods are common:

• Cost-plus

This is the simplest form of pricing. In this pricing strategy, you take the “Cost Price” of the product and you add to it how much profit you would like to make per unit sold. What you get is the “Selling Price”.

It’s very simple logic: Cost Price/unit + Profit/unit = Price/unit or Selling Price/unit

• Job costing

Using this method, you complete a job card for each job, detailing the direct materials and direct labor used. You then add a proportion of your fixed costs.

• Process costing

In this method, whether one or multiple products are made, the cost of the manufactured item is based on total cost of the batch.

Simply add up all costs and divide by the total number of units produced to get a cost per unit.

Then add mark-up.

• Service costing

When you sell services, knowledge, and expertise, you are effectively selling your time. If you’re selling time, you can only deliver so many “billable hours’” per day/week/year.

The first key question to ask is, How many hours can you realistically sell in a year?

Follow this simple four-step process:

1. Work out how many billable hours you can realistically sell
2. Calculate the charge-out rate for your direct labor costs
3. Allow for a proportion of your fixed costs
4. These two costs added together will give you the required hourly charge-out rate

Take into account the time taken up in marketing, planning, finance and administration.

Score has a free seminar on pricing: http://www.score.org/Pricing_Products.html which reviews this information.

Dashboard Accounting can help you with your outsourced bookkeeping.   We work virtually with clients anywhere, including Cleveland and Akron.

Need Accounting help? When understanding accounting and the different terms accounting uses, it’s often ideal to start at the beginning. This is so one can start out having basic common knowledge of the terms.

When discussing Liabilities, there are two different kinds of liabilities. One being Current assets and the other being long-term liabilities.

A liability is known as the obligations and or debt of a business.

Current liabilities are the obligations that will be taken care of within one year or the current operating term.

The following is a list of the current liabilities. These liabilities the company should be prepared to pay quickly.

Accounts Payable- Our vendors, this is to cover the cost of our inventory, goods, and or services acquired.

Notes Payable

Taxes Payable- This is broken down to the Income Tax, Property tax, and Payroll Tax.

Long term liabilities are the obligations that will take longer than a year to take care of them.

Long term liabilities are known as

Leases

Deferred Taxes

Pension Obligations

Dashboard Accounting offers outsourced bookkeeping and Accounting for small business owners around the Cleveland/Akron area.  Call Dashboard Accounting today to see how they can help you drive your business forward!

Dashboard Accounting

330-908-0888

8536 Crow Drive, Suite 120

Macedonia, Ohio 44056

www.DashboardAccounting.com

Dashboard Accounting is beneficial to the company that:

• Cannot afford to staff an accounting department, but recognizes the necessity of having one.
• Does their bookkeeping their self, but wants to free up time and needs help
• Has a bookkeeper but is unable to manage them.
• Needs to utilize their financial information to assist with decision-making.
• Wants to reduce costs by outsourcing the bookkeeping.

What Dashboard Accounting can do for your company:

• Function as the Accounting Department for your small or medium-sized company.
• Complete bookkeeping tasks on a daily basis.
• Assist in interpreting your financial data.
• Assist with current year budgeting.
• Assist with forecasting and strategic planning.
• Assist with tax planning and tax filing.
• Ensure a secure environment for all financial data

Dashboard Accounting Services Include:

Accounts Receivable Processing

• Record sales invoices
• Invoice customers
• Send customer statements

Accounts Payable Processing

• Process vendor invoices
• Process approved vendor payments

Payroll

• Record third party payroll
• Prepare payroll
• Prepare payroll tax returns

Reconcile Balance Sheet Accounts

Controller Services

• Supervise and review bookkeeper
• Quarterly phone consultation
• Monthly financial report package
• Monthly “Dashboard Report”
• Quarterly management letter

Control Review

• Review management internal control
• Review standard operating procedures
• Review backup procedures

When looking to outsource, not only should you look at small business bookkeeping services, but make sure you use a small business accountant.

Dashboard Accounting offers outsourced bookkeeping and Accounting for small business owners around the Cleveland/Akron area.  Call Dashboard Accounting today to see how they can help you drive your business forward!

Dashboard Accounting

330-908-0888

www.DashboardAccounting.com

Whether your bookkeeping is outsourced or not,  preparing and using budgets is an important tool for your success.  Why spend time budgeting?

• A budget can greatly enhance your chances of success by helping you estimate future needs and plan profits, spending and overall cash flow.
• A budget allows you to perceive problems before they occur and alter your plans to prevent those problems.
• Budgets help you determine how much money you have and how you will use it
• Budgets help you determine whether you have enough money to achieve your financial goals.
• A budget can help convince a banker that you know your business and have calculated its needs.
• Budges help measure performance.
• A Budget can be used to perform “What If” scenarios on changes in income and expenses.

 When you’re running a business, it’s easy to get bogged down in day-to-day problems and forget the bigger picture. However, successful businesses invest time to create and manage budgets, prepare and review business plans and regularly monitor finance and performance.

Dashboard Accounting

330-908-0888

8536 Crow Drive, Suite 120

Macedonia, Ohio 44056

www.DashboardAccounting.com

Press Release on Workshop for Budget Planning

Are you looking for bookkeeping help in Cleveland or Akron?  Have you considered outsourced bookkeeping?

Outsourcing is not a new concept.   Currently, the following services are often outsourced:  Payroll, Pension Management, Taxes, Property Management, Mass marketing campaigns, Legal services and Insurance Services.

The construction industry is an example of a business model which outsources many tasks:   Electrician, Painter, Plumber, Carpenter…   In this arrangement, the General Contractor still has the responsibility for the project’s success.   You cannot delegate responsibility. 

This is often forgotten when a small business outsources bookkeeping.  Outsourced bookkeeping does not relieve the business owner of the responsibility for the company bookkeeping.   You cannot transfer ultimate responsibility. 

The rewards for outsourced bookkeeping can be high as long as the relationship and process is managed.   

Benefits to outsourcing are:

• Operating cost reduction or control
• Reducing current/future capital expenditures
• Flexibility to increase or decrease volume efficiently
• Quality improvement
• Obtaining current and ongoing expertise. 

What are the keys to outsourced bookkeeping while maintaining responsibility?  The keys are:

• Define what you want to outsource
• Review vendor’s certifications.   Do they have CPA’s on staff, Are they in the software they support. 
• Does the vendor have the proper business insurance?
• How will the workflow be handled?
• When will your books be completed/how often?
• Does the company assist you in interpreting your results?
• Does the company have proper segregation of duties?
• Are the appropriate security measures in place to protect your data?
• Is you work completed outside the US? 
• Are written procedures provided for the workflow?

You can fulfill your responsibility while outsourcing by evaluating the answers to the above questions and reviewing your results on a regular basis. 

When you think through this process, it is easy to see that outsourcing bookkeeping to a company is a huge value.    A professional bookkeeping company like Dashboard Accounting does nothing but maintain great people and systems in the United States that do bookkeeping for companies in Cleveland, Akron or anywhere.  There is a good chance Dashboard Accounting can lower your costs, improve your bookkeeping and eliminate the bookkeeper churn headache.  Plus they are offering up to 2 free hours of consultation just to see if there is an opportunity.  Why not book your free book keeping assessment today?

Need Accounting help? When understanding accounting and the different terms accounting uses, its often ideal to start at the beginning. This is so one can start out having basic common knowledge of the terms.

When discussing Assets, there are two different kinds of assets. One being Current assets and the other being noncurrent assets.

Current assets are known also as short-term and liquid assets. The current assets are made up of the company’s cash, cash equivalents and also short-term investments. The reason these are considered current assets is because they will be turned into cash, sold or consumed into the business within one year.

Noncurrent assets are the second type, and included in this type is the fixed and long-term assets. With in this category is the item the company does not expect to be sold or consumed into the business within one year.

Dashboard Accounting offers outsourced bookkeeping and Accounting for small business owners around the Cleveland/Akron area.  Call Dashboard Accounting today to see how they can help you drive your business forward!

Dashboard Accounting

330-908-0888

8536 Crow Drive, Suite 120

Macedonia, Ohio 44056

www.DashboardAccounting.com

If you are a small business owner and you have been trying to do your own bookkeeping, you may find yourself in a situation where those documents come from the IRS or from the state taxation office and you really do not know what to do.  It might just be that you filed the wrong form or you did not know you needed to do something – and even if you do not owe money, you can still get financial penalties for skipping a report or missing a deadline.

If you have good bookkeeping help with a reputable bookkeeping firm you should be able to ask them to handle the issue for you.  1st, your virtual bookkeeper can call everyplace and figure out what the issues are.  Next they can help you organize the forms you need and lastly they should be able to help you through the process of resolving the issue.

Of course, if you have an internal bookkeeping staff, they should be doing this for you.  But if you are working with an outsourced bookkeeping firm you might not know that they can often do it for you as well.  This saves the small business owner a lot of time and will probably save them a lot of money too  – by addressing the tax issues quickly and getting them resolved.