There are a lot of accounting and bookkeeping software solutions on the market.  An  accounting software consultant might try to get your company to consider another accounting software option, and if you have some special requirements that might make sense.  However, in most cases Quick Book Accounting Software just makes more sense for one very important reason.  It is the best known and most widely used accounting package for small businesses.

This is very important to your bottom line, because if you hire an outsourced bookkeeper or small business bookkeeping services you are going to want people that can get a fast start.  Most Accountants and Bookkeepers will happily learn new accounting software if they need to, but they are often going to have to take more time to get up to speed and they are probably not going to be as proficient on the software.

So if you are looking to get the best value, you are going to want to start with an accounting software solution that almost every accountant and bookkeeper knows already.  In fact, you should be able to find an affordable Quick Book Pro that can help you with your accounting, bookkeeping and even provide training to you if you are doing some of the work in house.

Small Businesses are just not going to benefit from getting locked into a less well known accounting software package, and the cost of chancing over in the future can be considerable.  So if you are just getting started, get Quickbooks for your small business and hire a Quick Books pro to help you set it up the right way to begin with.

Your business plan is an important tool to help you guide the direction of your business. Not only does it offer you a good barometer for the health of your finances, it also helps you determine if you’re on the right path when it comes to long- and short-term small business accountant decisions.

If you don’t have a business plan (or if yours is not quite organized or polished), you can use QuickBooks’ tools to create or fine-tune one. Dashboard Accounting is QuickBooks Certified and can show you how to use this (and other tools) to get the job done quickly and easily.

To get started using quick book accounting software for your business plan: select Company > Planning & Budgeting > Use Business Plan Tool.

It’s easy. QuickBooks’ business plan tool allows you to use its lengthy “wizard” tool to walk you through each step of the process. This tool supplies information and asks questions about what’s needed on each screen. You fill in the answers (or select from options). The Business Plan Wizard works in the background to put your data in the correct place.

One of the first things the wizard will ask you is information about your company. If your business is brand new or has yet to establish a track record, you’ll have to give it your best estimate when it comes to sales (its best to be conservative).

Next step is income. Hopefully, you’ll already have data in Quick book accounting. If that’s the case, use the “Income Projection Wizard.” Otherwise, you’ll have to fill in the spread sheet manually.

Income is obviously among the most important aspects of your business data. Expect these numbers to be carefully scrutinized at some point (by your accountant, your bank, the IRS auditor, etc.), so be sure you have the facts and proof to back them up.   

After income comes “expenses.” Here, you can use the wizard or input data by hand. You’ll need to gather some specific details for this section, such as: beginning account balances; assets you own or need to purchase; cash available to invest, and amortization and depreciation… plus numbers on inventory, vendor financing, lines of credit, total credit limits, etc.

Once all of this information is loaded into your Business Plan program (within QuickBooks Pro), it’s time to write up the plan for your business. Using the three sections you’ve already completed, you now have a solid foundation to work with. You’ll also have examples of text-based sections to inspire you. These come in handy when it’s time to put your business approach and details into words.

By assembling your Business Plan step by step, you’ll get a stronger picture of where you are and where you’re going in the year ahead. Even if you never look at your business plan again… even if you don’t share it with another soul… the process of assembling the details and examining your numbers is highly valuable to most business owners.

For a vivid snapshot of your day-to-day financial data, to making sure your plans are on track, be sure to work with a professional outsourced book keeping service, such as Dashboard Accounting. They offer the accounting help you need to ensure your business goals stay on track, so your vision becomes your reality.

In today’s world, sadly there are so many scams; anywhere from people trying to sell you something fake, to a person who is trying to pass that they are someone, who they are not. Theses scams are everywhere, in every industry, even the Accounting and Finance industry; With the Recent accounting scandals, highlighted by cases at Enron, Arthur Andersen, WorldCom and Qwest.

 That is a scary concept, due to the fact that your accountant has access to all of your financial information. Keep in mind that not all Accountants are “bad guys”. Most accountants do have integrity, reliability and are very trustworthy. There are a few different organizations accounting firms can be members of.

AIPB- The American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers

                http://www.aipb.org/

NACPB- National Association of Certified Public Bookkeepers

                http://www.nacpb.org/

NBA- National Bookkeepers Association

                http://www.nba.org/

The Ohio Society of CPAs

                http://www.ohioscpa.com/Content/home.aspx

Dashboard Accounting is an accounting outsourcing service that you can trust. Owner, Terri Ream, CPA, is dedicated to Integrity, Ethics, Quality and Confidentiality. Terri also makes sure her team is also dedicated and values the same values she has, ensuring the best service for clients. Dashboard Accounting wants to serve as the CFO — bookkeeping accountant for small to medium-sized Cleveland, Akron and northern Ohio. They offer Quick Book Accounting for small to medium sized business, including small business payroll services, controller services, and many other bookkeeping help services.

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

Because cash flow is the blood that keeps your business alive, your outsource bookkeeper is like the nurse that keeps tabs the pulse of your small business. And if your bottom line is hemorrhaging, outsource CPA services — like those at Dashboard Accounting — can show you what to do, and where to apply the pressure so your business can heal, recover and thrive.

Having adequate cash flow is essential to keep your business running. If you run out of available cash, you run the risk of not being able to meet your current obligations such as your payroll, accounts payable and loan payments.

Quick book accounting is helpful, but often quick book pro is not enough. You need a professional outsource CPA. The right small business accountant can give you the data and statistics you need to prepare for what’s ahead. With 24/7 reporting — showing you exactly where your money is, how your cash flow is, and how you business is doing — you can make small business decisions with confidence.

Sometimes it’s the small decisions that can knock your business off course… the smaller invoices that actually add up to disaster. For instance, expenses below $100 may slip under your radar as seemingly insignificant. But just a handful of those “minor” expenses that slip past you each month can add up to thousands of dollars over time. Unless your small business bookkeeping services has constant reporting and updates, you put your business at risk.

The starting point for avoiding a cash crisis is allowing Dashboard Accounting to develop a cash flow projection for you. As your outsource CPA, they can help you develop both short-term (weekly, monthly) cash flow projections to help you manage daily cash, and long-term (annual, 3-5 year) cash flow projections to help you develop the necessary capital strategy to meet your business needs.

You also can have reporting on historical cash flow statements, to help you gain an understanding about where all the money went so you can make positive adjustments to do better as you move forward.

You’ve heard the gurus say its better to work ON your business rather than IN your business. Today, the right accounting resources help make that actually possible. Getting the complete financial picture – when you need it – keeps you efficient and productive as you navigate your road to success.

Dashboard Accounting’s reputation for providing quality, personalized financial guidance to small businesses is reflected in over 20 years of experience.  Dashboard Accounting is experienced in all matters of accounting, bookkeeping, controller, and financial reporting.  We utilize professional bookkeeping help and accountants to manage our clients’ bookkeeping and accounting with Quick Book accounting software.  By utilizing Real Time Book keeping service our team is able to organize and streamline the financial administration of small business owners. 

At Dashboard Accounting our mission is to…guide you, the small business owner, with professional outsource CPA analysis and forecasting of your critical financials…empower you for making sound business decisions…save you money with outsourced book keeping, tax, and controller services.

Dashboard Accounting may service anyone worldwide utilizing virtual bookkeeping.  You may access your data in REAL TIME with 24/7 REPORTING via your custom “Dashboard”, which clearly depicts your company’s performance on a one page report, utilizing easy to interpret graphs and charts.

You may not understand everything about small business bookkeeping and accounting, but you probably do know it takes both time and commitment to do a good job. 

Keeping track of your personal life – and your personal finances – can be a task in itself. You may find it easier to employ an outsource accountant to do the job for you, if that’s an option.

But when it comes to your business, getting the right accounting solution is huge! Making that decision – deciding what small business accountant to hire, who you can trust, who you can afford for accounting services – is crucial to your business.

The best small business accountant will partner with you, helping you navigate the details important to the success and growth of your company. Beyond what a simple software program (like quick book accounting software) can provide, the right accountant helps steer you toward your goals faster.

If you are a small business owner, you may simply need a outsourced book keeping service or bookkeeping help. These services help keep you up to date and organized; they can keep you posted on transactions that may not be known to you — or even clear to you — so you get an idea of what’s going on with your financials. Solid accounting keeps your business going forward. 

Figuring out payroll can be a headache unto itself. With so many different small business payroll services available, you need to have an idea of what you specifically need them to do for your business in order to find the right one.  It helps to find bookkeeping firms that treats your small business as well as it treats big companies. They should take the time to explain the accounting help they offer. Communication between both parties has to be open and trustworthy.  Professionalism is a must.

You’re already aware that the accounting of a business is a system of recording and summarizing financial transactions so the data can later be analyzed, or used to communicate with others. The accounting process packages financial information for a variety of individual or business purposes.

Small business and entrepreneurs just starting out should remember the Accounting Equation — The value of the things you own (called assets) is equal to the value of what you owe for the things (called liabilities), plus what you don’t owe for (called equity). Of course, transactions can get a lot more complicated… but these principles remain.

For a small business owner, however, financial matters need to be taken care of by a professional. Outsourcing accounting service may be the solution — and often the missing link — in an otherwise well-run business.

Basic knowledge of accounting and bookkeeping is something you need to have. But for today’s small business, small business bookkeeping services are a must for those passionate about success. Dashboard Accounting helps you drive your business forward.

A Business Owner utilizing a traditional bookkeeping accountant, in which they send all their financial information to bookkeeping firms at the end of the month, may wait weeks before receiving the results of the financial reports.  Months could pass before the Business Owner realizes potential problems, and the losses could be huge!

Dashboard Accounting’s utilization of Real Time Virtual Bookkeeping provides Daily, Weekly, and Monthly financial reports that are available to view at anytime.  This means the Business Owner no longer has to wait until the end of the business cycle to analyze the company’s performance!

The timely financial reporting gained from Real Time Bookkeeping is an invaluable benefit from utilizing  Dashboard Accounting for your company’s accounting needs.  The Business Owner is empowered to make intelligent decisions and allows time for critical adjustments to prevent weeks of lost income.

Let Dashboard Accounting be your company’s small business accountant, and enjoy all the cost savings that outsourced book keeping provides.  Dashboard Accounting uses Quick Book accounting software and has Quick Book Pro advisors.  Dashboard Accounting is centrally located to easily accommodate bookkeeping Cleveland and bookkeeping Akron needs or may service anyone worldwide utilizing virtual bookkeeping.

Spend a little time to become a Quick Book Pro.   The possibilities are endless.   In fact, Dashboard Accounting has put together a five part series to give you some “bookkeeping help”

 In Quick Book Pro Tips, Series 3 of 5,  learn how to customize your invoice.

Inside Quick Book accounting software, click the create invoices from the home page.  
 Select the Customize icon above the invoice. 

 Here you can:

• Add your company logo to the printed or e-mailed invoice and move it to a different spot on the invoice
• Add or change how your company name and contact information appear on the invoice
• Change the font that’s used for different fields
• Add or remove the status stamp (Paid, Pending, Received, etc.)

 To make additional changes, select the Layout designer at the bottom of the screen:

• Change the invoice title, including the font that’s used, and then move it to a different place on the form
• Rename the date, invoice number, bill to, and ship to fields
• Prevent $0.00 from printing on progress invoices
• Move your company logo to a different spot on the invoice
• Add or remove fields and columns on the invoice
• Print the customer balance on invoices
• Rename a field or column
• Change the order of the columns on the invoice
• Add special sections to the invoice, such as warranty information, legal disclaimers, notes to customers, or contractual details
• Add a remittance tear-off section or special instructions
• Add lines and borders around different fields on the invoice
• Align quantities on the printed invoice
• Add page numbers to the printed invoice
• Change the printer settings that are used when you print the invoice

Preview the form: The final step in customizing your form is seeing how the form looks onscreen and in print preview.

We have QuickBooks ProAdvisors on staff.  Contact Dashboard Accounting today, as your small business accountant, we can prepare customized forms for you and assist you with all other QuickBooks tasks.

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.

Spend a little time to become a Quick Book Pro.   The possibilities are endless.   In fact, Dashboard Accounting has put together a five part series to give you some “bookkeeping help”.  Here are a few more tips to speed up your quick book accounting. 

• How often have you worked in QuickBooks and needed to add up numbers? Windows and QuickBooks both have calculators that you can pull up, but you really don’t need them.   If you are in an amount field on a check or other transaction, just pressing the number keys followed by a mathematical symbol (+, -, /, *) you will pull up the calculator. You can continue to enter numbers and math functions until you are done.  Press the Enter key to enter the amount into the number field. If you press the tab key you will lose the amount.

• Keyboard Tips Working with Dates.  When in a date field there are many ways to change the date. Of course you can type the date or you can pull up the calendar but there may be faster ways to get to a specific date.

1. Changing by a Few Days. If you only want to change a few days try using the Plus (+) or Minus (-) key to move forward or backwards. You can hold the key down and change dates quite quickly but I generally recommend this for a change of a few days.
2. Changing by Weeks. You can go back to the first day of the week by using the letter W and forward to the last day of the week by using the letter K.
3. Changing by Months. You can go back to the first day of the month by using the letter M and forward to the last day of the month by using the letter H.

Efforts spent becoming a QuickBooks Pro will help you decrease the time required to complete your bookkeeping.  Another way to obtain bookkeeping help is to contact Dashboard Accounting, our expertise allows us to offer very affordable solutions to your business.