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Do you have, or are you planning to start, an ecommerce website company? Then you absolutely must have a method of accepting payment online. Since you most likely will never even see your customers, and they won't be able to hand you their credit card in person, how are you going to process their payment?

The first thing you need is a merchant bank account in which to deposit the money you receive for payment. The procedure for opening an ecommerce merchant account is quite lengthy and complicated, but that is the subject of another article.

The bank itself will not handle the process of verifying that the customer's card is acceptable. That task is done by a credit card processing service. This service acts as a kind of middle-man. The card-issuing bank is contacted for authorization, and to debit the customer's account. Then the money for the transaction is transferred to your ecommerce merchant account.

Before any of this can happen, however, your website must initiate the entire process by having your customer fill out forms. As you know, there are two different kinds of forms that must be completed before an order can be processed.

1. The shopping cart form collects information about the purchases made by the customer, and need not be on a secure web page.

2. The checkout page, however, collects sensitive information about the customer's credit card, and needs to be protected from being viewed by anyone but the customer and the credit card processing service.

Here is where you must make an important decision. You can have the checkout page on your own website, or you can use a credit card processing service that provides you with a page on their website for the customer to use for a checkout page. There are numerous pros and cons about which method to use, but again that is the subject of a different article.

There is a way to bypass the hassle of having to apply for an ecommerce merchant account and credit card processing service. There are third-party credit card processors, such as PayPal, that take care of both functions. Of necessity, their fees are somewhat higher. But such services may be necessary if you have difficulty obtaining a merchant bank account.

The field uses accounting principles to solve crimes or to spot risky financial practices. Specialists in this field are often work for firms that are called in when an employer suspects problems in their firm but cannot prove it. Ordinary businesses may have such accountants on their payroll to perform regular audits. If this is done, the records are usually submitted to regular checks to make sure there are no problems arising within the company.

The forensics techniques allow a business to figure out if an employee has committed a crime, if fraud has been committed, or if a company handed out illegal kickbacks. Unlike many other career fields, which have seen a decrease in the demand for people to fill the positions, the demand for investigative accountants have grown.

A degree in accounting is necessary to pursue this as a career. Many universities offer bachelors and master programs that allow a person to pursue a career in this field. Of course, if he cannot find a job with the government or similar agency, a student still learn a valuable set of skills that he can take to other areas. Although the field may not be exciting, accountants remain in demand even during tough economic times.

Investigative accountants must also have a basic understanding of the laws involved in their field. They do not need to go into as much detail as an attorney would, but a basic understanding of financial laws is necessary for an accountant to determine if the target of an investigation has broken any applicable laws.

If you decide to pursue this career field, you must pay attention to detail. It also helps to have a love of numbers. Being good at business math is also a must. Keep in mind the colleges might make you take courses in higher level mathematics, such as calculus and matrix algebra that you may never use once you find a job in your chosen field.

The investigative accountant may never receive the glory that reporters, police officers or private detectives do. It is unlikely that their will ever be Law and Order Investigative Accounting Unit. That does not mean that the career field cannot offer rich rewards for the right individual.

In the present days bookkeeping is vital part for each and every business industry for the main reason that if you want to keep all the financial transaction records appropriate for your business so bookkeeping accounting is better option to keep all the financial records appropriate for your business financial transactions includes sales, purchase, income and payment by an individual or organization.

Nowadays computerized bookkeeping systems easily simplify the bookkeeping procedures. The three major features why bookkeeping software is better than human accountant are correctness, automation and flexibility. Computerized bookkeeping is not only superior but also it provides the quick and correct processing of financial transactions. In today's changing globalization world and with superior technology, a business can do constant re-validation so the business owners have choices when it comes to managing time and business.

We can see the benefits of bookkeeping accounting software neat and clean for the reason that it shows the ideal situation of our business in the market.

Using bookkeeping software has other benefits also:

• It generates exact picture as well as ideal data of different accounts than the manual system.
• Bookkeeping accounting software will give an ideal suggestion about the fixed assets and liabilities which will assist to arrange the financial statement and tax returns at the end of financial year.

At present, in the marketplace lots of bookkeeping accounting software is existing in several special formats from simple spreadsheets to more complex data based bookkeeping accounting software, they comprises but not limited to IRIS, LaCerte, MYOB, Peachtree, QuickBooks, Quicken, Sage Line 50. Occasionally, for a business, the bookkeeping software is a selection of simple system having limited accounting information.

To make bookkeeping software more efficient, each and every business should prepare regular financial transactions records to increase and develop financial control, take financial decision and achieve the preferred level in the market.

In judging the success of a business it is important to know the extent to which the owners' equity has increased or decreased during a given period of time, and the specific factors responsible for the change.

An accounting report called the income statement provides this information. In order to understand how it is prepared, we must first examine the typical transactions of Comfortable Bedding Company.

On January 7, the company sold for $800 cash some comforter sets which had cost $500, owner's equity increased by $300.

An alternative view of this transaction is that it is composed of two events:

(1)the $800 sale, which brings in $800 of cash; and

(2)the delivery of merchandise, which had cost$500.

The effects of these two parts of the transaction - the $800 sale, and the delivery of goods costing $500 upon the owner's equity can be considered separately.

And, taken by itself, the fact that merchandise costing $500 is no longer owned by the business, results in a decrease of $500 in the owner's equity.

Taken by itself, the increase in owner's equity is called arevenue. For example, when Comfortable Bedding Company sold $800 of merchandise the transaction resulted in $800 of revenue.

And taken by itself, the associated decrease in owner's equity is called an expense. Thus when Comfortable Bedding Company has sold merchandise for$800 that had cost $500, the effects of the transaction on owner's equity can be separated into two parts: (1) a revenue of $800; and (2) an expense of $500.

Comfortable Bedding Company sells a dozen of down comforter sets for $1,000 that had cost it $700. In recording this transaction the proper accounting procedure would be to record a revenue of $1,000 and an expense of $700.

There are many categories of expenses which are also considered in computing for the net income aside from the cost of the product. Salaries and wages expense, interest expense, rental expense, and maintenance expense are a few.

We now focus our attention on an expense on an item calledcost of goods sold. As the name suggests, it refers to the cost of the merchandise sold to customers.

Another term for this item is cost of sales; that is, the phrasescost of goods sold and cost of sales are both acceptable designations for the expense item that shows the cost of the merchandise that is furnished customers.

Consider once again the transactions of Comfortable Bedding Company, and let us assume for simplicity, that the only items of revenue were the sales of merchandise and the only expenses were the cost of goods sold. The report of revenues and expenses of Comfortable Bedding Company would be: Total revenues - $1,000; total expenses - $1,200; and a net income of $800.

If total revenues exceed total expenses for a given period, the difference is termed the net income. If expenses exceed revenues, the difference is the net loss.

The term profit is synonymous with the term net income. That is, it is defined as the difference between revenues and expenses.

A statement of revenues and expenses for a given period is called an income statement.

A single balance sheet does not enable one to determine the net changes in owners' equity over a period of time.

The most convenient method for determining the net changes in owners' equity that have taken place during a given period of time and the factors responsible for these changes is to consult the income statement.

Evidently, the income statement reports changes over a period of time, whereas the balance sheet reports status as of a moment of time.

Revenue and expenses are defined as the increases and decreases in owners' equity, an item in the balance sheet.

Every year you submit your year end books and records to the accountant. From those records the accountant will prepare the financial accounts for the business and any related tax returns. These may be sent out to you in the post for signing or you may have a year end meeting with the accountant. Then the whole process starts again. Rather than just fast forwarding to the next year, you may want to 'take stock' and cover a few important issues with the accountant, which can benefit you and your business.

Firstly, you might want to ask your accountant whether you are claiming for all the expenses you can possibly claim. This question may trigger a conversation about what other expenses you actually incur, which you thought you could not claim against tax, but in fact the accountant says are allowable. Also discussing this issue will allow you to consider your future planned expenditure and whether it is allowable or not. Indeed, if some of your future planned expenditure is not allowable you may decide that it may not be worthwhile incurring from a profit standpoint.

Secondly, you may want to ask your accountant if there are any improvements you can make to your bookkeeping and records. This input will allow you to make your records better for decision making purposes and give you more control over all the financial aspects of your business. You might also find this topic may be a good platform for you to possibly get a slight fee reduction from your accountant. After all, if your records are better, you could argue that the year end services, which the accountant provides, will be easier to complete.

At the year end, it may be a good opportunity to discuss your future plans for the business. For example, you may want to discuss an exit strategy for the business in terms of selling it or passing the ownership of it to other family members.

Alternatively, you may want to discuss expansion plans for the business. Your accountant will be able to look at any projections you have prepared and give you their opinion, as well as looking at any finance options available to you.

Lastly, when you have your year end chat with your accountant, it would be a good idea to go through any other taxes outside the normal business taxes which may affect you. This may involve looking at your inheritance tax situation or any capital gains tax charges you may be facing. These taxes can sometimes be avoided with a bit of sound upfront planning.

The moral of the story is that you should use your accountant for more than just your year end business accounts and tax returns. Their advice can help you improve your bookkeeping, increase your business expense claims, help you with your business planning and help you to reduce your non- business taxes, amongst many other things.

Almost any leading company today want to get their office procedures all automated for so many advantages they make out of it. Entrepreneur's resource planning, electronic data processing are the fields which are in great activity form nearly 2 decades now. The growth in this arena of trade is just magnanimous and has scaled leaps and bounds covering every part of the globe. There are so many automated products available in this wide category for facilitating the staff of the company according to their requirements. One such product is the ledger accounting software which has gained ultimate recognitions even in the mediocre firms in the recent day mainly due to the edge in the applied technology.

This enables them a simple means to do cumbersome accounting tasks as well as the maintenance of great grand father ledgers in the records room. The conventional means of employing so much effort and time in referring to data is absolutely eliminated by means of ledger accounting software. Here you are provided with results at a click of a button. That too in a variety of formats as and how you want it. Value added services provided by certain category of ledger accounting software's do have advanced tools to provide you with adequate related information too. With these special features you can study and analyze the prevailing data and information as well as refer to the past records in almost no time when compared to the conventional methods. With the reports generated in various formats by the ledger accounting software you can extrapolate and plan effectively for future with collective data from each and every department from procurement to customer support. The need to rely on so many divisional heads due this regard as well as the incorrectness of the gathered information when they do not tally to a certain extent by marginal variations is all complicated processes to deal with. These cumbersome tasks are completely eliminated and as a result efficient handling time and manpower management is attained with less difficulty. The cost associated with the installation of a ledger accounting software for your office is very reasonable enough when compared to the amount of utilities you benefit upon installing it.

The important aspects to be looked in at your ledger accounting software before you purchase are all discussed here in detail for your beneficial reference.

Check for classification fields attached with every master charts without fail. This is mandatory enough for using the whole system effectively which you will come to know when you start using the ledger accounting software. Any data or information pertaining to the particular classification could be isolated.

When it comes to the area of inventory maintenance division you need to ensure that there is an option available for you enabling addition of more than one location. Also check in keenly for the reports format and mainly for the availability of item value report.

Delivery challahs and Bills should be generated showing their respective currencies of handling.

Additional devices supplemented along with the original infrastructure so as to increase the variety of reports generated should be verified. Like all the aforementioned when you are keen on checking the features of the ledger accounting software, you should also bear in mind that you should check for the authenticity of the provider. This is a very vital issue to be borne in mind while purchasing a new one. There are thousands of providers available in the internet and not everyone is reliable in this for all your company secrets are going to be handled with the software what they are providing. So you should take extreme care to ensure safety due this regard.

Generally accounting refers to the occupation of auditing and maintaining records, financial report preparation for a business deal. At present for any business, accounting has its own necessity which cannot be over shadowed. For any professional business to be monitored smoothly, accounting is a must now days. The admire of accounting in several business sectors like retail, pharmaceutical, insurance and banking is quite evident because it not only enhances efficiency but also saves important resources of the concerned business.

In today's modern era accounting is a basic necessity for any business to succeed. The need of accounting is evident from the fact that it ensures all financial decisions to be sound and accurate. The success rate of your small business is directly proportional to the accuracy in its financial accounting. Small scale business owners can also take advantage of outsourced accounting company for getting accounting services and to ensure a healthy business.

There are a number of advantages of Accounting such as:

• It enables sound financial decisions.
• An agent's performance can be monitored easily.
• It grants access to the productivity and solvency of a business.
• It provides aid in preparation of annual transaction report preparation, which enables external companies to gain information about the company.
• It assists in investment decision making to various banks, suppliers and stockholders.

It is more advantageous to our business to hire a professional Accounting Expert Pune India from any of the many outsourcing firm providing Accounting Services in Pune India. This is so because it allows you and your fellow members to concentrate more on essential issues, and all your accounting tasks will be done by professionals enable a boom to your business.

So if, for any business personal the need of the hour is to cut cost on hiring, other operations, and training, one of the easiest ways is to hire an accounting company which provides online accounting services. Hiring these companies will enable you to focus more on your business and make more profit in return. Hiring these accounting companies will also give you extra time to refine your business product and make it superior to the other ones to increase its market value. The time saved via no load of accounting can be utilized for customer service and better customer satisfaction,so having all these advantages will definitely aid to your company's growth and also surely to its annual income.

With the corporate and business world changing and expanding every day, small businesses have become a dominant part of the business scene. While many small businesses are thriving, there are some aspects that need to be kept in mind to ensure the proper working of the small business. One important tool is the budgeting and forecasting software.

Here are some reasons why it is important to the small business:

1. Transparency of Business Finances:

Budgeting software means that the relevant individuals in the small business have a complete knowledge of the finances that are used and present in their company. Also, any and every information that might be required on the financial front will be available immediately - which increases the transparency of the working of the company. This results in increased faith in the company.

2. Planned Usage of Finances:

With the right software, the business has a better understanding of their finances and the expenses that they might have to incur in the short term as well as the long term. This results in some detailed and informed financial decisions on the part of the management and the decision makers in the company. Therefore one can carry out the planned usage of the finances of the company with the help of those informed decisions.

3. Optimum Usage of Finances:

In a small business, there is a very good chance that some finances are just forgotten and are not taken into consideration during times when they could be put to good use for the business, simply because they are out of sight and out of mind. With budgeting and forecasting software, one can keep track of all the finances that the business has, and therefore use it whenever it is the right time.

4. Retrospective of Financial Activity:

Along with a forecasting of the financial health of the business, this type of software will also provide a history of the money that has been spent by the small business for the financial year, as well as in the long term and the short term, whether for the budget history or the projection of future budgets. This will prepare a solid foundation for the people in charge, and will enable them to make better and informed decisions both for the present and the future.

These are just some of the advantages that a small business may experience by using budgeting and forecasting software. Most of the software that is available today is easy to use and has a low learning curve - almost anyone who knows how to use an operating system will be able to use the software within a few hours.

There are several small business B&F software that are available, and one should carry out the proper research before deciding to invest in a particular software, making sure that the software meets all the requirements of the business.

No business can afford to lose money, and this is even more true for the small business. It's important, therefore, to do everything possible to determine the exact software that will bring the most benefit to the small business, and achieve the best possible outcome in the use of budgeting and forecasting software.

Want to learn more about the importance of budgeting and forecasting software?

Visit my Budgeting and Forecasting Software blog to get more info on how using these tools can multiply your chances of success.

The current unemployment rate is still much higher than many would like. According to the U.S. Labor of Statistics, 8.2% of women are unemployed. The same report goes on to say approximately 9.2 million Americans are only employed part time, due to employers not being able to afford employees full time. These statistics have compelled people to become entrepreneurs to gain employment. The Credit Card Act of 2009 could give relief to these unemployed entrepreneurs, but only on their personal credit cards.

The Credit Card Act of 2009 was signed by President Obama last May. With some provisions already started this act will be in full swing Feb. 22, 2010.

What are the benefits of this act?

- Cardholders will be able to avoid interest rate increases on their existing card balances and have more time to pay their monthly bills.

- Before the bill passed, many card companies could change their due dates without notice, giving you less time to pay your bill. Now credit card companies will have to give you no less than 21 days to pay your bill, and will not be able to raise interest rates without notice.

According to the National Small Business Association as of 2008, credit cards were the most common source of financing for small business owners. The New York Times reported in September of 2009 that a study from Monmouth University said, "every $1,000 increase in credit card debt increases the probability a firm will close by 2.2 percent." And with this increase in debt, lead companies are now able to buy debt leads from these card companies and make a profit.

This new act will benefit many Americans, however, it does NOT cover business/corporate card holders. This is an important thing to keep in mind when starting your business. We could see credit card companies being harsher to business owners since they will be forced to ease up on customers with personal accounts.

Banks are a lot harsher these days when it comes to giving out loans. They are looking at personal debt as a factor for small business loans. Because of this, it is important to first look at your credit card debt before going into business. If you have acquired some debt, debt consolidation or credit card counseling may be options to consider.
These types of programs can streamline your personal debt and make it easier to get out of debt. This will help you get your finances in order which should help your chances of getting a loan for your business. If your business is already up and running, however, take a look at your current debt levels. If it is a significant amount, decide if you can manage the debt or if you need to take advantage of a debt management program.

For now we will just have to wait and see if credit card companies will be harsher towards their business/corporate card holders in the upcoming months. Until then, take a look at your personal credit cards and see if you can utilize the act to help you get a business loan to start your business.

Jessica Gombes is an expert writer on phone systems and is based in San Diego, California. She writes extensively for an online resource that provides expert advice on purchasing and outsourcing decisions for small business owners and entrepreneurs such as VoIP service at Resource Nation.