Author: Complete Controller

It is a fact that a business needs money to strive. But not just investing money would make your business grow but managing the cash flow would help. Your business health depends upon the steady flow of capital into it. Any company without proper cash management eventually fails, No matter its scale. Cash flow is an essential rule for expanding your small business. About 60% of companies are profitable on paper but end up in bankruptcy since there is no balance between the cash going in and out.

Undoubtedly, “cash is the king in any business” but, without cash flow management, an enterprise will not be able to compete. Or they must invest more and gain less.

For instance, if you have used up more of your working capital than planned. Then you will face a hard time, and you’ll not be able to pay up the suppliers, salaries, and purchase materials. Cash flow management can prevent this delay in making cash and receiving cash.

Setting limits to spending working capital can help you make it through this gap and continue operating your business.

Cash flow management refers to delaying outlays of money while encouraging your customers to pay off as soon as possible.

Here is a guide to the Basics of cash flow and how it can benefit your small business:

What is cash flow?

To manage it, you first need to know what it is. Cash flow is the amount of money that goes into or out of business. One can track their cash flow either on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.

There are two kinds of cash flows:

Positive cash flow: the money is coming from sales and receivables. Positive cash flow is greater than the money leaving your business.

Negative cash flow: negative cash flow is the money you use to resolve issues in your business. When the cash flow going out of the company is more significant than incoming cash. One can fix negative cash flow by making strategies like cutting business expenses.

Be patient with scaling your business:

To have a sustainable positive cash flow, you must be patient with your business growth. Do not act in the spur of the moment by overdoing your business potential. Wait for the development organically ad then think about expanding your enterprise. Don’t burden your work capital with more hires and credit cards but plan your every move.

Profit is not always positive cashflow:

You cannot get a good grip on your cash flow by simply looking at your profit and loss statement. Much other financial information, such as accounts receivable, inventory, accounts payable, capital expenditures, and taxation, play a role in calculating your cash flow.

Effective cash flow management needs laser-like emphasis on each of these cash flow drivers, in addition to your profits and losses. Accounting rules define profit as revenue minus expenditures. On the other hand, a wise business owner understands that knowing whether you made a profit is not the same as knowing what happened to your funds.

Know about the breakeven point of your business:

What is the breakeven point? It is that point in your business growth where cost and revenue become equal. At this point, a business has recovered its initially invested cost but has not made a profit yet. If you are a small business owner, you must know the breakeven point of your business. That way, you can know when your business will become profitable. However, it does not have any impact on your cash flow. But it sets an early goal and a target area to project your future cash flow. You can do a breakeven analysis by the data of your income and expenses as well.

Planning and record-keeping:

Before cash flow management, one must know the working capital a business requires to run smoothly.

Better cash flow management needs planning and tracking your capital, sales, profits, and expenses. One must keep records of the business’s positive and negative cash flows, from sales to expenditures like insurance, wages, taxes, and loan payments.

A resourceful planning system can make budgets and then review them weekly or monthly to improve and expand a business.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

A paycheck doesn’t come with instructions on how to use the money. We are left to figure it out on our own. But if we spend it all on just one thing, we will not meet our other needs. It depends on your money management skills. Where to spend your cash and how much? It doesn’t matter how much you earn but what matters is how you spend it.

When it comes to money management, budget is the foremost step. However, budgeting can sound a bit frustrating to some people. But if done correctly, it can give you peace of mind and pay you living expenses, save extra money and keep you away from debt and money anxiety.

A budget is your plan to spend money according to the choices you make and priorities. You can manage your current expenses, save some bucks, and plan your future expenditures as well.

The current economic troubles have every person nitpicking over budgeting and saving to avoid a potential financial crisis. Here are some basic rules you can follow to make your budget:

Practical Goals:

First, make sure you are spending less than what you earn. If you’re Overspending, sit down and think about ways you can minimize it. Setting up realistic goals can help. Track your spending habits and categorize your expenses by priority or necessity, such as rent, mortgage, utilities, groceries & entertainment. Find out where you can cut down your cash flow and save it instead. Ask yourself where you wish to see your finances in a year, and you’ll get an answer to this subject immediately.

Track your income and expenses:

Keep a track record of the income generated and the expenditures on a weekly or monthly basis. Jot down every penny you spend in your journal, and you’ll eventually find out what you’re missing.

There are many free programs online for tracking down your income and expenses. They offer excellent tools for budgeting that categorizes all your income and payments coming in and out. Due to this, you will note the areas where you are spending a little more than in the regions that need it.

Net income Estimation:

Your net income is the amount of money you have left after paying all your bills. You want it to be a positive number so that you can utilize it for repayments, savings, or other financial goals. Subtract your monthly expenses from your monthly income to calculate your net income. Even if the number is negative, write it down.

Differentiate between needs and wants:

Try to differentiate between your needs and wants. There might be something that you want badly, but you can live without it as well. There are wants, and some things are needed to function in daily life; these are needs. Prioritizing needs over wants can make your budget fruitful and promising.

Building your budget:

While building your budget, look for ways to save some money while spending. Accommodate all your expenditures within your income. The budget cannot always remain the same for a family or even a single person. It keeps changing given the trends or needs. Review your budget from time to time to see where your expenses have increased and where decreased.

Make lists before you shop:

It is one of the best ways to stick to a budget. Always jot down the items you need on paper before going to the store. Only purchase the items noted in the list.

Buffer cash:

Besides some fixed bills and rent or taxes, there are some expenses that you don’t pay for every month. These are variable expenses like an annual membership fee or a coursebook that can arise without prior notice. Keep an account of these variable expenses too in your budget.

Be patient:

Getting on track with this budget might take a month or two, but it can be rewarding and worthy of all the effort once you make it a habit.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Risk management is essential for all businesses alike but is quite crucial for small and medium-sized enterprises. With limited cash flow, a restricted number of clients, and lower revenue, it is vital for SMEs to have a robust risk management strategy that helps mitigate risks at hand and keeps the business owners prepared for any sudden loss or risk.

Most such sudden risks occur when the economy crashes suddenly, changing policies causing a rise in interest rates or simply harsh weather conditions. You can manage internal risks of your organization, such as employee theft, information breach, or non-compliance to policies by your employees internally and in time. External factors, as discussed earlier, will send you tumbling downhill if you don’t have a proper risk management plan in action. It is primarily because the SMEs don’t have vast cash reserves and operate with thinner margins. Thus, it is reasonably necessary to have a solid reinforcement plan in your risk management strategy to forecast, avoid and combat risks to your business.

If you are starting a new business or have already ventured into something of your own, it’s high time you put a risk management plan in the document. Here are some of the top expert tips before you document your financial risk management.

1. Keep your record updated:

It is imperative as it contributes to avoiding cash leakages in your company regularly and allows you to make accurate projections for your company, thus helping you make decisions that might otherwise seem financially risky. To keep your records updated, hire a bookkeeper or outsource your bookkeeping to a consulting company.

2. Identify your strengths & weaknesses:

Risks could simply be losing an important client or an irreplaceable vendor when you least expect or changes in the exchange rates. Whatever the cause, it is crucial for you to prepare in advance and identify your strengths and weaknesses. Don’t rely on a single retainer client; try acquiring more clients, and the same goes for vendors.

3. Release clients with poor credit history:

Clients that delay payments or have a poor credit history are not your best bet. Let go of such clients gradually as they will only pile up your pending receivable charges, pushing you down in debt.

4. Don’t expand vertically at the start:

Maintain lean operations in the starting phases of your business. Closely observe the trends of your industry and see where your finances take you. A vertical growth or expansion can expose your company to undue risks.

5. Consider external risks:

As you study the market trends, you are also likely to identify the areas of risk in the general market. Consider global economic changes as well as weather and other climatic & environmental factors. For financial crisis and market trends, set up a credit facility to mitigate and keep a reinforcement plan ready for environmental factors.

6. Don’t merge your personal and business finances:

It is one of the biggest mistakes small business owners make and end up losing all liquidity. Please keep your personal and business accounts separate right from the start to avoid cash leakages and their impact on your overall financial health.

7. Review & revise your payment terms:

Your payment terms set the route to your financial progress. For all receivables and payables, make sure you are not on the risky losing end. Devise payment strategies that help you get paid in advance and pay once the job is complete.

8. Get insurance:

Another important measure that you could take is getting insurance for your company. Choose from full operations insurance, life insurance, employer insurance, and other plans that might be on the offer to manage the risk better.

9. Prioritize risks:

Before you put that plan in the document, make sure you prioritize the risks in order of the likeliness such risks can occur. Plan for risks that are most likely to affect your business first and then bring those which are less or least likely to occur

10. Get a risk management team:

 If you are already in a good position, it’s best to hire a proper risk management team that can help you devise a better risk management plan.   

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Accounting can be a daunting task for small businesses if done manually since you must manage other departments such as sales or marketing. QuickBooks saves you from this struggle and makes your finances more coherent and reliable. Quick book is cloud-based accounting software that manages and automates bookkeeping and other financial tasks.

 Why choose QuickBooks for your small business?

Small business owners are always looking for ways to boost efficiency cost-effectively, which is not easy. If you run a small business, you know there is hardly any extra time on your hands to plan for it. Therefore, choosing the right tools and methods can help you achieve your goal.

With QuickBooks, you will be able to spend less time balancing accounts and more time focusing on building your service delivery. Consequently, an organized financial record can be a good thing when filing for taxes.

1. User friendly:

QuickBooks is one of the most popular small business accounting programs globally, having 4.3 million users. QuickBooks has a user-friendly interface. It can be used by people with little to no experience in finances as well. You can find plenty of tutorials there to help you seamlessly grasp its functionality and interpret complex accounting methods.

It dramatically simplifies and organizes accounting, monitoring, and reporting, guaranteeing that the process of managing your company’s finances will be a lot easier.

2. Flexibility and customization:

Since it is cloud-based software, anyone can use it either remotely or at work. You can use it according to flexibility since its availability 24 hours and seven days a week. QuickBooks comes with ready-to-use templates. But you can customize them according to your convenience as well. For example, you can add your company logo and detailed line items to your invoice template. One can easily manage payrolls, timesheets and create business plans as well.

3. Compatible with other service programs:

QuickBooks is compatible with more than a hundred business apps. It can readily integrate with other data creation apps like MS excel. Which allows you to import information from excel to QuickBooks or export from QuickBooks to excel. Hence you can export data from QuickBooks to any other software. For example, you can quickly fill in data on any tax preparation platform.

4. Ensures Backup and data storage security:

Every day, companies create new data such as contracts, invoices, etc., and there is always a constant fear of losing all this critical information. Like what happens if it is accidentally erased? Or if the database crashes or just an unwanted incident damages your computer. It feels terrible to even think of the consequences of all the lost data. QuickBooks features an excellent automated backup solution that keeps your financial data safe and secure. You will never lose any valuable data while using this program.

QuickBooks also monitors your data 24/7 to protect it from any unauthorized manipulation. Moreover, they have reliable security features such as multi-factor authentication & password-protected login.

5. Saves time and is efficient to use:

Tasks that took hours of your single day manually can be dealt with every week using QuickBooks. You can also automate daily banking transactions through this software. It saves time and energy. For example, you can upload your signature and sign the checks automatically through your saved signature.

6. Next level payment methods:

You don’t have to turn down customers who don’t carry cash or wait for days to receive a check in the mail. Because QuickBooks has an online billing Feature that enables you to send invoices or statements via email, the customer can quickly pay through a bank transfer or credit card.

QuickBooks also offers the Go payment service in which you can accept VISA, MasterCard, and American Express.

7. Innovative Business growth:

An effective accounting system can ensure a stable business with maximum efficiency since QuickBooks is an extensively used and innovative accounting program. It makes the enterprise’s attitude more attentive and careful toward their finances. They would be able to analyze the gap between their finances and build a business strategy to overcome it.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

While accounting is considered the boring part of every business, you cannot deny that it is the heart and soul of an organization. Without an up-to-date accounting department, an organization in today’s economy will fail miserably. With the advancements in technology, accounting as a function has improved by leaps and bounds. But, if you are resisting upgrading your accounting department, you are putting your organization at risk of excessive payroll, data theft, and discrepancies in financial data. Every organization today needs to adapt to technological changes rapidly. They are supposed to make your life easier. The same is the case with accounting. When being an essential department of your organization, you need to constantly check on the latest trends and developments to upgrade your accounting department and ensure risk-free.

Here are some of the most prevailing trends in the accounting sector that have helped many businesses streamline and manage their accounting departments with ease.

Evolution in accounting software

While desktop-based accounting software is nothing new, but the upgrades have recently made them revolutionary. First off, most accounting software today operates with a cloud-based backup, giving you the advantage of not securing your data in a single computer that is prone to virus attacks and hackers. Instead, when your data is on the cloud, you are at peace knowing that your information is always secure on a cloud server even if the computer is attacked or dies down. Secondly, today, many accounting software come with an entire ecosystem that allows you to connect your bank accounts, inventory management apps, invoicing apps, and the like. All your data is continuously updated and available to you through a single platform. Long gone are the days to check different software, extract the data and manually reconcile it to have the final analysis.

Enter the realm of artificial intelligence

In the past two years, artificial intelligence has taken the market by storm. Artificial intelligence works like a miracle for businesses, automatically completing mundane and repetitive tasks to reduce the load and make the overall process more productive. Similarly, even in accounting, AI plays a considerable role by automating processes and allowing accountants to focus more on planning and analysis. In contrast, AI takes care of repetitive ones. Whether you are looking to analyze financial data or plan for your company’s future, you can have it all in a couple of seconds, or even less with AI-based accounting software.

Remote working via cloud software

By the end of 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic brought about a halt to business activities worldwide. Most regions in the world were in complete lockdown situations for months. The only way out was to start working remotely. Even businesses that thought their processes would never work in a remote-based setting explored new horizons for the first time. And it worked! The remote workforce quickly became a trend for most industries. However, it impacted specific sectors since switching to remote working was not an option, and financial data management and accounting were among them. However, gradually, even these industries changed to remote-based working, and this is where the world understood the importance of cloud-based accounting software. It stored all financial data online, and accounting teams would access them from anywhere or everywhere. Of course, there are always security checks in place, but overall, it helped massively keep things moving. 

While accounting was previously considered an in-house, mundane, and tedious job, it is all changing thanks to the trends. Business owners can easily see their ROI, statistics, analysis, and forecasts with AI-based software while the team is working online. The data is updated and secured now and then. Accounting is no longer boring, mundane, and a job was bearing no fruits. Accounting today is more accessible, productive, and more fruitful than ever before!

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

In the recent past, small businesses have heavily relied on online advertising to generate sales. Online advertising is cheaper than traditional marketing, and it offers never-seen-before results and analytics. You can analyze your performance and where you are spending the budget. If you don’t like it, you can always change and optimize it for better performance. You have all the luxury in the world to select the type of audience you want to target and how much you want to spend every day. With such unique features, online advertising has shifted the way businesses operate today. Unlike previously, small businesses don’t have to stick to hectic marketing methods like door-to-door marketing or telesales. With just $100, you can start generating sales for your business.

Yet, with all those many benefits, small businesses struggle to make sales because of a few mistakes. With just a little bit of help, any small business can reach the acme of success. So, to help you out, here are a few tips that you need to follow to make sure your marketing budget is reducing your campaigns achieve the milestones you are aiming for:

Tip # 1: Regularly optimize your cost

When you are marketing through online mediums such as social media and search engines, you have the liberty of checking the analytics now and then. It is an opportunity that most business owners overlook. It gives you the leverage to constantly update your marketing campaigns to reach their target, especially in terms of cost. If you run a campaign for a week in multiple regions and on various keywords, make sure to check which areas or keywords are performing best. Eliminate the ones that are not generating any leads or sales immediately.

Tip # 2: Regularly optimize your performance

Cost and performance optimization work hand in hand to give you good results, probably half the cost you previously incurred. You may ask how? Well, once you find out the key indicators of your performance, such as the regions that are converting most sales, the keywords that are getting the most traffic, etc., the next step is to build more ads and reach these indicators and stop the ones that aren’t. You will control the campaign from spending on factors that are not working instead of adding more assets to the working campaigns.

Tip # 3: Be available for customers

A recent survey indicated that most online buyers are skeptical of buying from new brands because of trust issues. On the one hand, online business has made life easier for many and, on the other hand, has given way to scams and frauds. Therefore, many of your customers will become skeptical if you cannot answer their queries and win their trust. Mention your availability on your website and social media pages. Make sure to be available whenever you are running your ads. If you are not available, stop the campaign and then restart it later. This way, you will not only be saving your cost but also converting more sales.

Tip # 4: Performance marketing is the future of online advertising

Performance marketing refers to a marketing technique where you only focus on marketing to get results. You focus on putting your cost on lead generation while generating brand awareness through organic mediums. This way, you are simultaneously growing your brand and sales but only spending your hard-earned money to boost your ROI. If you haven’t heard of performance marketing, it’s about time to switch to it to ensure you are not spending your money on campaigns that are not generating any sales.

In 2021, small businesses are facing tough competition. Many people lost their jobs due to the pandemic, and they have shifted to online companies. And even the more prominent organizations are now focusing on online advertising. Hence, the only way to achieve success is to be smart enough to cut the competition and move ahead.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

As the tax filing season approaches every year, the CPA Firms and taxpayers spend restless nights, and there is a lot of stress. With the global pandemic, everything is changing, and there is not even a single sector affected by it. Similarly, tax filing has also been affected. Since the previous year had a significant impact on people’s finances, many things have changed. Nothing remained the same, ranging from unemployment to missed taxes and people losing their crucial documents.

The government has extended the tax filing to give the people time to gather all their documents. No matter if you are ready or not, tax season 2022 is almost here. Even if you are not prepared and do not do taxes at your firm, you must make sure that your tech stack is top-notch so that the upcoming tax season goes as smoothly as possible for you, your team, and your clients.

Here are the top tips that will help you make your tax season 2022 easier.

1. Use cloud-based software

If you are still using that old desktop-based software, it’s time to leave it and convert it to the cloud. Cloud-based accounting software like Xero and QuickBooks makes your work smooth and easy to handle clients. Moreover, there will be no stressors like the risk of overwriting each other’s work or locking each other out of the software.

2. Use dedicated 1099 software

If you do not use a general ledger software that prepares emails, e-files, and mails on your behalf, you can surely use reliable 1099 software that will do all the work. You must pay more for this software, but it is worth buying because of its increased efficiency.

3. Gather documents in advance

The first step for making your tax process smooth and efficient is to gather all the clients’ essential and relevant documents and data. It will save both your and your client’s time and reduce your workload.

Even an additional one or two weeks will provide you sufficient time to avoid the trouble of rushing to collect documents and data from the clients at the last moment during the tax season. Also, it will help you ensure to follow up with your clients regularly and receive documents on time.

 To make this task easier, you can create an online platform where clients can submit their documents rather than physically submit them to the office.

4. Understand your staff’s requirements

In CPA and accounting firms, one of the biggest hurdles is finding and employing expert staff. That’s why you must analyze and assess your staff’s needs and requirements and develop active strategies to remain efficient during the peak tax season. You can also make a rough estimate with the help of tax returns you receive that how many resources you will need to meet the needs of your staff.  

And if there is a resource shortfall, rather than wasting time recruiting an additional workforce, you can go for outsourced tax preparation to meet your deadlines faster. Taking help from an outsourced tax partner will eliminate the need for in-depth training. These outsourced teams have expert professionals and CPAs having many years of relevant experience.

5. Remain up to date with tax legislations

As the IRS is struggling with implementing the TJCA (Tax Cuts and Job Acts), staying up to date can be a tremendous struggle and sometimes exhausting.

Hence, it is essential to update your software every month. On the other hand, you can go for an outsourced client accounting software that can do this work to get acquainted with new tax laws and manage your extra workload. Outsources partners are professionals having many years of experience and thus can help to offer solutions to any accounting or tax-related problems.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

An audit is typically the detailed evaluation of a company’s financial statements, operational procedures, and policies to ensure that everything complies with the state laws and evaluates the company’s overall financial health. While for public companies, an audit is mandatory so that the investors and shareholders alike can get a clear and unbiased view of the company’s standings.

Benefits of having an external audit

Most companies have an internal audit team responsible for reviewing business operations regularly and highlighting incompetence in the processes & discrepancies in the financial statements. Companies often resort to a third-party audit firm to get an external audit as that is more reliable, unbiased, and objective. 

It helps identify the areas of strength and weaknesses and highlights any potential risks and discrepancies in the financial statements. An audit is essential for those seeking investments from banks and other entities. An audit strengthens the confidence of potential investors in the company and ensures financial transparency.

An external audit also helps streamline the processes and internal systems and controls and provides credibility.

Countless international auditing firms are operating which lend their review services to large- and small-scale companies. Since the auditors and audit companies are chiefly responsible for reviewing and streamlining operations of a company and are usually not related to the company in any way, they must follow a set of ethics.

What are auditing ethics?

Auditors usually have complete access to a company’s financial data as well as operational guidelines. It makes them crucial to the company but also puts a hefty responsibility on them. Auditors need to carry out the audit without bias and report without malicious omission of facts. For all of this to happen, auditors are bound to follow a pre-defined set of ethics.

The auditing ethics secure the company’s rights being audited and make sure that the audit process happens correctly. Many global bodies of Certified Public Accountants have published lists of auditing ethics that act as a beacon for auditing procedures. Keeping these guidelines in mind, auditing companies formulate operational strategies for their auditors to ensure no regulations are compromised.

Here are some basic auditing ethics that are important for a smooth and unbiased auditing process.

Auditors must be independent: This is the essential purpose of having an external audit. The auditors must be independent and should not be associated with the company or the owners/management of the company being audited. Relationship with the company owner or direct or indirect involvement of order in the company’s operations can cause faulty or biased judgment, killing an external audit’s whole purpose. The auditor must be independent by fact and by appearance to ensure an impartial evaluation of a business. One of the critical reasons external auditors are hired is that self-review can also cloud judgment. Suppose the accountant or finance head of a company is doing the audit himself. In that case, he will likely mask information or compile unrealistic results in the book to hide his shortcoming, if any.

Precision & timeliness: Most auditing SOPs bind auditors to carry out and complete the audit in a timely manner with due diligence and accuracy. Taking longer than expected can raise questions on the credibility of the audit and can also have an adverse impact on the company’s financial standings undergoing the audit as it can delay loans and investments.

Academics & professional competence: You cannot just select anybody to do the audit of your company. It is essential to have certified public accountants on board with the necessary academic background and enough experience to lead the audit for a proper external audit. It is crucial for an external audit; otherwise, the audit is useless and renders no credibility to the organization.

Confidentiality: Since auditors get excess information vital to any business, every auditor must ensure client confidentiality, and no information carries to any irrelevant resource. You must provide the sealed audit report to relevant authorities only, and no data or information leakage must happen even through word of mouth.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Online advertising has opened many doors of opportunities for small businesses to reach their potential customers with ease. Previously, during the age of mass media advertisement, the competition was stark and dominated mainly by the big fish. A small business couldn’t advertise on television, radio, or newspaper due to the cost it would incur. Therefore, small companies resorted to distributing flyers, door-to-door marketing, and telemarketing. Probably, these were the reasons small businesses found it challenging to succeed back then. However, with the advent of online advertising, it has become easier for small businesses to grow due to its ease and cost-effectiveness. For instance, a small business can easily advertise on Facebook or Google with a few hundred dollars and reach more than a hundred potential buyers. It would have been a dream back in the 90s.

Nevertheless, there are always things to improve on. While online advertising has given way to easy and cost-effective advertising, it also is getting increasingly competitive. Therefore, small businesses might struggle to convert their audience into leads if they cannot present the opportunity the right way. If you are running a small business and wondering how to improve your advertising strategy, then here are a few tips for you:

Tip # 1: Your audience is the biggest draw of the game

Since online advertising is easy to start, most people don’t get into its intricacies and instead keep spending, hoping to get as many customers as possible. No, online advertising is not just about posting and boosting on Facebook. It is much more than that. If you dive a little deeper, social media platforms and search engines offer a lot more that you could work with to reduce your cost and increase your conversion rates. Not selecting the right audience is the biggest mistake most small business owners make. Did you know you can choose the occupation, age, gender, job role, city, state, education level, job title, marital status, and a lot more about your audience? If you have an email list of your existing customers, you can even upload that and ask the platform to find a similar audience for you to advertise. It would increase your conversion and reduce your cost since you will be making more customers per dollar spent.

Tip # 2: Mobile optimization is the key

According to a recent survey, in 2021, around 72% of people in the United States are using smartphones to browse websites, social media, and search engines. That’s a huge number that you need to focus on. Unfortunately, most small business owners are unaware of the importance of mobile optimization. If your website is not optimized for mobile, yet you advertise it on online platforms, you are losing money. When customers visit your website through their mobile phones, they cannot browse through or sign up because your website is not optimized. You would break your call-to-action form, or the signup button might not be clickable.

Tip # 3: Performance optimization of your website

Finally, if you advertise online, you need to have a fast, user-friendly website to convert customers. According to Google, an average person on the internet spends only about 3 seconds on a web page before making a move. If your website does not load within these 3 seconds, you lose your customer. Imagine paying $10 per click, and the visitors aren’t even able to view your website because it takes too long to load. That’s a lot of money lost.

To conclude

While running advertising campaigns online may seem easy, there’s a learning curve for most small business owners. Yes, they are hassle-free and cost-effective, but you need to get yourself familiar with how it works to successfully operate an online advertising campaign.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Accounting is the backbone of your investments, transactions, business, and trades. Two types of accounting exist in the world of digits and money. One is accrual, and the other is the cash accounting method. Both are just a bit different from one another. You might be wondering what exactly is meant by both terms? Let’s clarify it.

Accrual accounting

The accrual method of accounting is beneficial as it provides the complete picture of the incoming and outgoing cash of the company. Regardless of this, the investors choose to pick up these methods as it solidifies the business’s existence much longer than the cash accounting business. We have listed some advantages that might help you to choose between accrual and cash accounting methods for your business:

Make business planning simple: We all are equally knowledgeable about the words of wisdom that business is not an easy task to begin and handle. Accrual methods of bookkeeping can help you get through more efficiently. You can maintain secure data about revenues, profits, and expenses in a brief period. Storing your financial data according to the accrual method will your business be on a lane of being organized.

Help save money effectively: Once you start pinning your credit score and financial statements according to the accrual accounting, you will see a visible decrease in the over-spending habits you once owned. It will amazingly increase your saving decreasing your spending.

The preferable method for investors: Technically speaking, business accounts under the umbrella of accrual accounting are unsurprisingly more organized and strengthened than cash accounting methods.

However, not everything is bright and sunny with the method. As the accrual method is convenient for the firms operating on a large scale, its precise auditing cycle requires a month to complete on a minimum scale. But the transaction detailing reports are filed frequently to ensure that none of the credit details skips the records. It can be a challenge for small-scale businesses as the recording and tracking of accrual accounting requires an entire crew. Small business owners might not be able to afford accrual accounting. Cash accounting would be much more suitable for them; it can be the most sedate drawback in some cases. You are required to clear your tax dues on the payment that is still not received or is still pending. Make sure you take measures that urge the customer to release your payment on time or even before time.

Cash accounting

The dealings and receiving confined with the in-hand cash are cash accounting. Here, cash is the pawn that can be a checkmate for you and your business. There are no second thoughts in the fact that along with plenty of benefits, cash accounting also has a bit of drawback that can startle your business foundation.

Cash accounting methods are used mainly by businesses that operate on a relatively small scale. Some of the aces of cash accounting are listed below:

Represents the accurate picture of your business: Cash is the head of the company, and the cash flow is crucial to maintain. One most measurable benefit of cash accounting is that it helps you interpret how much cash you have saved and spent in a specific time.

Holds you from making decisions based on predictions: Cash accounting methods can save you from making decisions that can be risky for your mature and established business. The plan of actions you align for your trade is more practical, with minimum chances of potential financial loss. 

Convenient recording: The financial data, transaction details, and credit scores are simple to understand and record with the cash accounting method. The method is based on the management paid or earned in-hand cash. Also, you do not need to hire professional financial experts to align the record of whatever you debit or credit.

Cash accounting also has some rip-offs that can be a bit pushing for the business you run. In some cases, you might miss out on one or maybe two customers that have not cleared their payments. Remember to pen down each detail to resist financial losses. Business liabilities are not shown; you assume that you have much more money to spend than you have. Such unconsciousness can cause you and your businesses significant damages. 

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.