Payroll is the great equalizer in business. It doesn’t matter whether you employ one person or 10,000 – the regulations and rules governing payroll are the same. Small business owners who don’t have a payroll expert on staff can easily run afoul of state and federal regulators. Here’s what you might not know. First, state...
You don’t know what tomorrow will bring, so you’ll need to hope for the best and be prepared for the worst. For a self-employed person or business owner, that means planning for what happens if you were to die tomorrow. “It’s a tough subject to talk about, but we bring it up with all our...
We recently had a client ask us why we need so much paperwork. Yes, we want you to keep receipts. In fact, all your business receipts. And we need copies of your insurance policies, paid invoices, statements, just about all the paper you accumulate in the course of doing business. Is it because we love...
Finding the right accountant for your business is essential to your success. The good news: you have a lot of choices. The bad news: you have a lot of choices. Here’s some advice that might help. First, you should know that the term “accountant” isn’t really an indicator of what skills you’ll be hiring. You...
“It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.” – Eleanor Roosevelt We’ve written about cash flow before; it’s the lifeblood of your business. Every business owner knows that cash is critical to their success, but almost none of them have a plan for managing it. There’s a name for that plan:...
We frequently talk to business owners about what their CPA does for them. Ninety percent of the time, the answer we get is, “they do my taxes.” That’s an essential service, but it’s just a fraction of the financial services your business needs. When you find the right partner, you can build a true relationship...
If you’re a small business owner filing a Schedule C, the answer is probably yes. Benjamin Franklin is credited with saying, “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Taxes are an inevitable part of a small business owner’s responsibility, but you may be paying more than you must...
The fourth quarter is typically a slower time for most business owners. That makes it a great time to focus on what Stephen Covey called “important, but not urgent” tasks. Andrea Bone, CPA, founder and CEO of Accounting and Business Partners, says she schedules end of the year meetings with her clients to take a...
Most business owners have an attorney they trust with legal matters and a CPA they trust with financial matters. “But there are actually three essential relationships a business owner needs to succeed,” says Andrea Bone, CPA, founder and CEO of Accounting and Business Partners. “And most business owners only have two out of three.” The...
