Archive for July, 2007

Why Outsource Your Accounting

Accounting is a core business function. Without accounting, a business is sure to fail. With accounting, a business might survive. With accounting managed by a Profit Center Expert, a business is certain to succeed.

You’re probably already familiar with the bleak forecast for new small businesses. While failure rates have decreased considerably in the last few years, recent studies from the Small Business Administration (SBA) indicate that one third of new employer establishments fail within the first two years, and 56% fail within four years.

Poor financial management is often cited as the reason for most small business failures. Often the business owner or a member of the business team manages this crucial function because they want to maintain complete control of their business, they’re afraid that outsourcing the accounting would be too expensive, or a combination of the two. What they don’t realize is that outsourcing is a useful management tool that can save a business both time and money while preventing potential failure. And when you outsource to the right accountant, it can be the difference between base survival and profitable success.

The Benefits

There are countless benefits you enjoy when outsourcing your accounting. Here are just a few:

Save Yourself Time. You’re in business because you’re good at what you do. Your expertise involves the product and/or service you offer. And we’re guessing your expertise is not accounting. So if you, or anyone on your team, spend time managing your business’s finances, that’s time that could be better spent building your business.

In order to be competitive you must constantly be looking for ways to improve and expand your products and/or services, better market your business, and stay ahead of your competition. When you and your team focus time and attention on the accounting, that’s time not spent on these crucial tasks. When you outsource the accounting to a trusted professional, you can use that time to make your business the best it can be.

Save Yourself Money. We all know time is money. The average small business owner spends over 10 hours personally, each month, accounting for the business. If your average billing rate is $50 per hour, you may be spending more than five hundred dollars’ worth of your time! Chances are you can pay for a good accountant and then some with all that money.

Gain Access to Valuable Accounting Expertise, Equipment, and Technology. Reputable accountants have the expertise to not only save you money, but to make your business more profitable. In addition to that, they have access to equipment and technology that most small businesses can’t afford. They will use their resources to your advantage, and save you the time and headache of doing it yourself.

Gain Access to Profit-Building Information. A truly valuable accountant is also a Profit Center Expert. They analyze financial data in order to assist you in making profitable decisions for your business. A Profit Center Expert can inform you which products and/or services to expand, which to eliminate, whether your marketing attempts are successful, where you’re loosing money, and where to cut back in order to save and redirect funds in order to become more profitable.

Call us for a free, no-obligation consultation. We can customize a package of services that is competitively priced and designed to save you time, energy, and headache. We offer the following services:

Accounts Payable

  • Input vendor invoices to payable system
  • Classify invoices to the proper G/L account
  • Request and maintain vendor W-9 information
  • Maintain vendor master files
  • Respond to vendor inquiries about payment status
  • Retrieve copies of payments as necessary
  • Prepare and file required 1099 forms
  • Process requests for stop payments when necessary
  • Cut checks to vendors based on due dates or client instruction
  • Reconcile vendor statements to accounts payable ledger
  • Reporting to organization on detailed aged payables and cash requirements
  • Year end 1099 forms

Accounts Receivable

  • Billings prepared as needed by TAD and mailed out (all billings provided to Client for approval prior to mailing)
  • Record and account for revenue
  • Input receivable transactions into the accounting system
  • Prepare and deliver periodic statements
  • Issue client-approved credit memos and refund checks
  • Maintain subsidiary receivables ledger
  • Process client-approved adjustments
  • Apply cash received to customer accounts and resolve “short pays”
  • Light phone collections as needed by client
  • Client to photocopy checks and provide to TAD
  • Client to prepare deposit slips (provide to TAD) and make bank deposits

Cash management

  • Process daily sales and deposit reports
  • Verify daily deposits and report variances
  • Reconcile and verify credit card deposits
  • Reconcile monthly bank statements

Journal entry and general ledger

Account reconciliations

Payroll

  • Time cards, after approval, will be scanned and uploaded to TAD prior to payday
  • TAD completes payroll and client prints, signs and distributes paychecks
  • Prepare employee earnings statements complete with current pay period and year-to-date wages, taxes, and adjustments
  • Prepare department summaries of month-to-date payroll data in addition to customized reports specific to Client
  • Prepares timely and accurate notifications of tax liabilities and deposits
  • Completes Year end W-2 forms
  • Respond to requests for employee verifications
  • Process and submit garnishment payments
  • Respond to employee payroll inquiries
  • Prepare and file new hire reporting to state
  • Prepare, file, and pay all Federal, State, and local payroll taxes
  • Reconcile health insurance payments and make payroll deductions when required
  • Prepare necessary HR reports such as turnover
  • Allocate payroll expenses for multi-store employees
  • Prepare and process payroll accruals when necessary

Monthly Closing

Fixed assets accounting & depreciation

Monthly financial analysis and reports

Yearly Business Assessments

Don’t wait another day to partner with a Profit Center Expert (PCE) and make your business more successful. Do what you love to do more; let your PCE take care of the rest. Call now for a free, no-obligation consultation.

Why Our Services

McFarlin Tax and Profit Solutions provides a balance of good old personal interest, while meeting a broad variety of business accounting needs at a very affordable price. Additionally, as my client, you can be assured that I will always personnally conduct business with you and not subordinate the process to a junior accountant.

I want you to feel like you are my only client. If you have a priority, it becomes my priority, and I will quickly get you the answers you need to run your business profitably. Regardless of company size, my clients should expect my utmost attention.

But still, by working with McFarlin Tax and Profit Solurions, you have the resources of a full-service accounting provider.  I have the resources to fulfill virtually any of your accounting and management needs, or aid in connecting you with one of  my associates who can.

Tax Planning & Preparation

There’s one distinguishing difference between tax planning, and tax preparation. It’s December 31st. In order to beneficial, any planning has to occur before the end of the year; preparation can only take place after the beginning of the year. Although I can’t promise to eliminate taxes, I can help you with both the planning and the preparation in order to minimize them.

Tax planning is an important step in reducing taxes. Together, throughout the year, I will discuss various tax strategies that could potentially save you thousands of dollars. This will enable you to make any needed adjustments before the end of the year so that you have some control over how much you pay in taxes.

Then, at the end of the year, with your help, I will see that your taxes are professionally prepared in a timely fashion to avoid any late fees. In order to offer you such service I am a certified Professional Tax Preparers and I will assess your tax liability.

Profit and Growth Expert

We trust that if you were forming a foursome for an upcoming golf tournament, you would want to have a golf expert like Tiger Woods on your team.

Although we may not be the golfer Tiger Woods is, we do take our job to be your Profit and Growth Expert just as seriously. Our goal has nothing to do with helping minimize the number of golf swings, but instead to maximize your profit dollars. This entails monthly analysis of your financial results, consultation in areas of profit improvement, and directions of how to take advantage of lower tax strategies.

Together, we will examine past experiences, map out where you want to go with your business, and discuss how that can happen. That’s our role as your Profit and Growth Expert.

Being In the Black

universal-business-modelBeing in the black can mean a lot of different things. Most business owners, it stands for being profitable. When a business owner sets out on a new venture, establishing a profitable business is one, if not the only, primary driver. Unfortunately, too many entrepreneurs get lost in the day-to-day chores of running the business, and forget their main purpose.

McFarlin Tax and Profit Solutions (McFarlin TPS), as your Profit and Growth Expert, apply The Universal Business Model. McFarlin TPS’s primary role is helping you maximize the profitability of your business. With financial skills in hand, combined with access to a variety of analytical tools, each month I will focus my attention on your business’s financial position and progress.

wisdom-pyramidHere’s just a short list of those things you will be able to do with McFarlins TPS help as I use The Wisdom Pyramid to ensure that I improve your business’s financial position:

  • You will know how your business stacks up against the competition with the information we provide you in a professional business assessment.
  • You will understand the areas where your business is strong and where it can improve, and we will regularly provide you with suggestions on how to do it. Consider this a Day with your CFO.
  • You will be able to identify trends that expose the helps and hindrances to your business.
  • You will take advantage of tax benefits through regular reviews of your tax position.

By gathering the necessary information through the bookkeeping, accounting and profit & expense control process, I will be able to analyze the data and help you make the changes required to improve the profitability of your business. Whether you require an audit or a review of your finances, I can help move your business forward.

Bookkeeping

Too often business owners are so preoccupied with select parts of the accounting process that they don’t realize just how valuable all that financial information can be. Some business owners focus on preparing the yearly tax statement. Others may worry about that and their cash flow. And others still may just balance their check books. If you choose to have McFarlin TPS do your accounting, I can do all that and more. And most importantly, I can help you become more profitable.

It really is quite simple. First you need a reputable accountant, what we like to call a Profit and Growth Expert, to determine your business goals. These goals may include, but are not limited to, growth expectations, marketing plans, profit margins, and overall labor expenses. I ask important questions, like what do you want? And why do you want it?

Here is a technical way of looking at bookkeeping:

Bookkeeping: The practice involved in the systematic recording of transactions affecting a company beginning with the data-entry process and ending with the preparation of financial statements. The art, practice, or labor involved in the systematic recording of the transactions affecting a business.
http://www.know-accounting.com/glossary/index.php?terml=b&termid=29

In layman’s terms, bookkeeping is the practice of determining which numbers are important to you and your business. Once that’s decided, I can set up a customized system that will organize the information you want and need. This is how I will come up with Your Accounting System.

Day with your CFO

You probably visit your doctor for a physical examination every year or so. The purpose of this visit is to alert you to health concerns, discuss life changes, and identify remedial action required before it becomes too late.

Allow us to be your Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for a day. In this capacity, we can perform a financial examination that will assess your business’s fiscal health. In most cases, we will meet with you following an in-depth analysis of your financial results, and share concerns as well as ideas on how your business can achieve better fiscal health. At the same time we can discuss any upcoming business changes you are planning and determine how they can best be handled. As your Profit and Growth Expert, we are committed to elevating the health and vitality of your business.

It’s amazing how much difference we can make in just one day!