Author: Jennifer Brazer

You must maintain a proper record if you are consistent while operating a bank account where you deposit your hard-earned money and then habitually withdraw that money occasionally. It is essential to conduct adequate bookkeeping for the number of transactions, deposits, and withdrawals you make. You may get your bank statement and be surprised that the balance shown differs from what your records show. Now, what can you do in this scenario?

You need to compare the two sets of records thoroughly and find the information recorded in one but not the other. A similar situation may also arise in a business with multiple accounts. Maintaining a proper and authentic record for all accounts is a huge concern for any business. All concerns are addressed by keeping a record of all banking transactions carried out by the business and are set per the date the bank cashbook shows the balance.

If there are any discrepancies, the business can and should be able to find the reasons to reconcile the correct balances. That is the reason why it is essential to reconcile your bank statements. It is also important to know how to prepare a reconciliation statement, known as the bank reconciliation statement.

Reconciling Bank Statements

Reconciling bank statements is essential, as it can be used to maintain proper bookkeeping of your accounts. Here are a few steps in which you can negotiate your bank statement.

Checking Account

Writing the balance from your checkbook and the number of the next unused check on the reconciliation form is a good habit. You should deduct all bank charges from your checkbook and balance the remaining amount to get your adjusted balance.

Record and maintain the ending balance precisely as shown on the bank statement. You can now compare the ending deposits on the bank statement and the deposits on your checkbook. You can also put a checkmark beside the amount on the bank statement and the checkbook. List all your deposits and bring them forward with a checkmark on the reconciliation form. These can then be your outstanding deposits. It is necessary to place every item carefully to avoid double counting properly to reconcile your bank statement.

What you have entered from your checkbook must also match the items from your bank statement. Some of these items would have needed to be added from your bank. Ultimately, you can total all the outstanding deposits to the bank statement balance.

Proceeding toward the end of Reconciling Bank Statements

You can now compare the deposits on the bank statement with those on your checkbook. It is important to keep putting a checkmark beside the bank statement’s amount and on the checkbook to know that you have not missed any item or amount. List all deposits for which you do not have a checkmark on the reconciliation form. These would be called your outstanding deposits. This further means that you have entered them in your checkbook, but the bank has not yet added them to your account. You can add your outstanding deposits to the bank statement balance.

Moving towards the final steps of reconciling a bank statement, you can now arrange all canceled checks in numerical order and then compare the canceled checks with those listed on the statement and the checkbook. Put a checkmark beside the amount on the bank statement and the checkbook. Hence, you should list all check numbers without the checkmark while reconciling your bank statement amount. You have written These outstanding checks, but the bank has yet to receive them, which means they have not been 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 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.

Keeping an enterprise running lucratively can be challenging, specifically in today’s competitive and fast-paced economy. Whether you own a start-up or a well-established business, finding yourself in trouble with unpredictably unpredictable bookkeeping is easy. When this occurs, and you can no longer keep up with your corporate debts, you may be speculating what you can do to take care of your financial responsibilities while still protecting your business in the long run.Businesses, like entities, sometimes suffer from too much debt. Taking on the right amount of liability at the right time can mean the difference between a business that scuffles and prospers. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), roughly 50% of small businesses are unsuccessful within their first five years, mainly because of inadequate capital, poor credit activities, and too much debt. Gratefully, we have devised a periodical order for you to follow when paying your priority debts.

 Taxes

The money you accumulate for federal payroll, state sales, and income taxes does not belong to you; it goes to the government. And if you don’t pay these tariffs at the correct time, you will face stiff charges and penalties. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has broad authority to garnish incomes, take control of business gear and property, and even get a hold of funds from an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). It can also corrupt you for failing to deposit your applicable payroll taxes.

 Payroll

Not only do some national laws impose fines for not paying your employees’ salaries on time if you don’t take care of the individuals who labor for you, but you also risk losing them and your industry. You may consider your workers a family, but missing payroll may encourage them to look for other prospects.

 Aged Payables

An aged payable bill is past due for 60 days or more. These bills threaten your corporate credit score, making it more problematic to secure future bankrolling.

 Utilities and Rent

You can’t run a company without power and a phone line. Lights, internet service, heating, and air conditioning are necessities. If you are overdue on your utility bills, your facilities can be cut off, leaving you in the dark. Try to look at your bookkeeping records and exchange a payment plan with your service suppliers. And don’t assume they won’t pull the plug if bills are left due.

 Key Retailers and Purveyors

You depend on your key vendors and suppliers for your company to function. They also rely on you for their establishments to prosper, so everyone’s concern is to keep these relationships healthy.

Secured Debts and Dues You Have Assured

If your business is a sole proprietorship or partnership, you are individually accountable for all your business debts. If your business is a corporation or LLC (Limited Liability Company), you are only legally responsible for your personally guaranteed debts. In either circumstance, you must pay these compulsions before any unsecured debts or loans are reimbursed.

Insurance Payments

You don’t want to function without liability insurance for any prolonged time, but you might have to take the risk if you need to eradicate a specific expense. Before letting insurance lapse, try to lessen premiums by down-scaling coverage or increasing deductibles.

Large Bills vs. Small Bills

Keeping your business credit score high is imperative when ordering your payments. Missing large bills will have a superior negative impact on your credit score because they carry mass. Also, big companies are expected to report delinquency to the credit agencies. Conversely, occasionally, you must pay smaller bills to smaller companies that depend on your business for their subsistence.

Final Note

Preparing for a cash flow problem while bookkeeping in advance by putting aside sufficient funds to pay your bills and creditors during sluggish economic times is your best defense against financial trouble down the road.

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.

Cloud computing continues transforming how organizations use, store, and share data, applications, and workload. Unfortunately, Cloud Computing has also introduced a variety of security threats and challenges. With so much going into the cloud and into public cloud servers, these assets become the natural targets for security threats.According to the Vice President and the Cloud Security Lead at Gartner Inc, Jay Helser, “The volume of public cloud utilization is growing rapidly so that inevitably leads to a greater body of sensitive stuff that is potentially at risk.”

In contrast to what people might think, the major responsibility for protecting corporate data in the cloud is not the service provider but the customer. Heiser says, “We are in a cloud security transition period in which the focus is shifting from the provider to the customer.” He states, “Enterprises are learning that huge amounts of time spent trying to figure out if any particular cloud service provider is ‘secure’ or not has virtually no payback.” 

The following are the top cloud security threats regarding cloud-security issues.

Data Breaches

To breach the data might be the main objective of the targeted attack, or it might just result from human error, application failure, or poor security practices. It may involve any information that was not intended for the public. This includes personal information regarding health, financial information, personality identifiable information, property information, or trade secrets.

The organization’s cloud-based data might hold value to different parties for various reasons. The data breach risk is not unique to that of cloud computing. However, it does consistently rank as number one when it comes to customers.

Insecure interfaces and application programming interfaces (APIs)

Cloud providers have exposed various software user interfaces (UIs) or application programming interfaces (APIs) that the customers can use to manage and interact with the cloud services. Provisioning, management, and monitoring are all performed using these interfaces. The security and availability of the general cloud services depend on the APIs’ security. They should be designed to defend against accidental and malicious attempts to circumvent the policy.

Insufficient identity, credential, and access management   

Criminals impersonating legitimate employers, operators, or designers can read, change, and sometimes even delete data. They can issue the control plane and management functions and steal data in transition or even release malicious software that originates from a genuine source. Consequently, inadequate identity, qualification, or critical administration can enable illegal access to data and hypothetically catastrophic damage to organizations or end-users.

Account Hacking 

Account hijacking or hacking is one of the oldest kinds of cloud corruption. However, cloud services have added a new threat to the landscape. If the attackers access the user’s credentials, the hackers can easily eavesdrop on numerous activities and transactions. They can also manipulate the data, return the falsified information, and redirect the customers to illegitimate websites.

The account and service instances may become the new base used by attackers. With these stolen credentials, hackers might also gain access to critical areas of cloud computing services, allowing them to compromise their confidentiality, availability, and integrity easily.

System Vulnerabilities

 System vulnerabilities can be defined as exploitable bugs in systems that attackers can easily use to penetrate a system for data theft, taking entire control of the system and/or disrupting the service operations. Susceptibilities within the operating system apparatuses might put the security of all these services and data at significant risk.
With the introduction of multi-tenancy in the cloud, schemes from various establishments have been placed close to each other and given access to shared memory and resources, which creates a new attack surface.

Data Loss

The data stored in the cloud might be lost for reasons other than malicious attacks. Data could be lost due to accidental deletion by the cloud service provider or a physical catastrophe like a fire or an earthquake. This might lead to permanent data loss until the provider has taken measures to back the data up correctly. 

Denial of Service (DoS)

Denial of Service (DoS) attacks have been designed to prevent service users from accessing the data and applications. By compelling the targeted cloud service to ingest inordinate amounts of finite system resources – like processor power, network bandwidth, and disk space – the attackers might cause the system to slow down and leave all legitimate users without access to the services. 

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.

The newly found freedom of getting into college also brings days of financial independence for many young people. While some students may already have bank accounts, most would have to manage their finances for the first time in life. Parents may worry about their children making the wrong decisions. By reading the fine print, students can avoid making fatal financial mistakes.

Bank Promotions

There are Bank promotions that are specifically marketed toward these young college students. The banks are aware that most young people are financially ignorant. Some colleges have agreements with certain banks that allow for the banks to promote themselves. Students can receive information about their banking options on campus before they even arrive!

The banks will send the information via the mail. These campuses are an excellent opportunity for banks to market themselves to students. According to research, almost 40% of the students sign up for these college-sponsored accounts.

Check the Fees

The fees charged for these bank promotions vary significantly, so instead of just automatically choosing the college-sponsored bank account, you must investigate the associated fees. Just because the account is offered with your college/school logo does not mean you should choose it immediately.

However, gathering the data associated with banking fees for college-sponsored banks can be significantly hard. You can compare the institutions that have displayed the data on their website, but there are still no regulations, and some information may be missing or not mentioned. Usually, you would only know about the banking details of your specific bank through bank promotions. Also, some institutions have sponsored accounts that do not charge any fees.

Focus on Free

Most students do not have extra spending money. Students need to be conscious of the charges and limit their spending. Look for bank accounts with minimum balance requirements, no maintenance fees, free ATM services, free debit cards, and low transferring fees. Checking accounts usually have minimum fees as they are best used to keep money safe for short periods.

Weigh ATM Convenience Instead of Bank Promotions

The life of a college student is hectic and full of chores. You may be taking classes in the morning and working in the evening to pay the dues. Between this, a student has little time to stray away from the plan. Therefore, instead of focusing on promotions offered by the banks at your college, choose a checking account with no ATM fees because you would frequently need to withdraw money. Also, the choice of the account should be based on the location. Most national banks have branches nationwide, but ensure one is close to your location.

Some credit unions and online accounts also charge lesser fees; however, you must always read the fine print as there could be withdrawal caps.

Overdraft Fees on Debit Cards

Instead of being lured in by bank promotions, check for any overdraft fees using your debit cards. Accounts created through federal student aid do not have overdraft fees. However, other accounts may charge you around $32 for insufficient credit for a purchase. Also, check for fees associated with your debit card when you purchase a certain amount. There may be any hidden charges that you are not aware of.

Plan Ahead

Student accounts usually mature after a certain age and become standard accounts. Knowing the timeline and restrictions on the account beforehand can save you from the potentially unwanted situation. Traditional accounts also come in different varieties, and bank promotions usually only focus on the ones with high fees.

Do your research, and compare the options you have before deciding. Overdraft protection is something you should stay away from. You may be inclined to use the protection, but it typically comes with a high fee. You are better off getting embarrassed for a declined transaction than being charged for overdraft protection.

Focus on App Instead of Bank Promotions

With the ease of technology, it has become easier to keep tabs on everything, and your bank account is no different. Many reputable banks offer phone apps that can be used to keep track of your financial status and set certain limitations on the account for your benefit.

Following these tips will ensure that you make a wise and informative decision right from the start of your financial journey.

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.

Homeowners have a considerable asset when they own a home. It has some financial pull as it can be used to secure other loans and financing. Generally, homeowners will carry one mortgage for its duration and pay it off in the timeframe set in the original financing contract.

However, there may be financial circumstances that arise that will have the homeowner contemplating refinancing their loan. While it can be an option, it should only be done as a last resort. Most financial experts would say you should not refinance your mortgage because it extends the time and often the loan cost.

Here are six reasons you shouldn’t refinance your home.

A Small Loan Amount

With a very small loan amount, it can become very difficult to save enough money by refinancing to make this entire process worthwhile. For instance, if you refinance a $750,000 loan from 5.5% to 4%, it might yield a monthly savings of approximately $678. These savings for the $75,000 loan will only amount to approximately $68 each month. Apart from this, the lenders will often lack the additional fee or the interest rate premiums for a very small loan amount. Thus it becomes tough to obtain a rock bottom mortgage rate.

Small Rate Difference

 Refinancing a large loan might result in substantial savings; however, getting a considerably better interest rate is very important over the long term as well. While it is possible to save a lot of money by refinancing to a slightly lower interest rate, it is a painfully slow and steady process. Considering the low mortgage rates we have today, shoot for an interest rate of at least 1% lower than the current rate to make both your time and effort worthwhile.

Short Time Frame

While refinancing at today’s low rates can sometimes translate to huge monthly savings on the mortgage bill, those savings do not usually come without considerable upfront costs. If you have only a few years before you are expected to move or refinance again, you may not want to have savings from a lower monthly rate.

Numerous ways are using which you could refinance and save some money alongside “no-cost” refinance plans even if you have a very short timeframe. However, all these options often come with complex interest rates, reducing all the various benefits considerably.

Term Extension

If you have already refinanced and reduced the loan term you have taken, you might be forced to obtain a longer-term loan when you refinance. Characteristically, the shortest fixed-rate mortgage term is ten years. If you have less than ten years remaining on your loan, the one way in which you can ensure the savings is to refinance the fixed term loans and then make payments to reserve the remaining term.

A Low Rate ARM

Federal Reserve policies have recently driven down short-term interest rates to unparalleled lows. As some of these short-term rates administer the interest rates for flexible rate mortgages, a number of the borrowers have of late seen their interest costs fall as the new rates have sunk to the 2%-3% range.

Refinancing to a fixed-rate loan today might help eliminate the interest rate risk with ARMs; nevertheless, this security comes at a very high cost and higher interest rates. Holding onto an ARM with a rock bottom interest rate, for the time being, may not be such a depraved idea.

Inertia and Hassle

Getting a new mortgage in today’s very tight lending climate is not fun nor easy. If your current lender does not offer a streamlined refinancing program, it may be a very time-consuming process. In addition, if the monthly savings are too small or the reimbursements take too long to materialize, refinancing costs may outweigh the reimbursements.

Conclusion

While refinancing your mortgage can be useful if a financial need arises that has no other financial solution, it is not a suggested solution. Most financial and lending experts would warn against it and recommend you consider other options and use refinancing as a last resort.

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.

The restaurant industry’s first and most dependable guideline is “each free eatery is special.” However, general guidelines can provide a starting point for restaurateurs to assess and understand their budget to execute a proposed or existing restaurant.

Restaurants produce many numbers, especially for those new to the business. Choosing what numbers to focus on and understanding what they mean can be puzzling. General guidelines can enable business owners to figure out where to look first and what to anticipate. Below, we will discuss some essential guidelines for owning a restaurant or eatery. While there will be exceptional cases, they have remained shockingly consistent.

Speculation Rules of Thumb

One of the essential points chain administrators use for assessing the possibility of another franchise is the deals-to-speculation proportion. This proportion looks at the anticipated yearly offers of a proposed site with its evaluated start-up cost. The proportion resembles the following:

Deals to Investment = Annual Sales/Start-up Cost

The start-up cost incorporates every one of the costs necessary to open the restaurant, including leasehold enhancements (or land and building), furniture and hardware, stores, compositional and configuration, bookkeeping, pre-opening costs, and working capital hold.

While assessing the achievability of a proposed eatery in a rented space, the general guideline is that the deals-to-venture proportion should be no less than 1.5 to 1, or at least $1.50 in deals should not be out of the ordinary for each $1 of the start-up costs. If the cost of opening a restaurant in a leasehold circumstance was assessed to be $500,000, the area should be given further thought if the yearly deals volume of $750,000 could be attained.

Deals-to-venture possess land and buildings. The general guideline for restaurants extends to where the administrator claims the land and building requires a deals-to-speculation proportion of no less than 1 to 1 or $1 in deals for each dollar of the start-up costs.

While there are numerous considerations in choosing whether to open in a specific area, this is one proportion that many use as an early pointer of whether to proceed onward to different factors in the go or no-go choice process.

Gainfulness Rules of Thumb

While not all high-volume eateries profit, they have the best chance to produce a sizable benefit. Deals volume is the most solid marker of an eatery’s potential for benefit and a helpful method to review deals volume while assessing benefit potential through the proportion of offers per square foot.

It is easy to calculate an eatery’s deals for each square foot. Take yearly deals and partition by the aggregate inside area, including kitchen, eating, stockpiling, and restrooms. This is generally equivalent to a rented space’s net rentable square feet. The proportion resembles the following:

‘Deals Per Square Foot = Annual Sales/Square Footage’

Often, full-benefit eateries that do not produce $150 of offers per square foot cannot create a benefit. For instance, a 4,000-square-foot eatery with yearly offers of anything under $600,000 would think it is tough to abstain from losing cash. This works out to $50,000 in month-to-month and $12,000 in week-by-week deals.

Restricted administration eateries that create under $200 of offers per square foot can avoid a working misfortune. Industry midpoints uncover that constrained administration eateries tend to have marginally unique unit financials compared to their full-benefit partners. Higher inhabitant costs and lower check midpoints are two essential purposes behind this distinction.

At deal levels of $150 to $250 per square foot (complete administration) and $200 to $300 (restricted administration), eateries with compelling cost controls may start to approach the original investment, with some who oversaw tasks ready to accomplish a net salary of up to 5% of offers.

At deal levels of $250 to $325 per square foot (complete administration) and $300 to $400 (restricted administration), eateries may see direct benefits that are characterized as 5-10% net salary (before pay charges) as a level of aggregate deals.

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.

Various measures need to be taken at the end of an accounting period. Adjustments to income statements and balance sheet accounts are of utmost importance. Although automated accounting systems take care of many processes, businesses must understand what happens financially at the end of an accounting period. While most tasks might be automated, certain aspects always require manual attention. Here are certain vital elements that every business must look after when closing.

Temporary Accounts – Income Statement

All revenues and expenses in the period must be accounted for within that same period and should not be left to be included later. The revenues and expenses are recorded in the same period as defined by the matching principle because your closing income statement would otherwise contain anomalies. Ask your vendors to provide you with work-in-progress figures so that you can include them in the income statement. All accounts will be closed at the end of the accounting period, giving them the name of temporary accounts.

Knowing how much money you spend to make what you earn will help you make strategic decisions in the future. You will quickly see if you need to cut the costs to lower the expenses or increase the price to bulk up revenue. Whatever the case, closing temporary accounts is critical for your business operations.

Permanent Accounts – Balance Sheet

Permanent accounts need to be managed actively throughout the accounting period. It is essential so the current capacity of the business can always be determined correctly. All balances in the account will go away unless they are written off. Every transaction must be tracked and adjusted accordingly. While some of these tasks are performed automatically, inventory changes and depreciation need to be adjusted manually. All assets must be reevaluated at the end of an accounting period, and any changes should be altered likewise.

Reconciliation of bank statements is another vital task that needs to be performed as you should prepare for filing tax returns, too. Amortizing the prepaid assets to determine the value of future payments needs to be completed for a specific accounting cycle. A well-maintained balance sheet allows you to choose the business’s current standing, which is imperative to its success.

Trial Balances

The remaining trial balance in each account must be determined before the end of an accounting period. It helps to ensure that all debit entries are equivalent to credit entries and that any anomalies are updated through the adjusted trial balance. The trial balance reports will help you determine the opening and closing balances of many accounts, which will help you understand the abnormalities in your bookkeeping system and what needs to be addressed.

Closing Entries

Typically, your accounting software will perform the closing entries on the books. However, it is vital to understand how the process works. An income summary account is created by closing the revenue and expense accounts. It means your income statement is wiped clean and ready to be reused for the next accounting period. 

The income summary accounted is further closed into a retained earnings account, represented as equity on your balance sheet. After the tax deductions and other expenses, the retained earnings are transferred into the net income account and distributed among the shareholders as equity.

Conclusion

Closing an accounting period is indispensable because you only know where the business stands financially with these closing adjustments. You have all of the information, but it is scattered, and you can only make sense of it if all closing entries are performed for the accounting period. Because the results are significant, businesses should use a professional’s help if they need help to perform these steps.

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.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have an essential role in the private division of each country. Furthermore, as globalization has risen, they have played a significant role in opening local products and services to the global markets and contending with multinational opponents in the local markets. In the process of internalization, there appear to be numerous pros and cons for SMEs in the global market. The advantages of size, flexibility, and rapid change response allow SMEs to prosper. On the other hand, the disadvantages of size may provide SMEs with different paths in the globalization phase. The features that will provide SMEs through internalization differ from one country to another based on economic, geographical, and cultural variances.

According to business groups, the crippling outcome of poor cash flow on SMEs has been identified as one of the most critical issues facing companies today, including the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). Even profitable companies with proper bookkeeping can sometimes suffer liquidity difficulties that cause them to be unable to invest in growth and development. Slow-moving growth for small businesses in recent years is one reason why the UK’s economy remains stagnant, and there are a few signs that significant national growth is coming any time soon. 

SMEs: Global Impact & Challenges

Cash flow issues

Small companies that should have no liquidity concerns can find themselves struggling due to poor cash flow management.

Lack of knowledge about the marketplace

Small business holders get carried away with their desires and fail to do suitable research about their challenges, demands, customers, and the market.

Lack of liquidity

Lack of wealth can reduce choices as far as expansion is concerned. The lack of liquidity and bookkeeping caused by bad debt and failure to collect accounts receivable can eat into the day-to-day operations and cash flow used to run the enterprise and allow it to trade.

Faulty people

If the industry takes on an individual whose morals are not aligned with the business’s purposes, this can thwart growth and stunt productivity. When considering taking on someone new, try to find a way of cooperating with them before formalizing problems into something more concrete.

Lack of financial understanding

People and small groups are often obsessive about their ideas. Still, they lack the financial understanding and bookkeeping to appreciate where the business stands financially at any given point.

Not having a plan B

Making substitute preparations and having countermeasures in place should anything go wrong will mean you are well-prepared to handle anything unanticipated. Yet, many small businesses fail to do this.

Money is king

Emergency budgets and turning profits into your business can help finance unforeseen costs and allow tractability and subsidiary plans for steady growth. Small commercial owners usually fail to see the prominence of doing this.

Failure to react to change

The slightest changes to the market, opponents’ activities, and sometimes influences that seem entirely unrelated can cause demand changes. If companies fail to react to these changes, this could harm repute and cost time and money.

Incorrect pricing

Whether you underestimate your merchandise’s cost, incorrect pricing, or bookkeeping is a sure way to not gain the most out of your company.

Unrealistic anticipation of cash flow

Giving clients 30 days to pay and planning around them paying within ten is impractical. The more honest you are about your cash flow, the less likely you find yourself in hot water.

Conclusion

Market liquidity risk is an imperative driver of security prices, risk management, and arbitrage speed. Funding circuits for small businesses stay largely local, imitating proximity effects between small companies and their investor base. Liquidity crises evolve through liquidity spirals in which losses, increasing limits, tightened risk management, and amplified instability feed on each other.

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.

‘Creating a personal budget!’— It is probably the first thing that comes to mind when our finances are mismanaged and largely forgotten. Recalling where we have spent our money or funds is pretty intimidating. When setting up a personal budget, you do not have to be an accountant or a professional bookkeeper to maintain your financial records and to track where your money goes. All you need to do is write your financial expenses and support a healthy lifecycle of paychecks.

Strategic Significance of Creating a Personal Budget

Let’s face it: creating a personal budget is an intimidating task, requiring a lot of attention and focus. For some, it is scarier than one imagines, as not everyone is privileged enough to create a personal budget and meet it as planned. As experts say, ‘It is a lot easier to create a personal budget and much harder to follow it.’

Personal budgeting helps you plan your income and expenditures wisely; successful people start by gaining control over their finances. It would be wrong to say that our budget defines who we are; it depends on our spending patterns. Those unable to plan and meet their budget may find themselves in dire straits. So, creating a personal budget is necessary for those in a financial crisis to work out of it.

Why A Personal Budget?

Creating and maintaining a personal budget may initially be a painful process, especially for those who need to improve at remembering and recording financial transactions. All that one needs to do is track transactions and maintain an accurate record of operations and activities.

No matter how difficult personal budgeting may sound, there are ways in which it can be created, organized, and maintained. Here are six steps to creating a personal budget with little effort or without having much to worry about your finances!

Your Inner Motivations or Behind-the-Scene Elements

To use your money, you must dig deep into your life values, including your social, physical, and financial environment. Intrinsic motivation derives from social pressures, societal norms, and personal values that push a person to make a personal budget to maintain a healthy life. However, this only happens when a person builds and maintains a positive mindset throughout their budgeting journey. Above all, understanding goals and setting priorities gives you more control over your finances and life. In short, thoughtful planning and budgeting always help you make financial decisions better.

Determine How Much Money You Can Afford To Spend

This is probably the most crucial step in creating a personal budget account. You can only spend with what you have in your bank account. A smart move would be to keep at least 30% in reserve for dealing with your unexpected financial crises or uncertainties, which can spring up anytime– perhaps when you lose your job or when there are delays in monthly paychecks, you can use this reserve to pay your expenses. Before allocating money for necessities, you must know how much you can afford to spend in a month.

Shop Smarter

By creating a personal budget, we can easily manage our finances. Most of us are impulse purchasers or have an irrational buying or purchasing pattern. It is a major budget setback, which disrupts the whole monthly budget. This pattern must be avoided at all costs!

To avoid impulse buying, you can make a list and strictly stick with it when shopping. Look for stores that offer competitive prices, buy-in-bulk (only the things used a lot), pay with cash only, watch sales promotions or discount vouchers, and most importantly, make rational judgments while purchasing items.

Record Your Transactions

Every expenditure must be recorded once a purchase is made so your budget will be accurate. In doing so, creating a personal budget and maintaining a transaction record will become easier.

Evaluate Monthly Expenses

Keeping a close eye on your monthly spending will allow you to maintain control over your budget. You will notice and fix any discrepancies at the end of the month. Moreover, it allows and helps you to examine whether you are on a budget.

Make Adjustments

Making adjustments is as hard as creating a personal budget at first. It may be the most discouraging element when your budget results do not meet your financial needs and expectations. However, you do not need to worry because things will eventually become easier once you get used to making a budget.

Summary

Staying on top of your personal budget can become intimidating; for most, it is a ‘necessary evil.’ Your current financial status does not matter; you need to build and establish a personal budget. So, creating a personal budget may be the quick work of an hour, but it will save a lot of time and money in the future.

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.

What is a Cloud-Based CRM System?

A cloud-based CRM is a term used to describe a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application hosted on a cloud-based system. A cloud-based system for CRM is easily accessible via the Internet. It is easier for employees and companies to access the database anytime. As the information is securely located in a cloud, employees and other team members can retrieve customer information anywhere on any registered device.

Decision-makers running major companies have apprehensions when moving their CRM from an on-site location to a secure cloud-based CRM. Management often sees red flags when considering storing customer data in the cloud. They cower whenever they hear the word “hacking into the database” or “cyber-attack.” With frequent cyber-attacks and data breaches, company owners wonder how to secure their CRM cloud. Security is a primary concern for companies willing to transfer their CRM from on-site to a cloud-based system.

Cloud for your CRM must be Secure

A conventional CRM system requires costly software that depends on an entire Information Technology (IT) team to install and maintain the system.

Transferring from an on-site CRM to a cloud-based service is challenging, but the secure cloud-based CRM benefits exceed its disadvantages. The essential aspect of a CRM cloud is high security. Many companies offer specialized cloud services. When selecting a cloud hosting service, the company must provide a secure cloud to protect your CRM from data theft.

Cloud or On-Site CRM

Having an on-site data center for a CRM is risky compared to a secure cloud-based CRM, and maintaining a high-end IT department can be costly. Small businesses often need more resources to maintain required security measures.

A cloud-based CRM would cost significantly less due to economies of scale. This is because cloud hosting providers operate on a massive scale and cater to multiple businesses simultaneously, meaning they specialize in a particular segment. As such, they can lower their costs, making them a cost-effective solution.

Cloud hosting services provide a secure platform for a secure cloud-based CRM. These companies not only assist businesses in securing their customer data but also help provide access to your database from any location. A CRM on a cloud is much better at handling large amounts of data than an on-site CRM.

Cloud Security

The most prominent benefit of having a CRM on a cloud is that different encryption methods secure the data. Cloud hosting companies have dedicated security experts who use modern encryption systems to keep the CRM secure.

Company data in an on-site data center is prone to cyber threats, including data theft. A virus is another risk to a business’s valuable data housing confidential customer information. Cybercriminals often engage in practices where they steal essential company data to sell on the black market. For competitors, such information can be valuable for sabotaging another company’s image and redirecting the customers to their business. In an onsite RCM, you might be unable to disperse resources for around-the-clock vigilance.

However, in a cloud-based CRM, experts are deployed to keep data secure and take immediate action if any threats are detected. These experts use backups to restore the data if the system crashes due to a virus. Therefore, a secure cloud-based CRM is better than storing your data on-site.

Companies that offer cloud services are professional IT experts; their job is to give you a secure cloud for all your CRM needs. These companies are aware of the latest threats to clouds; they will always have a solution ready when you need it.

How to Have a Secure Cloud-Based CRM

All Software as a Service (SaaS) enterprises offering secure cloud-based CRM services hire IT security experts and maintenance staff of the highest caliber. It is their job to provide data security for your cloud-based CRM to avoid data breaches.

There are several protocols concerning data and access to ensure the cloud is secure. When securing your CRM on a cloud, the human factor involved in a data breach cannot be ignored. The following factors must be considered when keeping the CRM secure:

• Have a secure password
• Keep changing the password every week
• Limit and record the number of people with access to the cloud

CRM is a crucial element of their business from small to large multinational companies. Hiring a company that offers maximum security for your CRM is paramount. IT companies providing CRM cloud systems are aware of the risks and security breaches associated with having a database on a cloud. These security breaches are taken seriously by experts.

Backup Policies and Data Recovery Plans for CRM Security

Companies providing cloud CRM security have extensive backup plans and follow strict procedures to retrieve lost data if a breach occurs. The advanced and automatized backup policies help keep your cloud secure and safe from cyber threats. You can improve your cloud services using measures such as a two-step authentication service and stronger passwords.

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.