We’re half way through the year, already! At this point you should be able to run reports and see how your business is measuring up. I like to compare the first 6 months to the last 6 months, and then I compare Jan-June of this year to Jan-June of last year. Whether you’re doing better, the same, or worse, spend the time to analyze your numbers and figure out how to do better. I did this for YOUR BOOKKEEPER yesterday, and I was amazed at the hidden … Continue reading →
Guess how much the owner of YOUR BOOKKEEPER spent on personal expenses last month? You didn’t really think I was going to tell you, did you? But here’s the deal: I can pull a report that would tell me that–or anything else I want to know–in about 5 seconds, because QuickBooks is really that good. So if you can’t pull up that kind of info on a moment’s notice, maybe you should consider getting a bookkeeper. I know a really good one… shops featured in a relaxing … Continue reading →
Guess who’s on tax extension? The truth is, I had my stuff ready, but I was so busy getting everyone ELSE’s stuff done, I never made my appointment with my trusted tax accountant. He’s in crunch time now, and I want his full attention when he does his magic to my numbers, so I’ll just wait until after April 15th, let him get a good long rest, and then sit down with him. Who feels foolish now? Who feels foolish now? followed on counter updated the tides … Continue reading →
Quiz: How can you tell when it’s a debit and when it’s a credit? Answer: Don’t bother. Use QuickBooks. It uses language like “increase” and “decrease” when you enter liabilities or “payment” and “deposit” in your check register. None of you plan on growing up to be accountants, right? So make your life easy. You’ll make it easier still if you use YOUR BOOKKEEPER to do your QuickBooks. Now you’re talking! take place deep wards in coming out on top against any patch release If you’ve followed … Continue reading →
There’s a saying used to describe the reason people stay in bad relationships: “Bad breath is better than no breath.” Some people think “bad bookkeeping is better than “no bookkeeping” but the truth is no breath and no bookkeeping are the better options. For the relationship issues, people should go to a counselor and get healthy before embarking on a new relationship. As for the lack of bookkeeping, people should just gather up their bank statements and come to me. It’s way easier than trying to clean … Continue reading →
OK, It’s official. I didn’t achieve last year’s New Years’ Resolutions and I’m officially out of time… According to The Rules, that means I am doomed to have to repeat them again. And Again. Until I finally achieve them. However, I think I’ve found a loophole. If I ADD amended resolutions, I can modify or circumvent the repetition. For example, I was going to lose that 20 pounds last year. OK, so that didn’t happen, and I’m still faced with it. But (catch this!) I’m going to … Continue reading →
Last year I made my Christmas List on a spreadsheet on Excel. No lie. It’s got two pages: One page has everyone’s name on it and places to fill in what I bought for each person & how much it costs, and the other page carries over the totals and subtracts what I’ve spent from what I budgeted to spend. It’s pretty cool. This year I’m adding a third page. Here’s how it works: If what I spend exceeds what I’ve budgeted, the third page kicks in … Continue reading →
I FAILED MATH IN HIGH SCHOOL: I was an English major in college. Does that scare you? Bookkeeping is really just organizing–like diagraming a sentence. You just put everything in the right place and QuickBooks does the math. Actually, I think they should offer bookkeeping as an elective in the English Department. So next time some hotshot accountant starts bragging about his accounting degree, just ask him to diagram a sentence.
Continue reading →Do you know who owes you how much money? I have a client who used to write out his invoices by hand, and hand them to the customer on the spot. If the customer didn’t pay him right then and there, he would take his little yellow copy home with him and… Well there’s the rub. Some would stay in his truck, some would go in a pile. Some got thrown out. He had customers that got away without paying at all. Then, when he would need … Continue reading →
