Jun 13, 2010

Why My Business Needs Financial Compliance Software

If have a business in the financial industry, then you probably spend a lot of time worrying about whether or not you are complying with all the heavy government regulations. Financial compliance software is a great tool you can use to keep your costs down, increase your profits, and more effectively compete in this competitive marketplace. Let's take a look at how this software can help you.

Finance has always been one of the most heavily regulated industries, but lately the government is becoming even more strict. This might not be a problem if the rules were fairly straightforward, but unfortunately they continue to grow even more complex. The government itself has created enormous bureaucracies just so that they can keep up with all the rules. This in turn forces business owners to create large unproductive bureaucracies of their own just to make sure that they are in compliance with all these laws. Businesses must employ a large number of workers to manually keep track of every transaction to make sure that they comply with all the government's regulations.

These workers that you hire eat up valuable resources from your company. It means that you can hire fewer salespeople. It means that you can hire fewer customer service agents. It means that you must charge a higher price to your customers. It means lower profits for your business - so you are unable to expand your operations, create new jobs, or enter new markets.

It's amazing that a simple piece of software can negate many of these problems. Rather than dozens of full-time workers manually reviewing every transaction, a good piece of software can do this automatically in the background. You will probably only need a Chief Compliance Officer to make sure the software continues to run smoothly.

Compliance software will not only make your business more efficient and profitable - it will vastly reduce the number of errors. Human error is a common problem that is almost impossible to eliminate. The more complex the rules, and the greater the number of transactions to manually review - the larger the number of errors inevitably becomes. This can cause major problems when regulatory bodies request information from your business. By turning over this work to a computer, you can be sure that everything is processed in a much more uniform way. Although completely eliminating errors is impossible, they can certainly be significantly reduced the more you leave it to a precise machine.

There are always many things you can do to improve the efficiency and profitability of your business, but few can have as direct and immediate an impact as financial compliance software. A good compliance product will quickly make your business better and more manageable.

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Jun 12, 2010

Why Hiring a Book-Keeper Or Accountant Could Be the Best Move You've Ever Made

Small Businesses - Are You On Top Of Your Finances & Accounts?

We understand that, for small businesses, spending your money wisely is always top of the priority list - and sometimes it can seem more cost-effective to carry out business-related tasks yourself rather than pay for an external expert. And in the case of looking after the business finances - well, it's pretty simple to keep a track on what's owing and what's due in, right? Wrong.

If that sounds typical of your business, then it's time to think again - spending a little of your business income on a book-keeper or accountant will actually save your business money - and far more than you think. Here's why every small business should make the smart choice and look to the experts when it comes to managing money matters and accounting software.

When it comes to the taxman, there'll be no nasty surprises

Do you know how much tax you'll be liable for at the end of the tax year? - and will you have reserved sufficient funds to cover your tax bill? Whether you're a sole trader, partnership or limited company, your tax obligations and tax allowances can be complex. With an accountant on board, they'll be able to advise you of the latest tax laws and how to operate your business more tax-efficiently - often saving you significant amounts off that year end bill. Not only that - with financial tax guidance and use of accruals on your accounting software, you can put enough by each month to make sure your business doesn't take a cashflow hit come year end.

Talking of cashflow - be proactive, not reactive

With a book-keeper at hand managing your accounts with accounting software, you'll know at any given moment exactly how much you owe and how much is due to you - meaning you can plan your cashflow more effectively. Many book-keepers will also carry out invoicing and credit control duties for you, meaning that you can concentrate upon running your business whilst an expert helps you reduce your debtor days. When you're wearing several hats it's all too easy to put debt-collecting to the back of the queue, so with your credit controller actively managing your cashflow, your bank balance will look healthier - and your bank manager happier.

How's your business doing? Can you name your profit margin?

A good book-keeper or accountant isn't just invaluable in managing your receipts and keeping your accounting software up to date - they'll be able to provide you with accurate advice on how your business is really performing and how to help improve that bottom line. Without professional financial guidance, it's all too easy for business efficiency to slip and overheads to creep up - so it's a wise move to make sure you have a trusted professional to keep a close eye on your business performance and who can give practical, proven advice on how to keep your business running at maximum performance.

And finally.... it's a matter of horses for courses

If you're a business owner who currently manages your own accounts, unless you're an accountant yourself then you'll be all too familiar with this scenario. Sitting in the office until late at night, ploughing through spreadsheets or unfamiliar accounting software, checking and re-checking those figures which you're still not sure are right.... we're sure you've been there. If you counted the actual cost of the time you've laboriously spent trying to figure out your accounts, you'd probably be in for a nasty surprise - and the small monthly cost of hiring a book-keeper starts to show itself as a cost-saving from the off. Why spend many hours of your valuable time stressing over your accounts when a professional could have it done in a fraction of the time?

When you look at the evidence, isn't it time you reached for phone and called that book-keeper or accountant who you once thought might be a waste of money? It just might be the smartest business decision you make all year.

If you are considering hiring a bookkeeper or accountant but fear that you will lose control of your accounts and where your business stands then fear not, online accounting software will enable you to log on at anytime and from any location and keep an eye on who owes your business money, what money you have in the bank and print of financial reports as and when you need to. This will provide you with a win win situation.

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Jun 11, 2010

You Need an Ecommerce Merchant Account For Your Internet Business

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.

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What is Investigative Accounting All About?

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.

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Jun 10, 2010

Benefits of Bookkeeping Software For Every Business

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.

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