Author: Jennifer Brazer

Imagine that you see your accountant at year-end to examine your taxes along with profit versus cash, and you receive great news. Your business has made a substantial profit, but you’re dumbfounded because there’s no cash in the bank account, and you have no idea about how your income tax will be paid. You must be wondering about the possibility of this happening as it’s strange for a business to make profits while not having any cash at the year-end. You might not believe it, but businesses face this scenario regularly.

 

Profit versus cash: Basic difference

All the cash withdrawals and deposits in a business collectively form its cash flow. The profit for any business is the variance between income and sales, including the expenses that were incurred to make that sale. There are ways a company can have positive cash flow but will show no profit for it, such as in cases involving the acquisition of loans or owners’ equity in the form of cash. If this happens, this would not be counted as an asset of a business. Rather it’s a liability that needs to be paid off.

Contrariwise, a business would incur negative cash flows while making profits at the same time, if the owner takes money out of the business for personal use or make other investments. The essential difference between profit versus cash resides in the source of the transaction as for what purpose the money is coming in or going out of the business.

Cash

Cash, which is referred to as cash flow in business terms, is the amount that flows in and out of the firm in lieu of its operations, funding, and investing activities. This is the money that is a requirement for a business to meet it’s current and future obligations. There are two main things about profit versus cash flows that must be kept in mind.

• As discussed above, even a profitable business may have satisfactory cash to meet its daily demands. In the worst cases, inadequate cash flow can also lead businesses to bankruptcy. For example, you’re a manufacturer and have sold off your product at a profit. However, there is a long sales chain, which means that you would not receive the payment for the next 2, 3 months. It may sound like a lot of time, but such periods are quite normal among large businesses. Since your business is not yet established, you may not get enough time to pay your suppliers.
• Your sales may be rising, and you keep receiving the cash. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you are making profits. In case you had borrowed the money to solve the cash situation, the increasing debt expenses can raise your costs above the breakeven, ultimately drying your cash flow and resulting in catastrophe for your business.

Profits

Profits are also known as net income and are the amount that remains after subtracting all the expenses from sales. It is a known fact that no business can sustain without profits. However, sometimes as your product starts selling, the expenses can rise even further. While analyzing profit versus cash, we see that they are similar in specific ways as well as different in others. Unless you have a clear understanding of all your costs and expenses, you cannot have a clear picture of your profits.

Often at times of rapid profits, the operational costs and other expenses increase at such a rapid rate that you are not able to cope up with the pace, therefore, leading to business failure. And this does not even include issues related to customer service, human resources, and leadership.

In an emerging business, keeping track of profit versus cash also entails catering to these related issues. At times it may even become essential to restrict the growth rate to assure long-term success.

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-hosted desktop where their entire team and tax accountant may access the QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools in an efficient and secure 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.

When you have tended to your obligations as a business with diligence, you certainly expect your clients to honor their payments in due time. It’s costly for businesses when customers do not meet expectations and end up defaulting the payment. As much as this is bad for their reputation and credit ratings, businesses suffer more as they do not meet their expected cash flows, which can hinder planned business operations.

Here are some ways to persuade clients to honor their payments:

Positive Reinforcement

When businesses are in a situation where their customers are not paying in time or at all, offering a reward in return for paying might persuade them otherwise. By offering those rewards in the form of discounts or some extra items, you will have a better chance of collecting payment on time or even earlier. Make sure that the discounted amount does not exceed what you can’t bear. It must be at a manageable level, which coaxes the client to hit the payment button without causing you encumbrance at the same time.

And Sometimes Negative Reinforcement

While some of your clients would make their payments when you offer them discounts, others may not respond to positive reinforcement. These customers may respond to a negative reinforcement policy in the form of a late fee or penalty. The message should be loud and clear that you are unwilling to accept late disbursements as some customers make it a habit of paying late. Setting a reasonable amount of penalty is necessary as you may start losing customers if the fee is too high.

Make it Convenient

Convenience is an important factor when it comes to ensuring that your clients are honoring their payments. We realize that certain payment types are suited to your business, but it would be better if you can adjust to payment types that customers find convenient. By doing this, you are increasing the probability of getting paid on time.

Automated Invoicing and Clients Payments

Paper invoices are becoming things of the past for businesses, and now most of the payments are taking place online in response to automated invoicing. The invoices can be issued to clients without any delays and followed with scheduled invoicing intervals until paid. Paper invoices can get lost, and people even forget about them, among other bills. The automated system will ensure that you are regularly updated about the status of your invoices anytime, and it will also take care of your bookkeeping needs.

Clearly State your Terms and Conditions

Your clients should be aware of the terms and conditions of the payments at the time of the deal. State the agreed due date, amount, penalties for late payments, discounts on earlier payments, and any other detail that is significant in the contract and get it signed. This will ensure no confusion regarding the terms of payment. If both parties are happy with the terms, the likelihood of getting paid on time rises.

Clients will honor their payments if you can implement these discussed tips in your business. You can also innovate and come up with something different. However, these are tried and tested methods for improving the probability of getting paid.

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-hosted desktop where their entire team and tax accountant may access the QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools in an efficient and secure 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.

Calculating cost per unit isn’t as simple as it seems in manufacturing situations. Manufacturing houses often have to go through a lengthy and detailed accounting over a brief period for calculating per unit cost. Sometimes, even accounting professionals have difficulty calculating these costs. This can impact a company’s productivity and efficiency. It becomes hard for companies to set appropriate prices for the goods manufactured when they are unaware of per piece cost. This is why you need to know the total costs that include both fixed and variable costs for understanding the cost per unit of the goods manufactured in your manufacturing laboratory.

Knowing Cost Per Unit Is Essential For Keeping Things On Track!

When factories or manufacturing houses make large numbers of identical goods, they need to calculate per unit cost to track their production expenses. Companies cannot simply just roughly estimate per unit cost in the professional business environment and set retail prices for the goods manufactured. This does not allow the company to know the cost per unit of the total goods manufactured. This will surely kick businesses out of the race and likely bring the production houses to a complete shutdown point. For remaining useful and earning significant returns, companies need to calculate per unit cost that will help them keep on track.

What’s more?

Certain manufacturing houses have complicated manufacturing operations. The fixed costs are not that hard to sort out, but when it comes to variable costs, this is the point where things start messing up. But one thing is obvious: companies need to accumulate total fixed and variable costs for knowing the total manufacturing costs. The point is that different products manufactured in the manufacturing setting have a different cost per unit; that’s simple mathematics. This means companies need to know the cost per unit of each product category to know whether current costs exceed budgeted costs.

The bookkeeping records need to be maintained appropriately for knowing the cost per unit of various goods produced in a manufacturing setting. Before figuring out the per piece cost of the goods manufactured, you need to know briefly about fixed and variable costs.

Fixed Costs

In simplest terms, fixed costs are the expenses that do not change over a set time. They remain the same and do not impact your production output. This may include building or factory rent, property taxes, depreciation and amortization, fixed interest payments, and mortgages. Also, you need to understand that some fixed costs change on an annual basis, as mentioned in the contract that increases your overall fixed costs. Let’s just say you renewed your insurance policy to increase your insurance premium for the next year. It will likely impact your production costs for each unit due to the additional insurance cost.

Variable Costs

In simplest terms, a variable cost is a cost that varies with the level of output. Depending on the company’s production volume, variable costs rise as the production level increases and falls when the production level decreases. This may include the cost of raw material used in production, direct labor costs, sales commission, utility costs… for knowing the cost per unit, you need to carefully examine all the variable costs. The formula for the variable cost is:

Variable Cost per Unit of Output*Quantity of Output=Total Variable Cost

Calculate Unit Costs

For figuring the total manufacturing costs per unit, you need to divide the total costs (fixed and variable) by the total number of units produced by a firm. Let’s just say that the firm produced 40,000 units of a certain product, and the total amount of fixed costs are $50,000, and the number of variable costs is $70,000, which means total production costs are $120,000. When the total production costs are divided by a total number of units, we will get $3 per unit production costs. The formula for calculating the cost per unit is

Total Fixed Costs+ Total Variable Costs/ Total Number of Units Produced=Cost Per Unit

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-hosted desktop where their entire team and tax accountant may access the QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools in an efficient and secure 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.

Bookkeeping is the most critical aspect of a business as it reveals a record of financial transactions for a brief accounting period. This tool is used by companies across the globe to investigate and analyze financial records to make critical financial assumptions and decisions. Keeping track of day-to-day business transactions or financials may be considered a tedious and time-consuming activity. Still, those who know its importance can put their company on the right track and achieve faster growth and success. Businesses—small or large—need to transfer some of their core business responsibilities in the hands of professionals who are adept at what they do. So, professional accountants or bookkeepers can be contacted and hired for accurate bookkeeping and accounting.

Professional Accountant Have Become The Need Of The Hour!

Seeing the recent trends, the need for professional accountants have been rising significantly over the years. Business owners may be good at handling the core aspect of a business that is business management but may lack in accounting or bookkeeping records. An accountant has the qualification, skill, and expertise to analyze and project a bigger picture of your company and offer strategic advice because s/he knows accounting more than you do. Although small businesses find user-friendly software like QuickBooks ideal for bookkeeping, their financials recording transactions yourself require your time and mental energies, which means it’s time-consuming and quite a stressful job.

They Are Not Expensive As Perceived!

The biggest misconception about hiring an accountant for accounting-related activities is that it is expensive to hire a professional accountant. With so many options on the internet, you can easily acquire the services of a professional accountant to fit your pocket and business needs. For bookkeeping, accounting decisions, tax season, and other accounting work, hiring a professional accountant is no longer a choice. It has become a need. Certain accounting things like these are difficult to handle on your own. You may be having some of the accounting knowledge, but not all, which means you need to take professional help from people who are good at it, and those people are mostly professional accountants.

Important Accounting Decision!

The biggest challenge for a business is to decide whether to hire an in-house accounting professional for complicated accounting work, perhaps on the permanent or contractual basis, or outsource its accounting activities to third-party service providers. Undoubtedly, hiring an in-house accounting professional for bookkeeping and other important accounting matters may be costly. Affording or retaining an accounting professional permanently is no easy feat. This is why small and large scale businesses have shifted their scope and moved to outsource their accounting activities to third-party service providers with a predominant motive to save cost, time and energies and have accurate financial projections for an accounting period.

Tasks of a Bookkeeper

Bookkeeping your financials is a daunting task, but you may not believe it until you are actually into it. It might be even easier to say that the job of a bookkeeper is easy as s/he knows all about accounting. They may well know everything, but they still need to absorb the financials of their clients accurately before making valuable financial judgments. Professional accountants or bookkeepers have to play an important role in setting up the business on the right path because they have the power to impact on deciding the fate of the business entity based on their financial assumptions.

Bookkeeping includes everything from recording important financial transactions as they occur to helping accountants with queries, let’s just take a quick look at the roles, responsibilities, or job description of a bookkeeper in an organization.

• To maintain a record of every business transaction in chronological order.
• To identify financial discrepancies and document changes in business transactions carefully.
• To cross-check financial records genuinely.
• To provide a summary report(s) of critical financial records for the accountant’s assistance.
• To help accountants in the tax season by preparing accurate financial records.
• To help internal, tax, and external auditors during the time of audits and support them fully.

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-hosted desktop where their entire team and tax accountant may access the QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools in an efficient and secure 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 a business owner, you know that managing a successful enterprise requires careful analysis of all aspects that can impact its growth. You need to find strategies that are both efficient and cost-effective while keeping a close eye on your budget. At the same time, overseeing day-to-day operations is no easy feat, and it requires a lot of attention to detail. But thankfully, QuickBooks online tools are available to help you achieve these goals and more. By leveraging the benefits of QuickBooks online, you’ll be able to effectively manage your budget and operations, giving you the confidence to steer your business toward a bright and prosperous future.

Inventory

In order to flourish, any business must have effective inventory management in place. This is because proper inventory management directly impacts the profitability of the business. QuickBooks Online is a cloud-based accounting software that offers an automated inventory tracking system to aid businesses in monitoring their stock levels in real time. This state-of-the-art feature allows businesses to easily and accurately keep track of their inventory, and even generate orders directly from the system. This ensures that businesses never run out of stock or have an overabundance of it, which can be quite costly. Therefore, QuickBooks Online can be an invaluable asset to any organization as it can assist businesses in minimizing their inventory costs and enhancing their overall efficiency.

Accounts Receivable

QuickBooks is an exceptional financial management tool that allows you to easily monitor all your financial transactions. You can keep track of all the money you’re owed, the amounts due, and the payment deadlines. In addition, QuickBooks enables you to create automatic email reminders for customers with overdue accounts, ensuring that you’re always on top of your accounts receivable.

Furthermore, QuickBooks has a “pay now” button that can be added to your online invoices, making it incredibly easy for your customers to pay you instantly using a debit card, credit card, or bank account. This feature ensures that you receive prompt payment and enables you to get paid faster than ever before. With everything in one place, QuickBooks is an indispensable tool for managing your finances.

Accounts Payable

Do you want to make expense management and bill payments a breeze? QuickBooks Online can help you achieve that effortlessly. With QuickBooks Online, you can easily automate your payment process and set up recurring payments with no fuss. Its automated accounts payable feature ensures that your payments are always made on time, which can help you maintain a positive reputation for your business. Don’t hesitate to give QuickBooks Online a try and enjoy the countless benefits it offers!

Performance and Reports

We are thrilled to inform you about QuickBooks Online’s amazing one-click reporting feature! You’ll be able to effortlessly keep track of your business performance with just one click. Our user-friendly interface allows you to access essential financial reports such as your profit and loss statement, balance sheet, and other related reports in a snap. These reports offer valuable insights into your business’s income, expenses, outstanding invoices, and other critical financial information that you require for success. With the help of these reports, you’ll be able to make informed decisions and plan ahead for a brighter future.

Summary

We are extremely excited to introduce you to QuickBooks Online, an exceptional business management software that can completely transform the way you run your business. With its intuitive and user-friendly interface, QuickBooks Online has the ability to efficiently organize your data and transactions, allowing you to focus on what truly matters – growing your business. Our satisfied customers have praised the value of QuickBooks Online and its innovative features, which not only streamline your operations but also contribute to your overall business success. We are incredibly confident that QuickBooks Online will exceed your expectations and help you unlock the full potential of your 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.

Finding the right bank for your personal needs is different from searching for a business-friendly bank. Among the available choices, it can be hard to find the right bank that is best suited for your business needs. Banks differ in the kind of services they offer to businesses, and depending on the size of your business, you are allocated specific services. Lending options, credit limits, fees, and perks would vary among different banks, and you must seek out a business-friendly institution that meets your specific needs.

Factors to consider while choosing a business-friendly bank

Size

When it comes down to banks, the size does matter. However, it is not hard and fast rule that if it’s bigger, it would be better. Sometimes small community banks are perfectly suited to your small business needs, instead of a national bank that charges high fees. Therefore, your business needs must be evaluated in accordance with the final selection.

Larger banks have many branches, as well as a variety of product offerings. They are the most resourceful among business-friendly banks and own stakes in many big companies. They can offer you multiple credit options and allow you to open many lines of credit. As much as they can help you grow your business faster, you would not want to get into trouble with big banks.

Smaller banks better when it comes to assessing local market conditions and are willingly able to work with local businesses. They take your business profile and character into consideration rather than your credit scores. It doesn’t mean that credit score is not a factor at all, just that it’s not the most important factor. Whatever bank you choose, strive to develop a personal relationship with your bank as it can significantly benefit you in the future by serving as a business-friendly bank for your business.

Credit score

A credit score might not be such a significant factor for community banks. However, larger banks and creditors would look at the credit score of a business to decide if it’s worthy of lending a loan or other services. If your business is new and not fully established, the chances are that its credit score would not be enough to qualify for a loan at a big bank. In such a situation, you must look for alternative options such as online credit options and smaller banks.

Check the credit requirements of a bank before choosing to do business with them and ensure that credit terms fall into a business-friendly bank for you.

Digital needs

In this day and age, most of the business transactions are happening digitally, and there is hardly any cash involved for more significant transactions. If your business is more digitally dependent, than it would be wise to choose a bank that offers the best packages for online banking. Also, the ease of access is very important as banks must allow payments on the go via a cell phone or any other digital medium.

Not all banks rely on technology so heavily due to specific cybercrime incidents in the past. However, the latest security protocols are continuously being developed to overcome these concerns. Certain banks have moved on from the traditional banking approach and are even accepting transactions in bitcoin and ethereum and various other cryptocurrencies.  

Services that business-friendly bank should offer

Every bank has a unique set of services. However, there are certain basic services that every bank must have to be counted as business-friendly. These services include

• Checking account
• Saving account
• Online business banking
• Checkbooks
• Credit/debit cards
• Employee checking accounts
• Deposit only services

All these services may be offered free, or there might be any fee for them as it depends on the bank. Most of the mentioned services are usually provided free of charge or at a minimum fee, though, for certain other services, you may be charged a higher fee. A business-friendly bank also lets you open separate lines of credit, which can be great when you apply for a loan.

Bottom line

Every business will need a bank if it wants to operate in the current financial model. Determine your needs first and then opt for a bank that is business-friendly and best meets your needs. To avoid a long search or to find dissatisfaction with your choice, research is key. Your business will be best served when you choose the best bank to serve your 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-hosted desktop where their entire team and tax accountant may access the QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools in an efficient and secure 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.

If you’re a small-business owner who keeps one eye on the calendar, you’re perhaps acquainted with the challenges of running a business that depends on seasonal variations. From irregular revenue streams to fluctuating staffing needs, it takes shrewd preparation and accurate forecasting to manage the business for year-round success.

Some seasons are good for your business, while other seasons can be more difficult. You should make smart choices to help you survive the downturns. Planning for all your operations, HR, and marketing needs will ensure that your business stays on course to reach its desired targets year-round.

Managing cash flows and credit for the year-round success

Regardless of whether you maintain an open or closed-door policy during the off-season, it’s vital that you maintain steady cash flow. If you can handle your accounts payable and receivable with efficiency during this time, you should not run into cash flow issues. Secure a percentage of payments upfront from your customers to ensure that cash keeps pouring into the business, which is essential for running the day to day operations, leading to year-round success.

For your accounts payable, negotiate extended payment terms with your suppliers so that the cash outflow could be evenly spread out over time. Certain short-term loans are also available that offer advances against future inventory and are a handy option if a business is struggling in terms of cash flow. Also, your business credit score is vital when you apply for any kind of loans as lenders assess the risk of giving you the loan based on the credit score. Therefore, for a year-round success of your business, you must maintain healthy cash flow, manage credit efficiently, and efficiently perform your bookkeeping duties.

Gather data to learn from the past

The best way to ensure the productivity of your business for increased productivity is by looking into the rearview mirror. Gather all the data from previous years related to sales, HR, operations, and other departments and look for spikes, dips, and other anomalies. You will get some vital answers from your experiences and mistakes, which could pave the way for future strategy leading to year-round success.

Create memorable experiences

Even when your product or service is not selling well, you can still influence your customer’s decision through your marketing strategy. Ordinary business models have performed prodigiously well because their branding was flawless. It’s easy to lose focus on the customer needs amidst this fast-paced marketplace, which means that the needs are constantly changing as well. Creating memorable experiences for customers that connect with them at a personal level is key to the success of any business. The aim should be to build a long-term relationship rather than onetime interaction to ensure year-round success.

Utilize your resources optimally

The data that you obtain from your experiences should be used to optimally use the available resources while planning for the upcoming year. There are certain times in the year when your sales are down, or machinery needs service, which means that it would hamper your business performance. Based on the earlier data, you can divide resources into attributes that are underperforming and maintain a consistent output. Having a clear-cut understanding of how and when to use your available resources can make a difference for the year-round success of a business and a business that flounders.

Even during quiet times, there are ways to stay in front of your competition and keep your business top of customer’s minds, which influences their purchase decision.

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-hosted desktop where their entire team and tax accountant may access the QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools in an efficient and secure 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.

Two kinds of subsidized and funded housing are offered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD Housing) to the disabled and the elderly.

The Housing Choice Vouchers program (otherwise also called Section 8), gives the occupants and tenants a subsidy, which they can use to secure and protect their housing in the rental market.

Public housing includes government-funded units that range from multi-unit to single-family homes. In each of these cases, one must meet the similar eligibility prerequisites to qualify.

Step # 1: Make sure that you are meeting all of the basic qualifications

If you believe that you are qualified for HUD Housing (section 8 housing), you need to get in touch with your public housing agency (PHA). You should be at least, if not, above 18, and either be a citizen of the United States of America or be an entitled non-citizen with immigration status.

Those who happen to be single, are entitled to be eligible for HUD Housing. Also, those households who either have or do not have children are entitled to be eligible for HUD Housing. Many people are confused with the term HUD Housing because of the word household since it refers to a “family.” As per the qualification requirements to be eligible for HUD Housing, a “family” is considered of either one or more than one person. Having kids is not a requirement to be deemed as a “family.”

Even though the fact that all single persons will be considered eligible for meeting the requirements for public housing, they will not be able to reside in those rental units that have two or more than two bedrooms. In the case where the public housing apartment plan does not happen to have any apartments with one bedroom, by default, that single individual will not be able to meet the residency threshold requirement for HUD Housing.

Eligible immigration status takes account of registry immigrant; lawful permanent resident; asylee or refugee; parolee; conditional entrant; individual approved 1986 amnesty status; withholding grantee; inhabitant of Guam, the Marshall Islands, Palau, Micronesia; a family member of a victim or a victim of trafficking.

Step # 2: Determine your household’s revenue

To fulfill this requirement, the household should be making no less than 80% of the AMI (Area Median Income) as per the requirements of the locality they are applying for. This is denoted as an income limit. With the increase in each extra member of the household (this also includes children), the amount will increase accordingly. That is why it is crucial to be in the habit of bookkeeping. Bookkeeping will help you in providing all of the necessary and relevant information from which all of your accounts are formulated. You will be able to easily keep tabs on your income and revenue if you are familiar with the process of bookkeeping.

Step # 3: Find out if there happen to be any preferences and/or restrictions

The majority of the waiting lists will have some preferences. This will mean that all those applicants who are qualified for the preferences and first choice will get support before all those applicants who are not having any preferences.

 Because of the system of preferences, those applicants who do not happen to be qualified might have to wait longer to receive aid. There can be some instances where an applicant may be added to such a waiting list where the elderly, local residents, and persons with disabilities happen to be included. Preferences are not considered as requirements for applying for HUD Housing. Applicants can still apply, even in the case where they are not qualifying for any preferences.

The Public Housing program habitually operates their waiting list openings through a variety of one of two techniques. It might be that the waiting list is open to the entire public, or it can be that there are separate waiting lists that cater to the elderly/disabled applicants and the general applicants.

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-hosted desktop where their entire team and tax accountant may access the QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools in an efficient and secure 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.

Employee theft or fraud is not new in the mainstream world; in fact, it has been prevalent for centuries, which makes it a common activity among most businesses. There is no denying the fact that fraudulent activities have always been costly to businesses. Survival after losing a significant portion of total revenues and profits in thefts or frauds is no easy feat. Recovering from this type of crisis is extremely difficult in today’s workplace. According to a study, employee theft, fraud, or embezzlement is the number one reason or cause of loss of inventory across the globe.

How Big Is The Problem?

Statistics reveal that employee theft or fraud is making business owners from every corner of the world lose a whopping $300 billion in total revenues and profits each year. In the US alone, the figure stretches up to $60 billion, making it one of the most widespread challenges faced by the business sector at all times. Business owners may have been lucky to conceive a winning business idea, but what about business management? Isn’t that important as well? For sure, it is! The truth is, business owners have to deal with a variety of threats throughout the business journey, and one of the most common threats is employee theft or fraud.

Business owners can only feel safe and secure in today’s business world if they minimize potential threats and bring them near to none. All salutations to superior technology and advanced tools and techniques that have helped us prevent employee theft, larceny, embezzlement, stealing, shoplifting, that all come under the umbrella of fraud. So, it makes me feel safe to say that employee theft or fraud is a very serious problem that is causing businesses to lose a significant portion of annual sales and profits. It can even kick a business out of the competitive race, which means failing market share and hence resulting in a gradual demise of the company.

What about Small Businesses?

Small businesses are more vulnerable to employee fraud or theft due to their defenseless business processes. They perhaps lack wisdom (financial and management) to protect their business from internal and external threats or frauds that restricts them to grow and expand their business operations. On the other hand, catching culprits or perpetrators involved is no easy feat at all. Employees usually who steal from you, typically work in groups (involving co-workers in any sort of fraudulent activity), which makes it even harder to catch the main culprit or the entire lot. So, you need to make efforts to minimize potential threats to employee theft or fraud start to ruin your entire business.

Why And Which Employees Usually Have The Reputation To Steal From Their Employers?

Every year businesses lose billions of dollars to employee theft and fraud, and the number of incidents is constantly rising. Besides having innovative tools, technology, and prevention methods, the rise is often seen as strange yet alarming. As per 10-10-80 rule, 10% of people will steal at any opportunity at hand, 10% will never steal from their employers, and 80% people will evaluate a particular opportunity at hand, give it a rational thought and then decide what to do with it. The good news is employers can change the perception of their employees in that 80% rule, those having second thoughts about stealing and can prevent them from involving in any fraudulent activity or misadventure, leading to repercussions.

Not every employee intends to steal from his/her employer. According to a study conducted by ACFE, employee theft or fraud is often seen in the age bracket of 31-49. This indicates that elderly employees steal from their employers more than their young counterparts.

Business owners need to take security measures if they expect to prevent employee theft and fraud within their company. They can do this by holding meetings regularly and set a precedent with a zero-tolerance policy for perpetrators. They can also hire private investigators to catch employee(s) involved in any fraudulent activity and hire accountants for analyzing bookkeeping records or business books. 

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-hosted desktop where their entire team and tax accountant may access the QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools in an efficient and secure 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.

The closure of a couple of big retail chains expanded across the country doesn’t necessarily mean the death of the entire brick-and-mortar retail industry. It would be premature to build up this idea based on a few reported cases of bankruptcy. One cannot follow the crowd and come up with a bold stance inspired by some industry veterans who believe” it’s the end of brick and mortar retail stores.” Instead, you need to make a realistic analysis of the industry in the light of real facts.

What Do Stats Reveal About the Fate of Brick and Mortar Retail?

Ever-increasing online stores and e-commerce platforms with sales of billions of dollars each year can give us an illusion that brick-and-mortar retail is dying, but believe me, they can never die as long as humans are alive. Online retail stores may have aggregated global sales of billions of dollars. Still, they can never match a multi-trillion-dollar brick-and-mortar retail industry, no matter what one may argue! From roadside small retail shops to big branded shops in malls and retail hubs, there are millions of brick-and-mortar retail stores all over the world that are present on the face of the Earth, and they bear testimony to the fact that physical retail is not dying!

Brick and Mortar Retail is in The Safe Zone!

According to a study, 84% of the products or commodities manufactured worldwide are sold in brick-and-mortar retail stores. This indicates that online stores or e-commerce have been able to grab a small percentage of the total market share, and brick-and-mortar stores are still in a safe zone where they can reacquire what they have lost over the years.

That is going to be a challenge for the entire brick-and-mortar retail industry, and veterans believe it might be impossible to regain the loss. Research that was conducted by a group of students concluded that you could prevent losing your brick-and-mortar market share to online competitors by making serious efforts to improve your in-house shopping experience. Getting your customers involved and navigating them to what they want surely ensures more sales and, hence, profitability.

Why the Retail Industry Experienced A Dramatic Shift?

With rising shoppers’ expectations, increased competitive pressures, the proliferation of data, and evolving touchpoints, retailers need to come up with something new and must focus on delivering and elevating the overall customer experience if they expect to succeed in today’s highly competitive market. The reason why online stores have been able to grab a significant market share is due to evolving retail dynamics and changing industry patterns and preferences. Customers capitalized on easy-buying options at competitive rates and found convenience in purchasing their desired products online from their mobile devices. A significant shift from brick-and-mortar retail buying to online buying has shaken the industry to its core and made people believe that brick-and-mortar retail is dying. However, this wasn’t so!

What’s More?

Online retail giants such as Amazon, eBay, and Walmart, which have operations all across the globe, made it convenient for people to buy products at the hour of their choosing at discounted rates cheaper than the products offered in brick-and-mortar retail stores. This significant gap made people think that online stores are cost-effective, and brick-and-mortar stores are exploiting them by charging more for the same products offered for sale in online stores. Online stores have some limitations, such as loss of sensitive data, vendor details, and threats to cybersecurity, which limits the trust of some customers and drives them to brick-and-mortar stores despite online discounts.

A Well-Crafted-Illusion of Brick-and-Mortar Retail Dying

So, it makes me feel safe to say that online retailers or marketers have been quite successful in establishing an illusion that brick-and-mortar retail stores are dying. Well, the concept is mostly exaggerated, and physical retail is not dying, no matter what. However, brick-and-mortar retail may witness a slight breakdown in market share in the upcoming years due to changing market dynamics and customer preferences, but it won’t completely die! If you don’t trust me, just trust the stats!

 

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-hosted desktop where their entire team and tax accountant may access the QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools in an efficient and secure 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.