Bank Account Reconciliations
Reconciling your business checking account each month allow us to keep your bank account, accounting, and taxes up-to-date.
Having us reconcile your account each month allows you to identify lost checks, lost deposits and unauthorized wire transactions, detect and prevent excess/unjustified bank charges and ensure transactions are posted correctly by your bank, detect and prevent embezzlement of funds from within your company.
Do you know how your business is doing? You can't really know unless all accounts are reconciled and properly accounted for on your financial statement. Additional benefits to reconciling your bank accounts on a regular basis allow you to manage your cash more effectively. Proper management of funds not only saves money, it makes money for you.
You are better able to protect yourself by timely reconciling and promptly objecting to your bank about any unauthorized, fraudulent or forged checks presented to your bank and paid by that bank, you can relieve your company of responsibility for the shortfall and transfer the risk to the bank. This reason to reconcile alone should be enough. Crime exists whether we want to believe it or not.
Lastly, you will sleep more peacefully at night knowing your bank accounts are reconciled, in balance and that all escrow funds, accounts, checks and disbursed funds are properly accounted for.
Credit Card Account Reconciliations
There are many benefits to reconciling your credit card accounts. You want to be sure you are including all qualified expenses as deductions on the company's tax return, and you also want to be sure there is no fraudulent activity going on. If you bill your customers for expenses that your company has incurred, such as with government contractors, then you want to be sure your credit card accounts reflect accurate charges. Reconciliations performed on a monthly basis is the best method of preventing your accounts from getting out of control.
Merchant Account Reconciliations and Analysis
Although merchant accounts are often not thought of as needing to be reconciled, these accounts have transactions going in and out like a regular bank account. You not only want to be sure all of your customer payments are being recorded timely, but you want to be sure they are being applied to the correct customer invoice. Also, merchant accounts are sometimes seen as a "set it and forget it" kind of account where management doesn't really think about the fees associated with having one. We can analyze the fee structure of your merchant account and give you suggestions on how to minimize the amount of fees you're being charged based on your current activity or we can even help you find another provider.
Payroll Compliance
We can prepare all of the paperwork for your monthly, quarterly, and/or annual payroll reports.
Sales and/or Use Tax Reports
When a business collects sales tax from customers buying products and services, the business must complete and submit a sales tax return to the state they are registered to do business in. Depending on the state and/or the amount you anticipate your business to collect in sales tax will determine whether you must file your sales tax return monthly, quarterly, or annually. Generally, when the business is registered with the state, you will receive guidance on filing the sales tax return.
Use tax is commonly due when a business buys a product for resale, but then uses that product within the business. A good example of this is when a retail store buys a cleaning product specifically to resell to its customers, but uses that product to clean their own store. The use tax in this example must be reported based on the cost the retailer paid for the product. Use tax liability doesn't always stem from sales, however. In some cases, intercompany transfers of tangible personal property from one business location to another may trigger a use tax liability.
Businesses of all sizes must be cognizant of transactions that trigger use tax consequences to ensure they stay compliant with state laws and take every opportunity to reduce their tax as much as possible, or determine ways of avoiding the liability altogether. Whatever the case is with your company, we can prepare sales and/or use tax reports for your use when filing these returns.
Personal Property Tax Reports
This tax is levied on the furniture, fixtures and equipment (FF&E), machinery and tools that are owned, not leased, by a business and used in the course of operating the business. Generally, this does not consist of inventory, land, buildings or intangible assets such as copyrights and trademarks. We can prepare reports to assist you in filing this tax return.
Fixed Asset Management
As your company rapidly grows larger and larger, who is keeping an eye on the assets of the organization? Who is ensuring the accuracy and integrity of the assets' net worth and depreciation in your accounting system? Do you have assets that were sold in a company auction last summer still showing up in your financial reports? Have your managers been buying machinery or equipment in support of company growth that aren't even getting depreciated each month? We can take hold of your company's assets to get them all inventoried in your accounting system, add new assets and record sales and disposals, and process the depreciation each month.
General Ledger Review
The general ledger is the core of your company's financial records. These records constitute the central "books" of your system. Since every transaction flows through the general ledger, a problem with your general ledger throws off all your books. This monthly process will aid in correcting data entry errors, improper capitalization and classification of assets, ensure accurate information for your financial reports, and help determine income and expense trends on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis.
Having us review your general ledger system each month allows us to hunt down any discrepancies such as double billings or any unrecorded payments. Then we'll fix the discrepancies so your books are always accurate and kept in tip top shape. This review is also crucial in helping to find fraudulent transactions that can be verified when the bank reconciliation process occurs.
Journal Entry Processing
There are times during the month you find an adjusting journal entry needs to be made, or maybe your accounting team just needs help with preparing and posting the monthly journal entries. Whatever you case may be, we are here to help.
Assistance Closing the Books
The month- and year-end close processes are necessary evils in the world of accounting. If you had a choice, you would probably decide not to close the books just to save yourself and others the hassle and stress of these frequent tasks. However, these highly stressful moments in time that make you want to pull your hair out are vital to the success of every organization. This is the time to verify that all financial information in your accounting system is accurate for the reporting period.
This whole process of closing the books each month is so management can generate accurate financial reports they can rely on. Businesses use accounting information to make decisions and gauge the company's performance. Stakeholders, creditors, and investors rely on accurate financial information to make their decisions. If you're not closing the books each month, you're not doing your due diligence in ensuring accurate financial data. If your financial data cannot be relied on and is shared with internal and external stakeholders, you are misrepresenting the financial health and position of your company. By allowing us to help with your monthly close process, you can rest assured your financial data is accurate in your accounting system.
Custom Financial Reports
Often times, management needs additional reports to aid in their financial analysis of the organization. We can provide custom financial reports with your data, whether you're trying to get a business loan, trying to increase the limit of your line of credit (LOC), or whether you're interested in a particular aspect of your financial data. Whatever you need, we can help.