Ever feel like a fire fighter?

As a small business owner, you may feel like you’re running non-stop – putting out one fire after another – without the time to really focus on the details of your business.

It’s easy to get behind and let the smaller tasks, like reconciling your bank statements. You know, the ones piling up on your desk. Trouble is that some of those smaller tasks on your accounting to-do list can turn into a real disaster if you don’t stay on top of things.

With Dashboard Accounting, there’s no reason to get behind.

When you need bookkeeping help – even part-time bookkeeping can make a huge difference for the health of your business.

Look at your bank reconciliations, for instance. If you’ve got a pile of envelopes from the bank filled with bank statements that deserve your attention, outsourced bookkeeping is a solution to consider to get it done – to protect your business.

Reconciling your business checking account each and every month allows your outsourced bookkeeper to keep your bank account, accounting, and taxes up-to-date.

Having Dashboard Accounting reconcile your account each month is one more level of protection against theft, loss and costly accounting errors.

Each month, we’ll help you:

• Identify lost checks, lost deposits and unauthorized wire transactions.
   
• Detect and prevent excess (and unnecessary) bank charges, ensuring all transactions are posted correctly by your bank.
   
• Detect and prevent embezzlement of funds from within your company.
   
• Keep you up to date on how your business is doing (You can’t really know where you are financially unless all accounts are reconciled, then properly accounted for on your financial statement.)
   
• Allow you to manage your cash better.
   
• Protect yourself from any unauthorized, fraudulent or forged checks presented to your bank and paid by that bank. (You can relieve your business of any responsibility for the shortfall of funds on your part, and transfer that risk to the bank. With the increase in crime, this reason to reconcile alone should be enough!)
   
• Ease your stress, knowing your bank accounts are reconciled, balanced and that all accounts, checks and disbursed funds are properly accounted for.

 Something as simple as checking over your bank statement against your activity can help protect you from risk and make your business stronger. No need to handle it yourself when you can outsource the hassle to the professionals at Dashboard Accounting. We’re here to help!

Why would you use an Outsourced Book keeping Service?

First, when you hear the word outsourced, you are thinking overseas.  Don’t.  Outsourcing book keeping or any other service just means you are not hiring an employee in your business to do the work.  Outsourcing is when you hire someone, or another company, to do the work for you instead.  In the right relationship, you will save time and headaches because you are not hiring, training and replacing a book keeper.

Think about his scenario.  Your company needs part time bookkeeping help.  You place an ad, interview lots of very nice people, get a few final candidates, reinterview those bookkeeper candidates, do a background check (they have access to your financials remember) and then you make an offer to the best candidate and hope they accept.  Then you do the paperwork, set your new part time book keeper up on payroll, begin paying his taxes and start the training process.

Are you done?  No.

Now you have to train that new hire in how to be a Quickbooks Pro.  You might send them to some courses, help them learn about small business tax issues, etc. etc.

At then end of this, hopefully you are happy.  If not, you have to get up the courage to fire them and start over because this is too important of an area to let be sloppy.

For the sake of this article, lets assume you like them and move on.  Now you are very happy with your new part time bookkeeper, but he or she now has a new set of skills and great experience, so they get bored and someone else makes them an offer for more money – and they accept.

Now you have to start all over – and what happens to your book keeping in the time it takes to do this whole process again?  How much money will you lose during the transition?

When you think through this process, it is easy to see that outsourcing bookkeeping to a company is a huge value.  Your CPA may suggest a company but they are usually way overpriced.  A professional bookkeeping company like Dashboard Accounting does nothing but maintain great people and systems in the United States that do book keeping for companies.  There is a good chance Dashboard Accounting can lower your costs, improve your book keeping and eliminate the book keeper 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?

No matter how small your business is, you should seriously consider outsourcing your payroll.

There is a lot of good payroll software small business editions out on the market, but ultimately someone needs to enter the data and make sure all the accounts sync up and make sure deadlines are not missed.  Missing payroll deadlines can be very costly and frustrating for a small business – and takes their eye of of the mission of the business.

Outsourcing payroll has gotten so efficient, that even outsourced book keeping companies and outsourced accountants of any merit will use a big company to process the payroll.  Then they help manage the small business to be sure things are being done properly and deadlines are not being missed.

This is the best of both worlds, because you have an outsourced book keeper keeping an eye on everything while you have the muscle of a big payroll company assuring that taxes and other payroll items are being properly transacted, usually backed up by a large team and good insurance.

If you are working with a book keeper or accountant that is manually doing your payroll, you should ask them why they are not using a payroll company to process everything.  You will still need someone overseeing it and reviewing it, but you do not need someone manually processing the whole thing every week.  Smart Outsourced Bookkeeping services do just that.

If you are working with someone that is manually processing your payroll, you should get a free review from Dashboard Accounting and see how they can reduce your book keeping costs while increasing the reliability and efficiency of your operations.

Most small business owners hope to at least break even, right? Trouble is that one bad calculation on your part can turn your profits into losses in a puff of smoke. “Now you see ‘em… now you don’t!” Like the magician who forgot to load the rabbit, you’re left standing there holding an empty hat, when your audience (your staff) is counting on you to deliver.

Virtual bookkeeping can help your small business can do better than that.

When times are tight, an outsourced book keeping or outsource CPA service can give you the bookkeeping help you need, while helping you run your business at greater efficiency. It helps make your “break even” and your profitability easier to manage.

A basic break-even analysis is the number of units you need to sell in order to make a profit of zero. When your total revenue equals your total costs, you’re at break even. That’s the sweet spot – anything over that amount is the gravy that makes business profitable and worthwhile.

To make this easy for you, plug in your fixed and variable costs and other details into the free calculator tool at the Dashboard Accounting website,  www.DashboardAccounting.com (see “Resources” for “Financial Calculators” for the Sales Volume Break-Even Analyzer).

But use your best judgment here. As wonderful as our free calculator tools are, they may not give you the complete picture… especially if you don’t have solid data to feed into the equation. (It helps is you use bookkeeping firms or at least part-time bookkeeping to make sure your data is up to date and accurate.)

For instance, one area often underestimated without a small business accountant is your fixed costs (versus variable costs). This is the sum of all costs involved in producing any product at all. This fixed-cost number should include the salary you ought to be paying yourself. Also remember that the fixed cost amount does not change as sales/production volume increases or decreases. Consider it your core expenses.

Professional small business accounting is highly valuable to your business growth. Once you have a solid break-even analysis, your expectations become clear. You can create realistic goals… and then have “stretch goals.” You’ll know your “at least” amount you can afford to sell… and then your specific requirements for increase from there.

When you outsource bookkeeping, you’ll have professionals helping you to gather the details you need so your calculations are based on fact — and not on hunches and “guesstimates”. It gives you the edge you need – for less than you’d expect to pay for the quality support you receive.

For more information about accounting outsourcing service, and great calculators and other business tools, check out www.DashboardAccounting.com.

Why should small businesses outsource bookkeeping? Because most of them don’t have a dedicated Chief Financial Officer or Controller on staff, so they rely on the accounting done at the year-end.  At Dashboard Accounting, a small to mid-sized business gets to see their accounting information daily. This means no more waiting to get your information from your accountant putting you at least a month behind. When data errors are not caught and rectified within a short period of times, days (or weeks) of detailed backtracking may be required to fix the mistakes. If errors go uncaught and unfixed, by the time they are caught they might be too big to fix. A simple error could end up being an expensive error with the amount of hours wasted to backtrack, possibly hiring an outside contract specialist, and/or legal or taxation problems.

A solution has been created from Dashboard Accounting. They want to be the small business accountant department. They offer book keeping service, payroll services, QuickBooks training, controller services, and much more. There is an on board CPA, Staff Accountant and Quick book Pro Advisors.

Contact Dashboard Accounting today and see how they can help drive your business forward!

Successful small business owners know that paying close attention to their core responsibilities is imperative.  Core responsibilities equates to running the business!  Outsourcing everything that does not directly relate to generating revenue is the only way small business owners can stay in pulse of their operation and make a profit.  Dashboard Accounting provides outsource CPA and small business bookkeeping services to small/mid-sized companies without the price tag that an on-site accountant comes with.  The average salary for a bookkeeper in the greater Cleveland area is $41,829.90 (including benefits).  Dashboard Accounting can perform all your small business bookkeeping services AND give you peace of mind knowing that all your books are closed each month with a review from a staff controller/CPA.  Outsourced book keeping can save your company time, money, and managerial oversight.  Dashboard Accounting is located at 8536 Crow Drive, Suite 120 in Macedonia, Ohio 44056.  Call Dashboard Accounting at 330.908.0888 or visit www.DashboardAccounting.com for a complimentary 1 hour control review.

Dashboard Accounting offers a variety of QuickBooks accounting solutions. At Dashboard Accounting there are two QuickBooks Pro Advisors who are more than happy to help with anything that they can. Here are a few simple QuickBooks Tips.

941

Do not pay your payroll liabilities from the “Write Checks” window. Use the “Pay Liabilities” window. If you use the Write Checks window, when you print out your 941, it will not reflect any payments that were made this away.  If you use the Pay Liabilities for all of your tax needs, it will ensure that all payments made will reflect on not only the accounts correctly, but also on reports.

Passwords

To password protect your data; simply start by clicking on the Company in the menu bar, then Set up Users. Here you will set up a password for the main account (Administrator). If there are multiple users of this QuickBooks file, then you can set up user accounts with separate passwords and with different levels of access. Once a password is created, make sure you keep your password in a safe place, just in case you forget it.

Back UP

Backing up your QuickBooks Data is very important and very easy to do. First click on the file, and then click on Back Up. Choose the location where the file will be backed up (Floppy Disk, Flash Drive, CD), then Click Back Up. That’s it, you’re done!

These tips can be used with all QuickBooks accounting software (QuickBooks Pro, QuickBooks Premier, QuickBooks Payroll, ect.).

If you have any questions or concerns, contact Dashboard Accounting.  Our outsourced bookkeeping service will Drive Your Business Forward!

Outsourcing is the contracting of a company’s small business bookkeeping services because this function of business is not directly related to the generation of income (such as utilizing payroll software).  Small business owners benefit by freeing up time to grow and run their business.

Most small to medium-sized businesses utilize outsourced bookkeeping for several primary reasons:

1. You save time and money.
2. You can take advantage of tax savings.
3. You don’t have the hassles of hiring, training, and supervising a full time bookkeeping accountant.  Dashboard Accounting functions as your part time bookkeeping service.

See for yourself the benefits of an outsource CPA to perform as your book keeping service.  Contact Dashboard Accounting today to learn how we can perform your virtual bookkeeping and assist with your quick book accounting software.

Many small business owners would like help with their bookkeeping.  Are you one of them?

Are you…

• Trying to complete your bookkeeping at night?
• Paying for a  full-time bookkeeper but are not able to supervise the bookkeeper?
• Paying for a part-time bookkeeper but do not understand the financial statements?
• Wondering if you could reduce your expenses with outsourced bookkeeping?
• Not using small business payroll services and do not fully understand payroll software?

Dashboard Accounting can handle your outsource bookkeeping needs at a fraction of the cost you are paying your bookkeeper.  There are many other benefits using Dashboard Accounting for your part-time bookkeeping requirements. 

A few of the benefits include…

• You will have your own Accounting Department expertise to assist you with your business.
• Your payroll services will be accurately completed, on time.
• In addition to bookkeeping help, Dashboard Accounting will assist you with interpreting your financial data.

To gain all the benefits of outsourcing your bookkeeping contact Dashboard Accounting today!