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A significant piece of any business is keeping track of payroll. How much are you paying your people per month or per year? Without understanding this information, you will not comprehend the status of your ledgers. They are a summary of your finance. Begin by considering two main sections of payroll: accounting and administration.

The business of payroll concerns careful consideration of the amount paid to your employees. Once that data is gathered, you will need to calculate withholding and similar deductions. Finally, all of the paperwork concerning local, regional and national taxes must be prepared and filed with the appropriate agencies.

The part of payroll management that concerns the administration is the one unrelated to accounting. It deals with things such as managing personnel and payroll information, in order to make sure that an employee’s address, bank and pay rate are up to date and correct. It also deals with checking that payroll is in compliance with local, state and federal law regarding payroll.

In administering payroll, the key is to ensure that the practices meet all applicable laws and regulations. The Internal Revenue Service publishes the Internal Revenue Code (IRC). The IRC covers payroll requirements. It mandates that businesses must comply with all federal regulations, ensure accuracy in how they determine eligible wages and calculate withholding, as well as with reporting and transferring the proper tax data and funds to the proper local, state and federal entities.

To help companies with payroll management, there are now a variety of management resources. Some of these are basic accounting tools, so that payroll can be determined using paper, calculators, and spreadsheets. For more difficult jobs, there are many kinds of payroll software on the market. You may also wish to hire an accountant to manage the payroll.

To summarize, the top priority in managing a payroll is that a business owner be certain at all times to be in compliance with the statutes regarding wages and taxes. In this way, the business can continue to run smoothly, with both the firm and its workers guarded against negative consequences with respect to the tax agencies.

A payroll is understood to be the sum total of salaries paid by an employer to its employees over a specified time period. Payroll management is generally comprised of two main areas, payroll administration and payroll accounting. Payroll is a critically important aspect of finance in every enterprise. You can choose any of several software packages containing management resources. The better ones also include modules for payroll. In addition to software, ensure you have traditional tools including pad, pencil and calculator. Even if you have hired a professional or understand your software package perfectly, you will want to check your figures manually.

With accounting, a good way to explain what it means would be this example, a company’s accountants periodically measure the profit and loss for a month, a quarter or a fiscal year and publish these results in a statement of profit and loss that’s called an income statement. These statements include elements such as accounts receivable (what’s owed to the company) and accounts payable (what the company owes). It can also get pretty complicated with subjects like retained earnings and accelerated depreciation.

With GAAP, if GAAP is not the principles used for preparing financial statements, then a business needs to make clear which other form of accounting they’re used and are bound to avoid using titles in its financial statements that could mislead the person examining it.

Owners of a company, which can be individual owners or millions of shareholders, are most concerned with the summaries of these transactions, contained in the financial statement. The financial statement summarizes a company’s assets. A value of an asset is what it cost when it was first acquired. The financial statement also records what the sources of the assets were. Some assets are in the form of loans that have to be paid back. Profits are also an asset of the business.

On personal accounting

It might seem obvious, but in managing a business, it’s important to understand how the business makes a profit. A company needs a good business model and a good profit model. A business sells products or services and earns a certain amount of margin on each unit sold. The number of units sold is the sales volume during the reporting period. The business subtracts the amount of fixed expenses for the period, which gives them the operating profit before interest and income tax.

You need to discover if you’ve made any errors in your recordkeeping or if the bank has made any errors. Another form of accounting that we all dread is the filing of annual federal income tax returns. Many people use a CPA to do their returns; others do it themselves. Most forms include the following items:

Standard deduction – some personal expenditures or business expenses can be deducted from your income to reduce the taxable amount of income. These expenses include items such as interest paid on your home mortgage, charitable contributions and property taxes.

Taxes. That dreaded word. We don’t like to think about it, but it’s something we have to think about all the time, actually, if we own our own businesses. Taxes don’t just happen on April 15. In fact, you need to plan for them throughout the year; think ahead so that you can make adjustments and minimize your tax payments come April 15.

Yes, taxes are complicated. Everyone knows that, but unfortunately, they still have to be done. It can help make this arduous task simpler, though, if you have someone who can give you the advice you need.

Here are some things to ask yourself as you go throughout the year, so that taxes will be much simpler come tax time.

Is someone sitting down with you regularly to make sure you’re well aware of the tax impact your key decisions are making, including any major purchases you make and how much you’re taking as a personal salary?

You can deduct more money than ever before for equipment purchases. You can also take tax deductions on expenditures that your company would usually need to write off over the next several years, and get an immediate tax deduction. Depending on what tax bracket you fall into, your tax break could be anywhere from $15,000-$39,000.

Do you have someone advising you on a good strategy so that you tax-optimize your year-end income and expenses?

The golden rule of end-of-year tax planning is “increase expenses and delay income.” That can be as easy as paying your January mortgage early or prepaying for subscriptions to keep the tax money in your pocket for an additional year. But if you’ve had a bad year, and expect next year to be better, you may want to take the opposite approach. We can help you make a smart choice.

You have someone educating you are about ways to save taxes that you might not know about?

Be careful not to miss out on deductions. For example, you can set up something called a “Dependent Care Assistance Program.” This is a simple way to put more money in your employees’ pockets. You can reimburse employees from $5,000 in child care expenses, free of taxes. You don’t pay payroll taxes on that amount, and they don’t pay taxes on what they are reimbursed.

Of course, your CPA has a job to do when he or she prepares and files your returns. However, it’s nice to know that there’s somebody who really understands your business and works with you, so that you can develop a long-term tax strategy.

Taking every legitimate deduction available to you is simply smart. However, you have to make sure your decisions are based on the long-term benefit your company, not just on short-term tax savings.

To be successful in business you must be paid in a timely manner. If you’re like most businesses, you sell on credit-asking your customer to pay an invoice within a set time, like 30 days. During those 30 days you are essentially lending money to your customer, with the expectation that you will be paid back. It is only when that invoice is paid that you have the cash you need to run your business.

It’s unfortunate that sometimes, getting what you’re owed isn’t always as easy as simply giving the customer an invoice. Almost all businesses have customers who don’t pay or simply pay slowly. If you don’t proactively manage your receivables, you can quickly deplete ready cash. Here are some ways you can protect your company from delinquent accounts and late payments.

1. Make sure your customers are creditworthy. Perform credit checks and require credit applications to be completed before accepting orders. If the purchase amount is large enough, you can even ask for and review financial statements. Set credit limits and enforce them.

2. Run aging reports and make sure you review them regularly. Aging reports help you understand how your accounts are dispersed; they’ll show you which are less than 30 days old, 30 to 60 days old, 60 to 90 days old, or older. You and your staff should know how to interpret these reports so that you can spot problems early and take care of them. If necessary, assign someone specifically to follow up on problem invoices. The older invoices get, the more difficult they are to get payment for.

3. Send out invoices right away. If you are promptly getting invoices out, payments will come in sooner. You should also make sure that your bills are very clear and accurate. Include as much detail as possible. The more detail you include, the harder it will be for the customer to dispute the amount of the bill.

4. Reward customers to pay on time or early and penalize those who don’t. Include an incentive for customers to pay promptly, such as a 2% discount if payment is made within 10 days. You can also penalize late paying customers with a late fee. Stay within legal limits when you do this.

5. Monitor your growth. If you have a sudden significant increase in sales, this can greatly impact your company’s receivables and cash needs. Use the advice of a seasoned professional to develop a strategy for growth. You might want to consider additional financing such as a line of credit from the bank, or consider adjusting your prices. You may need to deter growth short-term to make sure that you don’t outpace your ability to pay your own bills.

When companies are successful, they seek new ways to improve Accounts Receivable functions. By improving this process, they know they can reap significant financial benefit. If you have fewer outstanding, balances, this means you can have fewer bad debt write-offs and greater profitability. If your portfolio of receivables is well managed, this can also boost your cash flow and expand your working capital.

Global organizations are faced with the challenge of managing human resources. Added into this challenge is the process of achieving substainable profit growth. This issue is often transferred to a sub-section of a company, as managing the human resource aspect of this policy is often limited to the human resource department. Payroll management policies and procedures are often initiated to achieve this growth. The initiation of this service often provides unmatched benefits, along with growth and management achievements.

Know let’s examine why managers put so much emphasis on handling payroll. The reason is simple. People want to be paid for the work they do. A paycheck is necessary to meet daily needs like food, shelter, and clothing. Employees need their paychecks to be done correctly and accurately. Payroll is not the place to make errors. Just ask your employees.

Monetary recompense is the strongest motivator for excellent work. If you have been active in the last twelve months, you mechanically consider that you will receive a boost on your paycheck. Professional progression largely consists in pay adjustments. Evidently, any company will want to examine the consequence of pay expenditure and evaluates the affect of career management on the enterprise accounting.

There is another rationale for payroll management. Naturally, each company must pay the government its mandated business taxes. In addition, workers’ tax returns are frequently filed via the corporation, since some taxes are taken out when the payroll is processed. Therefore, it is the company’s burden to ensure that there is nothing improperly covered up in these returns. Effective payroll management is the ideal tool for meeting this burden.

Many firms provide workers with perks such as equity-linked saving schemes, postal saving schemes, transportation vouchers, life and health insurance, etc. Because many of these remittances occur simultaneously with the processing of salaries, a quality payroll management software product will record these transactions in the company’s salary database.

New concepts and technologies are used for payroll processing to make it easier. Most firms give their employees a payroll card instead of a paper paycheck, and the card resembles a debit card. Many global organizations are using these new payroll management software packages with much success.

A paycheck is the biggest reason for most employees to do a good job. Employees assume if they have done a good job throughout the year, they will get an increase in their pay. Firms, such as career development are very interested in changes made to pay rates. Most businesses want to take a close look at their salary costs and examine the impact of career management efforts on the company’s overall financial growth. Proper payroll management is the way that most firms fulfill their responsibility. Several such management software packages have been successfully implemented at global organizations.

Many businesses both large and small run into financial problems from time to time. With small business owners they can be working so hard to build a business they do not keep a close eye on the spending. Large businesses find themselves expanding too quickly, markets going south or trying to please stockholders.

When things get out of balance they often turn to a financial adviser or accountants for some guidance and help in coming up with a plan to consolidate debt. Much like personal debt consolidation it all begins with a plan and the secret is staying on course with the plan until the financial side of the business is back on its feet. However, one must ask the question – if the plan worked, why make changes?

Getting a handle on debt in a business follows much of the same steps as dealing with personal debt. For individuals it means a lifestyle change and cutting out the extras. For business it may seems harsh but the fat must be cut. Every aspect of the business needs a thorough review and cutting the extras. It is either making the tough decisions or watching the business die a slow death and possibly bankruptcy.

The first step in turning the business around financially looks at what you are spending and separating essentials from non-essentials. Buckle up the chinstrap and realize you must cut back severely on expenses to get yourself back on solid financial ground.

Take a look at your staffing and employees and make them aware of the current financial state. They need to know that you will be focused on debt consolidation for the business. Your staff will realize some things are going to be cut and those cuts must be made for the businesses survival and their future employment.

Some staff may jump ship and look for another job, others who stay need to understand they will need to pick up some slack for any kind of impact during the consolidation process.

It may be difficult to swallow but resist the temptation of replacing every staff member who decides to leave. Give the remaining staff the option of filling in the empty spaces. You may find some real jewels waiting to shine. Explain the debt plan to your top employees, they may be willing to give some extra hours at a lower pay to allow you to put all your focus in the financial turnaround.

Focused intensity will shorten the time to turn things around; the financial condition is short term. Once the consolidation steps are in place make sure you are also doing your part. Asking employees to take up some slack and not doing it yourself is a sure fire way to lose respect and good employees.

Once things have turned the corner make sure you follow up and reward those in the company who sacrificed their time and money for the company.

If you have your taxes prepared professionally by an accountant, it’s going to cost you about $200, not a small amount of money. However, can you afford not to have this done?

Most people miss at least $100 in deductions, perhaps more. If you don’t have an accountant, it’s going to cost you a lot in missed deductions and extra money paid to Uncle Sam.

Now that you know what you have to do, here are six suggestions that will help you pick the right accountant:

1. Pick an accountant you’re actually going to meet in person, and talk with him or her at some length. It’s best not to go to a big chain where just about anyone can handle your taxes. You might need your accountant at some other point in the year besides just tax time, and typically, big chains hire accountants in just from January through April. During off-season, it’s probably going to take more work than it’s worth to get a few simple questions answered.

2. It’s likely going to cost you more to hire a big chain that it will an individual accountant. Why? Even though big chains look cheaper on the surface, when you read the fine print, you might find out that each deduction found for you is charged separately. These chains can also charge you to guarantee the accuracy of their work. An individual accountant can give you better service for less money, and will guarantee their work without charging extra to do so.

3. Credentials matter. You need a licensed professional, why you ask? Only a licensed professional-CPA, EA or tax lawyer can represent you in court. The only states that license additional tax professionals are Oregon and California. Therefore, almost anyone that wants to can claim to be a tax professional, but don’t be fooled. You can’t have Tom, Dick or Harry represent you in court, so why would you risk it?

4. Ask for referrals and references. If friends or relatives have been happy with the accountant they are using, chances are you will be, too. Similar to picking out your dentist, or physician, word-of-mouth is often a very good way to go.

5. Service. It’s important and it should not be underrated. Minnesota Nice should apply to every tax preparer. If your calls are not returned, if they are rude, if they don’t have time for you, if they are not professional then walk out the door. Taxes are uncomfortable enough without the pain of poor customer relations, so find someone who consistently has the time and effort to work with and for you.

6. Be reasonable with your expectations. If you’re not financially responsible or your records are a mess, your accountant can probably do only so much for you at tax time. Your accountant’s performance depends in part on how organized and responsible you are yourself. Therefore, if you present your accountant with stellar records, expect pristine work in return. If you present your accountant with incomplete records or otherwise shoddy material, you should still expect the best performance possible, but it probably won’t be perfect. Do take their advice if you’re comfortable with them and trust them. They just might make your taxes easier the next time, too.

If you own your own business, no doubt the end of the year brings you not just the holidays, but a lot of work to complete. You’re probably thinking about wrapping up the books, selling any investments, organizing documentation for your taxes, setting your employees’ benefits up, and creating your budgets for next year.

If you list is pretty long or one item in particular seems daunting, it might be that you procrastinate, which is unpleasant. One of the most daunting tasks business owners face in the tasks they have to do is establishing their budgets. In fact, so many are determined to put it off that they’ve done just about everything to avoid it.

Here are some common excuses for not organizing a budget, and why you should make one anyway.

Excuse 1: Budgets aren’t flexible enough, so that it’s impossible to stay with initial limits for the entire year. In fact, your budget doesn’t have to be cut and dried. You didn’t swear on your grandmother’s best brownies that you’d stick with it no matter what. It’s yours and if needed, you can be flexible with it. However, you should not just make a budget and then ignore it. It’s estimated that up to 80% of companies who create budgets don’t change even one detail during the fiscal year. In fact, that’s not realistic. Not only is it possible for you to change your budget as circumstances require, but it’s necessary. If appropriate, perhaps budgeting every quarter instead of yearly would be a better option for you.

Excuse 2: I won’t be able to react as flexibly to an unforeseen crisis if I have a budget in place. The reality is that companies that create budgets tend to be more flexible and more proactive than companies without budgets. When you’re actively tracking your progress toward a specific goal you can tell much earlier on if you’ve hit a snag. You can react while the situation is smaller and more manageable, and sometimes you can even see a problem before it occurs.

Excuse 3: Budgeting is too complex and takes too much time. While this might actually be true for some companies, it doesn’t have to be so. It’s true that many companies sweat extensively over their budgets; some even devote as much as 20% of their management’s time to creating those budgets. It’s true that a certain amount of detail is going to be necessary if the budget will be effective. However, the budget itself can often be quite simple. In addition, the time you invest in this type of planning will never be wasted, because you’ll save yourself time down the road when you need to react in the moment for split-second decisions that must be made.

Excuse 4: My industry is in flux and ever changing, so I can’t commit to a budget. In fact, every industry is in flux at every moment. Your industry is the same as every other, and you need a budget regardless. Of course, you can’t predict unknown events, such as if gas prices will rise, whether laws will be passed that will impact your profit margin, or whether you’ll need to hire new staff, but you can still use a budget to plan and set goals over the long haul. For this, you need to plan to take action at given times, which is under your control. You need to be able to look at your business with a critical eye and decide what you want to achieve in the next 12 months. If you can’t do that, then it’s time to sit down and figure out why that’s true.

Excuse 5: Budgets don’t mean anything. Everyone just creates the numbers they want so that the picture they paint is perfect. It’s true that if you construct your budget based on unrealistic terms and goals in hopes of inspiring yourself to actually reach them, in fact this is a sure way to invite frustration and failure into your life. In fact, one Internet post compared budgets to pornography, saying that they were a fantasy based on what the author wanted the world to look like but with no connection to reality, and “designed to titillate, stimulate and motivate the reader, but ultimately resulting in a sense of alienation and despair.” If this is your intention when you set up your budget, it’s of no use to you. To help you, your budget needs to be based on reality.

Excuse 6: I have a budget, it’s just in my head not on paper. Keeping mental note of your company’s projects, numbers and expenses is overambitious. You may be able to do it for a while, but eventually your business reaches a size that makes it impossible for you to keep in touch with all of the details. If you have managers and employees working for you, it also prevents them from taking on some of the ownership and accountability for results with you. Even if you don’t feel like you’re big enough for a budget right now you will be one day. It’s never too early to start a good habit.

Remember that in reality, a budget is just a plan. It makes you step out of your everyday business view and forces you to look at the big picture strategically, so that you have to take note of where you are now and plan for where you want to go. Without a formal plan to help inspire you to action, planning a budget will likely be pushed to the back burner as you spend all of your time managing daily fires to be put out.

So what is it? Your dog ate it? You need to shampoo your hair and won’t have time? You’ve got relatives in from Iowa? Or are you ready to drop the excuses and start crunching numbers?