So what can you do to make this work? The first step is to understand the basics and how they all fit together. ![]() You fondly skipped all those high school and college accounting courses, figuring you weren’t “going to be an accountant anyway.” Well, surprise! Not only are you an accountant, you are a lawyer, a shipping clerk, a customer service rep, a lawyer and more – all in the pursuit of your dream. You understand the importance of having accurate books, but you have a lot of demands on your time, so accounting and record keeping never seem to get the attention they require. a-c-c-o-u-n-t-i-n-g! By now you find yourself spending more time keeping your books than keeping your customers happy. Maybe you have inventory, or bill your employees time, or hire lots of subcontractors – all of these things require integrated record keeping, they require. You probably also have an accountant who is preparing your state, federal and maybe even your payroll taxes for you. Now you have customers to track, vendors to pay, sales to record, sales taxes and payroll taxes to track and a full set of accounts to maintain. But, as your business grew ‘beyond the checkbook,’ your record keeping, reporting, and compliance requirements also grew. Your first experience with ‘bookkeeping’ was probably to use a computerized checkbook system since it worked so well for your home finances. If you are a creative professional, you may have used a system that looks like this: Invoices were done using inDesign (because you could put your logo on them in 1200dpi.), checkbook register in Excel, and everything else done by hand. Maybe you tried some free service or Excel. When you started your small business you probably did as most small business entrepreneurs do and tried to use what came with your Mac or PC to run your business. Understanding what it all means and using that information to your advantage is what this document is all about. Knowing your local, state and federal tax regulations, deadlines and responsibilities probably keeps you up at night. How you keep it all running smoothly probably falls on your shoulders. How you work with your bookkeeper (if that’s not you) and your CPA (you should have one you love) probably determine how successful your business is. Our goal is present a basic overview, so any discrepancies for localization are purely accidental. The accounting processes, terminology and theory described here relates to our own experiences here in the USA, and may not translate exactly to your own local, regional, or national customs, laws, or practices. # Product Evangelist This document was written with the best intentions of describing the daily accounting functions that most small business owners grapple with.
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