Small Business Accounting

As a small business owner you have more important things to do than to keep your own books and to do your own small business accounting. Butler Tax & Accounting takes care of your books for you, so you are able to get back to running your business and generating profits!

 
Bank Reconciliation

Reconciling your business checking account every month allows us to have your bank account, bookkeeping, small business accounting, and taxes up-to-date.

Having us reconcile your account each month allows you to...

• Identify lost checks, lost deposits and wire transactions that are unauthorized.
   
• Detect and prevent unacceptable and unjustified bank charges and allows you to make sure transactions are posted correctly by your bank.
   
• Detect and prevent embezzlement of funds from within your company or employees.
   
• Know how your business is doing. Small business owners never really know unless all accounts are reconciled and properly accounted for on their financial statement.
   
• Manage your cashflow much more effectively. Proper management of funds not only saves money, it makes money for you as well.
   
• Protect yourself. By timely reconcilliation and prompt objections to your bank about unauthorized, fraudulent or forged checks presented to your bank and paid by that bank, you can relieve your agency of responsibility for the shortfall and transfer the risk to the bank. This reason to reconcile alone should be enough. Crime does exist if you don't have the proper small business accounting in place.
   
• Sleep Better. You will sleep more peacefully at night knowing your business bank accounts are reconciled, in balance and that all escrow funds, accounts, checks and disbursed funds are properly accounted for.

Profit and loss statements, otherwise known as income statements, basically add itemized lists of all your revenues and subtract itemized lists of all small business expenses to create profits or losses for the period.

An income statement allows you to...

• Track revenues & expenses so that you can determine the operating performance of your business.
   
• Determine what areas of your business are over-budget or under-budget.
   
• Identify specific items that are causing unnecessary expenditures. Like phone, fax, mail, or supply expenses.
   
• Track dramatic increases in product returns or cost of goods sold as a percentage of sales.
   
• Determine your income tax liability.

 
Balance Sheet

Balance sheets give you a snapshot of your business' financial condition at any given moment in time.

A balance sheet helps you...

• Quickly get a handle on the financial strength & weaknesses of your small business.
   
• Identify & analyze trends, particularly in the area of receivables & payables. For example, if your receivables cycle is lengthening, maybe you can collect your receivables more aggressively.
   
• Determine whether or not your business is in an advantageous position to expand.
   
• Determine if your business can easily handle the normal financial ebbs & flows of revenues & expenses.
   
• Determine if you need to take immediate steps to increase cash reserves.
   
• Determine if your business has been slowing down payables to forestall an inevitable cash shortage.

Balance sheets, along with income statements, are the most basic elements in small business accounting, providing financial reporting to potential lenders such as banks, investors, and vendors who are deciding how much credit to grant you.

 
Maintaining a Clean General Ledger

The general ledger is the core of your small business' 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 and can make your small business accounting very inaccurate.

Having Butler Tax & Accounting take care of your small business accounting, will allow us to review your general ledger system each month, and will also allow us to hunt down any discrepancies such as double billings or any unrecorded payments. We will next fix the discrepancies so your books will always be accurate and kept in perfect shape.

 
Unlimited Consultations

We are always available to spend time with you so you fully understand how to interpret and utilize the financial information we provide when performing your small business accounting. Our consultations are already included in our small business accounting price, so please feel free to call us whenever you have a question or concern.