Sunday, December 30, 2007

Auditor teed off at bookkeeping at Bowling Green golf courses

Deborah Jenkins is teed off at the way Bowling Green keeps the books of three city-run golf courses.

Jenkins, the city's internal auditor, said lax bookkeeping and discarded bank records means the courses are probably losing tens of thousands of dollars.

The three courses, the nine-hole Paul Walker and Riverview, and 18-hole CrossWinds, which altogether employ about 50 people, have an annual budget of $2.8 million.

They bring in $1.5 million in total revenue with the city chipping in the $1.3 million difference.

Jenkins took on the golf courses as her first major project as auditor. Jenkins reported that she was unable to track most bank transactions because those records are regularly discarded.

Read More Article...

Friday, December 28, 2007

IRS announces delay of tax return processing

The Internal Revenue Service has announced that the upcoming tax season is expected to start on time for everyone except certain taxpayers potentially affected by late enactment of the Alternative Minimum Tax patch legislation.

Following extensive work in recent weeks, the IRS expects to be able to begin processing returns for the vast majority of taxpayers in mid-January. However, as many as 13.5 million taxpayers using five forms related to the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) legislation will have to wait to file tax returns until the IRS completes the reprogramming of its systems for the new law.

The IRS has targeted Feb. 11, as the potential starting date for taxpayers to begin submitting the five AMT-related returns affected by the legislation. The February date allows the IRS enough time to update and test its systems to accommodate the AMT changes without major disruptions to other operations related to the tax season. As the IRS has said previously, it will take approximately seven weeks after the AMT patch was approved to update IRS processing systems completely.

Read More Article...

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Accounting Jobs in Demand for New Year

Five jobs in the accounting and finance field are expected to be especially well positioned for salary increases next year.

Recruiting agency Robert Half International said demand remains especially strong for internal auditors, senior accountants, hedge fund accountants, financial analysts and public accountants.

National average starting salaries for internal audit managers at large companies are expected to climb 6.7 percent to between $81,500 and $109,500 annually, according to Robert Half's 2008 Salary Guide.

Read More Article...

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

7 Easy Ways to Save Money

Most people would love to get a raise; but did you know that by lowering your bills, you're giving yourself a raise? For every $100.00 a month that you can lower your bills, you're getting a raise of about 60 cents an hour based on $1200.00 a year divided by 52 weeks and 40 hours a week. It doesn't sound like much until you figure that most companies are giving 3% annual raises and you would have to make $20.00 per hour to get a 60 cent raise. Not only that, but $1200 would pay for a decent big screen T.V.

In this article, I plan on showing you a few easy ways to save money and with any luck, at least one that you didn't think of.

The first thing you should do after reading this article is grab a notebook, PDA or some other way to keep track and start recording your spending. Write down every purchase you make, even a soda or snack from a vending machine. Keep it up for at least a month and then look at where your money goes. You may start to see a trend that you want to stop before the month is over and by all means, change it. You may also want to do this more than once. It's a great way to keep from falling back into or developing new bad spending habits.

Improve your credit card balances and rates. This is a given and dozens of books and articles have been written so I won't waste too much of your time repeating the same old information. Just know that the lower your rate and the faster you pay it off, the more money you save. Start with your highest rate card and pay as much extra as you can until it's paid off, and then go to the next and include what you were paying on the first card. You could easily drop $100 per month just from this.

Take your lunch and snacks to work. If you spend $5.00 a day on fast food lunch and drink 3 sodas a day, you can easily save about $15.00 - $20.00 a week and that would be about $60.00 to $80.00 a month just by packing a lunch, not including gas and wear and tear on your car. Not to mention how much healthier it would be. You may only want to cut back on the lunches but it would still be a savings. Just a thought, you could use the extra time to read a book or just relax.

Buy Regular Unleaded gas unless your car requires higher octane gas. Check your owner's manual to be sure. Most places charge 20 cents a gallon extra for Supreme over Regular Unleaded and unless you're driving a sports car you won't be able to tell the difference. Depending on your gas mileage this could add up quickly.

Use a shopping list and stick to it. Avoid impulse buys unless they're something you'd normally use and on sale. Clip coupons. If you think it isn't worth it, try it for a month and keep track of your savings. If it's more hassle than it's worth you can stop. But I'm betting you'll be surprised at how fast it adds up. Pay attention to prices at different stores. Most stores offer some products under wholesale just to bring you in because they know most people will buy other things and they'll make money on the higher priced items.

Do you still smoke? I bet you're expecting me to say quit. Well, that would save you money but I'm not going to. If you want to quit then I wish you luck because I know it's hard.
Try out the cheaper cigarette brands. Buy a single pack and see how they taste. If you find a brand you like and it's a $1.00 a pack cheaper then look at how much you'll save. If you smoke a pack a day then you'll save about $30.00 a month, $365.00 a year. If you're scared of what people will think, buy a nice case. They'll never know you're smoking cheap cigarettes.

Take a look at your cable/satellite package. Look at what stations you watch and which package they're included in. If you don't watch anything in the higher end packages, drop the extra or find out if you can get just the channels you watch. If you have cable, take a look at satellite providers such as Dish Network and see if you can save money if that's an option where you live. Some apartments don't have access to the correct direction to use satellite but if you do, then it could be a better deal and you may receive a channel you've always wanted.

Check your phone bill. This is one of the easiest bills to be over charged for and one of the easiest to change. Most people think they don't spend enough to bother with it, but many companies hide fees or make up their own. Some will even tell you a fee is mandatory when it's really just an administrative fee.

What you may not realize is that depending on your calling habits or the area you live in you may want a different long distance company or you may want to go with VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) if you have a broadband internet connection. We offer a calculator that compares 11 companies and shows the rates for your area. There's even the advanced calculator that takes your calling habits and finds the best rate for you based on if you call more instate or out of state.

The point of these tips isn't to make you a cheapskate, but to allow you to choose where your money goes. You can save the extra money, go out to a nice restaurant each month or spend it in any way you want, even to buy a new T.V. And wouldn't it be much nicer to choose where you spend your money instead of wondering where it went?

Source : http://www.wreckramblin.com/

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

China expects 30% growth in tax revenue

BEIJING: China's tax revenues are expected to surpass 4.9 trillion yuan ($668.8 billion) in 2007, up 30 per cent year on year, the country's top tax official said here Tuesday.

Addressing a national conference on taxation, Xiao Jie, Director of the State Administration of Taxation, said the figure represented one of the highest annual tax growth rates since the country adopted reforms in 1978. He attributed the robust increase to stable economic growth and a rapid increase in industrial enterprise profits.

Read More Article...

Monday, December 24, 2007

Venable: When it comes to accounting, don't keep Texans in the dark

"We told you so" isn't our objective, but when we opposed the legislation which would allow Texas jurisdictions the option of using less stringent accounting standards than recommended by the national accounting standards board (GASB), we weren't just crying wolf.

Fitch (a leading global credit rating agency) released their findings last week that revealed that the legislative action taken in Texas has potential negative credit implications for state and local governments in Texas.

This is exactly the point that we made in opposing HB 2365 which gives state and local jurisdictions in Texas the option of using accounting standards less stringent than OPEB. Non-compliance with OPEB will be reported in qualified auditor reports, i.e. reports stating that the jurisdiction does not follow generally accepted accounting standards. Rating Agencies such as Fitch view non-compliance with OPEB as a management weakness. The implication is that those jurisdictions' bonds will receive a lower rating, resulting in higher interest costs to taxpayers.

Read More Article...

Friday, December 21, 2007

EU: Romania Has Improved Bookkeeping

BRUSSELS, Belgium - Millions of euros in planned European Union aid to Romanian farmers will be sent as planned after officials said Tuesday that Bucharest had enough to improve its bookkeeping procedures to prevent fraud.

EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said Romania had made "rapid progress" in improving control and oversight to avoid a threatened freeze in farm aid for next year.

EU officials gave Romania until mid-December to improve controls and auditing of where the EU aid is spent, through the adoption of new computer software.

Read More Article...

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Why We are All So Bad at Project Accounting

What project accounting is and why it’s important

Project accounting is a critical concept for today’s business world, yet most businesspeople do not know their project accounting data. This includes firms that outsource the accounting of others and it results in cost ignorance. Most modern firms have very little understanding of which customers are profitable for them, and which ones are huge losers. R&D projects which should have been cancelled long ago linger on. IT departments languish amid derisive commentary from their peers.

Proper project accounting is one of the many things in life that sounds really easy but, for various reasons – psychological, sociological, political – can often be really hard.

Read More Article...

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Auditors urge better bookkeeping in Swain courts

Raleigh – A state audit of the Swain County Clerk of Superior Court's office found the office's bookkeeping isn't always keeping up with its financial transactions.

Clerk Helen Styles's office is subject to regular checks by the office of state auditor Les Merritt.

In a report released this week, auditors said office records didn't show a recent investment of money held in trust by the office.

Such money is often held for children or incapacitated adults.

Read More Article...

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Subprime crisis not seen changing accounting rules

NEW YORK: As banks reel from massive US subprime losses, some experts argue that creating transparency in the market would be more effective at restoring public confidence than changing accounting rules.

"The regulator's tools for the most part are disclosure," Roel Campos, former US Securities and Exchange Commissioner (SEC), said at the International Federation of Accountants' World Accountancy Forum in New York on Tuesday.

Read More Article...

Nasscom seeks tax sops

Nasscom has handed over the IT industry's budget wishlist to the FM. The pre-budget memorandum has identified five critical areas, which the FM needs to look at while framing the taxes for the sector next year.

First, it wants the government to continue the STPI scheme beyond 2009 and tax incentives under section 10A/10B for next 10 years. It suggests the STP tax holiday removal for IT sector (not BPO) to be linked to the signing of the totalisation agreement with the US government. Even the Kelkar Committee had recommended this. It feels, its a substantial cost for the industry and puts Indian IT companies at a competitive disadvantage when compared to their global peers.

Read More Article...

Monday, December 17, 2007

Books Onsite Launches Bookkeeping Tips and Tutorials Website To Assist Australian Small Business Owners

Sydney-based bookkeeping services company, Books Onsite, has announced the launch of a bookkeeping tips and tutorials website to help small business owners in Australia with their bookkeeping questions.

Sydney, NSW (PRWEB) December 1, 2007 -- Sydney-based bookkeeping services company, Books Onsite, has announced the launch of a bookkeeping tips and tutorials website to help small business owners in Australia with their bookkeeping questions.

The new bookkeeping tips website site offers bookkeeping advice on small and medium business issues and invites small business owners to submit any questions they have regarding bookkeeping issues relating to their business. All questions are discussed and answered on the website in an interactive learning environment.

With recent Australian Taxation Office legislation introducing fines of up to $22,000 for unqualified bookkeepers preparing BAS Return related work, it is important for small businesses to ensure their bookkeeper is adequately qualified.

Read More Article...

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Start tax planning to find breaks

Year-end tax planning isn't just about making sure that you write a check to a soup kitchen before Dec. 31 to get a deduction for a charitable contribution for 2007.

For businesses, it's also a time to review complex tax rules and strategies. Here's a look at some potential tax breaks:
  • Small businesses can find a tax break in the Section 179 Deduction.
This tax break has gotten bigger in recent years, so more sole proprietors, partnerships and corporations may want to review Internal Revenue Code Section 179 to write off capital expenditures immediately in the year the item is bought.

Bob D. Scharin, RIA senior tax analyst from Thomson Tax & Accounting, noted that business owners must take delivery of the equipment and place it in service by year's end to take the deduction for 2007.

Read More Article...

Friday, December 14, 2007

The Savings Game: Change in tax law could benefit many investors

My plans for substantial tax savings next year, including tax-free stock dividends and long-term capital gains, revolve around one figure: $65,100.

While not official yet, $65,100 is projected to be the top of the 15 percent tax bracket for spouses filing joint returns in 2008, based on how brackets are adjusted annually for inflation. For single filers, it would be $32,550. For every extra dollar, Uncle Sam would take a progressively bigger cut (first 25 percent, then 28, 33 and 35 percent).

That's reason enough for my wife, Georgina, and me - and all taxpayers - to try to stay within the 15 percent bracket (by contributing to deductible retirement plans, for example, and claiming legitimate deductions and adjustments to income).

But there is another incentive: From 2008 through 2010, current tax law calls for a ''0 percent'' rate - that's right, nada - on qualifying stock dividends and long-term capital gains on the sale of securities for taxpayers in the two lowest brackets of 10 and 15 percent.

Source : http://www.sltrib.com/

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Industry advocates unified global accounting rules

A panel of U.S. businesses, auditors and investors agreed on Thursday that there should be one set of high-quality global accounting standards, but differed on how to get there and kickstart the transition.

"We believe there are immense benefits from having a single reporting system," Neri Bukspan, Standard & Poor's global chief accountant, said at a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission roundtable on international accounting standards.

In a continuing quest for the "nirvana" of accounting standards, the SEC is pondering whether to let domestic companies use international standards, instead of U.S. standards, when filing financial data with the agency.

The SEC recently said U.S.-listed foreign companies could file financial results with the agency using international financial reporting standards, or IFRS.

Read More Article...

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Top Year-End Tax Tips For Small Biz

Before the eggnog season gets into full swing, entrepreneurs would be wise to schedule one more sit-down with their tax advisers. There are some year-end moves worth making.

Tip No. 1: Defer income and/or accelerate deductions.

Business owners have much more control over the timing of income and deductions than individuals do, so manage your cash flow by taking advantage of this flexibility. Delaying December billing or accelerating deductions may slow down or eliminate collections this month, but it also moves those receipts into next year, thus deferring taxes on such income.

Read More Article...

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

10 Financial Differentiators to Look for in an Outsourcing Transaction

Choosing a service provider is kind of like choosing your significant other. The variables are complex and the consequences expensive, so you'd be wise to do your homework before getting involved.

What's the candidate's track record? Does it have a fear of commitment? Would it be a good personality fit? Do you get the feeling it's hiding something? All are important questions when you're shopping for a relationship, and that includes outsourcing. So you check out the provider's history, assess its long-term potential, seek out any hidden information, and otherwise obtain the data you need to decide on a partner.

That applies not only to provider capability, but also to financial factors, which are a key means of differentiating one service provider from the next. Following is a cursory view of the top 10 financial differentiators to look for when you're comparing service providers for business process outsourcing (BPO).

Read More Article...

Monday, December 10, 2007

Tax professionals tasked on discipline

THE President of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN), Mr. Kamorudeen Adigun, has called on tax professionals across the country to eschew all forms of actions that could tarnish their reputation in the discharge of tax services to taxpayers. He said that was the only way they can continue to enjoy public confidence in their activities and, by so doing, enhance the Nigerian tax system for the expected growth in the years ahead.

In a similar vein, in her paper titled Tax Fraud: A Bane to Economic Development, the guest speaker, Ms. Ifueko Omoigui, pointed out that, with the enactment of the FIRS Establishment Act 2007, the service has now been given more specific powers to deal with fraudsters with the tax environment. Omoigui stated that Section 8(g) of the Act to “adopt measures to identify, trace, freeze, confiscate or seize proceeds derived from tax fraud or evasion”.

Read More Article...

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Double Entry Bookkeeping Versus Single Entry Bookkeeping

Bookkeeping stems from the recording of financial transactions and the accounting term for a business accounts as books. In effect the accounting function prepares a record of the monetary affairs of a business and stores the information in files called books. Hence the term bookkeeping often misspelled as book keeping which is the function of a librarian not that of a bookkeeper.

The difference between bookkeeping services and accounting may be unclear to the uninitiated while both are of vital importance to financial success. Bookkeeping is an important part of the accounting function and is essentially the record keeping of the financial transactions. Accounting is while incorporating the record keeping also includes the presentation, interpretation and financial control functions including interpretation of the numbers for the financial health of a business of which taxation can play a major part.

The financial affairs of a business involve many aspects and start with the recording of what is termed the prime documents. The task of a bookkeeping service is to record the prime documents, those prime documents being the sales, purchases and cash/bank transactions. All small businesses do bookkeeping and the most successful use the bookkeeping records as a basis for an accounting function to generate a more efficient financial service.

All business involves buying or selling something and the consequent function of receiving or paying money to the value of those transactions. Recording these transactions in larger business organisations is done by accounts clerks who work under the supervision of the accountant.

Invariably medium and larger businesses use a double entry system for recording transactions. Double entry accounting evolves from the fact that every transaction as a double effect on the business of which these are prime examples.

A sale is made creating a record of income for the business on which the business is taxed and the other side of the financial transaction, the double entry, is the organisation who was sold the goods now owes the value of that sales invoice to the business. That is the double entry, record the sales income and also record the debt due from the customer.

Someone who owes the business a debt is called a debtor.

A purchase is made creating a record of expense for the business which can be deducted from income and lowers taxes and the other side of the financial transaction, the double entry, is the organisation who supplied the purchase on credit is now owed the money. That is the double entry, record the purchase and also record the credit due to the supplier.

Someone who has supplied goods on credit is called a creditor.

The third type of prime transaction is the transfer of money between the debtors and creditors and the business.

When a debtor pays his sales invoice the double entry is to add that amount of money to the business financial records and the opposite double entry goes to the debtor account to reduce the amount owed to the business since it has now received the cash.

When a creditor is paid the amount owed the money is recorded as reducing the cash resources of the business by for example deducting the money from the bank balance and the double entry reduces the amount the business now owes to the creditor account since it has reduced the credit received.

The bookkeeping function is to record these prime transactions. Since every financial transaction has an equal and opposite entry in the books there has to be a mathematical check that both sides of the transactions add up to zero. This check process is called a trial balance where both sides of the entries should be in agreement and normally the point at which the bookkeeping service is deemed to be complete.

Double entry bookkeeping is required for all businesses that require to produce a statement of its assets and liabilities. This statement of assets and liabilities is the total of all the balances from the trial balance and is called a balance sheet.

Many small businesses do not require a balance sheet. In the UK the production of a balance sheet is optional for every self employed business as it is not an obligatory requirement of the self assessment tax return form. A self employed bookkeeping system is not required to produce a balance sheet because the business effectively belongs to the owner and is that owners personal business.

Limited companies must produce a balance sheet under various financial acts and submit the balance sheet to both Companies House and the tax authority each year. The different rules applying to a limited company is because the accounts including the balance sheet are public records available to the members of that company and not necessarily the property of a single individual or partnership.

The self employed bookkeeping system can be simpler being produced from a single entry style of bookkeeping rather than double entry. Single entry bookkeeping makes a single entry for each financial transaction which is sufficient to produce an income and expenditure account, a profit and loss account, but does not make the reciprocal entry that establishes the value of the assets and liabilities.

Single entry can be as simple as making a list of the sales income and the purchase expenses. Such a bookkeeping system is valuable to the smaller business as it requires little or no bookkeeping or accounting knowledge. A smaller business can produce its own accounts without the need for a bookkeeper or accountant particularly if it has access to bookkeeping templates through bookkeeping software to produce the accounts in the accounting format required.

About author;Terry Cartwright is a qualified accountant in the UK designs Accounting Software on excel spreadsheets providing complete Small Business Accounting Software solutions for with single and double entry Bookkeeping solutions for limited companies and self employed business

Source : http://www.abcarticledirectory.com/

Friday, December 7, 2007

Book-keeping contracts to remain strong for BPOs: Study

NEW DELHI: Outsourcing will remain strong in 2008, with HR outsourcing contracts worth $1.1 billion and finance & accounting outsourcing (FAO) contracts worth $600 million coming up for renewal, according to offshoring advisory firm Everest Research Institute.

In its study 2008 Market Predictions, the firm said that demand for FAO services will continue to be strong in the next 12-18 months, as large buyers in the exploratory phase begin to initiate actual engagements. “On the supplier side, battle for market share will intensify. While companies like Accenture, Genpact and IBM hold over 65% share, companies like Xansa, WNS, HP, Infosys and Wipro are fast emerging as notable contenders,” the Everest study said.

The firm also expects greater location diversification among suppliers, and a shift in the nature of contracts. Transaction-based FAO engagements will evolve to judgment-intensive processes such as regulatory reporting, compliance and analysis, it said.

In 2008, captive units, niche BPO players and technology providers would be prime acquisition targets. Some captives, particularly in the financial services space, would see change in ownership and become third-party suppliers, the offshoring advisory firm has predicted.

According to apex software and services association, Nasscom, finance and accounting (F&A) accounts for about 40-45% of Indian BPO revenues. HR administration services, including payroll and benefits administration, travel and expense processing, talent acquisition and talent management services, account for about 2% of revenues.

Says HCL BPO chief executive officer N Ranjit, “As of now, the market is focussed on finance and accounting outsourcing. There is not much traction in HRO. Customers have to feel confident before they outsource their HR services. We are beginning to see some shift and are in talks with a few clients for HRO. Next year is likely to see some action on that front.”

Everest says that in the HRO market, two discrete segments will emerge with different target markets and buyer characteristics. Large global companies will outsource multi-process, transformational HRO services and constitute a smaller chunk of deals in the space. For suppliers new to the HRO market dominated by the likes of IBM and Accenture, the opportunity would lie in catering to companies looking for pure cost savings, it has pointed out.

Among Indian players, IT-BPO firms will have an edge in the HRO market, against pure-play BPO players, says offshoring advisory firm Tholons CEO Avinash Vashistha.

Source : http://www.bpoavenues.com/

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Single Entry Is Simple While Double Entry Bookkeeping May Be The Only Option

he difference between bookkeeping services and accounting may be unclear to the uninitiated while both are of vital importance to financial success. Bookkeeping is an important part of the accounting function and is essentially the record keeping of the financial transactions. Accounting is while incorporating the record keeping also includes the presentation, interpretation and financial control functions including interpretation of the numbers for the financial health of a business of which taxation can play a major part.

Bookkeeping stems from the recording of financial transactions and the accounting term for a business accounts as books. In effect the accounting function prepares a record of the monetary affairs of a business and stores the information in files called books. Hence the term bookkeeping often misspelled as book keeping which is the function of a librarian not that of a bookkeeper.

The financial affairs of a business involve many aspects and start with the recording of what is termed the prime documents. The task of a bookkeeping service which some businesses outsource is to record the prime documents, those prime documents being the sales, purchases and cash/bank transactions. All small businesses do bookkeeping and the most successful use the bookkeeping records as a basis for an accounting function to generate a more efficient financial service.

All business involves buying or selling something and the consequent function of receiving or paying money to the value of those transactions. Recording these transactions in larger business organisations is done by accounts clerks who work under the supervision of the accountant.

Invariably medium and larger businesses use a double entry system for recording transactions. Double entry accounting evolves from the fact that every transaction as a double effect on the business of which these are prime examples.

A sale is made. That creates a record of income for the business which is taxed on that income the other side of the financial transaction, the double entry, is the fact that the organisation who was sold the goods now owes the value of that sales invoice to the business. That is the double entry, record the sales income and also record the debt due from the customer who is now called a debtor.

Someone who owes the business a debt is called a debtor.

A purchase is made. That creates a record of expense for the business which can be deducted from income and lowers taxes and the other side of the financial transaction, the double entry, is the fact that the organisation who supplied the purchase on credit is now owed the money. That is the double entry, record the sales income and also record the credit due to the supplier who is now called the creditor.

Someone who has supplied goods on credit is called a creditor.

The third type of prime transaction is the transfer of money between the debtors and creditors and the business.

When a debtor pays his sales invoice the double entry is to add that amount of money to the business financial records and the opposite double entry goes to the debtor account to reduce the amount owed to the business since it has now received the cash.

When a creditor is paid the amount owed the money is recorded as reducing the cash resources of the business by for example deducting the money from the bank balance and the double entry reduces the amount the business now owes to the creditor account since it has reduced the credit received.

The bookkeeping function is to record these prime transactions. Since every financial transaction has an equal and opposite entry in the books there has to be a mathematical check that both sides of the transactions add up to zero. This check process is called a trial balance where both sides of the entries should be in agreement and normally the point at which the bookkeeping service is deemed to be complete.

Double entry bookkeeping is required for all businesses that require to produce a statement of its assets and liabilities. This statement of assets and liabilities is the total of all the balances from the trial balance and is called a balance sheet.

Many small businesses do not require a balance sheet. In the UK the production of a balance sheet is optional for every self employed business as it is not an obligatory requirement of the self assessment tax return form. A self employed bookkeeping system is not required to produce a balance sheet because the business effectively belongs to the owner and is that owners personal business.

Limited companies must produce a balance sheet under various financial acts and submit the balance sheet to both Companies House and the tax authority each year. The different rules applying to a limited company is because the accounts including the balance sheet are public records available to the members of that company and not necessarily the property of a single individual or partnership.

The self employed bookkeeping system can be simpler being produced from a single entry style of bookkeeping rather than double entry. Single entry bookkeeping makes a single entry for each financial transaction which is sufficient to produce an income and expenditure account, a profit and loss account, but does not make the reciprocal entry that establishes the value of the assets and liabilities.

Single entry can be as simple as making a list of the sales income and the purchase expenses. Such a bookkeeping system is valuable to the smaller business as it requires little or no bookkeeping or accounting knowledge. A smaller business can produce its own accounts without the need for a bookkeeper or accountant particularly if it has access to bookkeeping templates through bookkeeping software to produce the accounts in the accounting format required.

Article Source: http://www.articlestoreprint.com

Terry Cartwright is a qualified accountant in the UK designs Accounting Software on excel spreadsheets providing complete Small Business Accounting Software solutions for with single and double entry Bookkeeping solutions for limited companies and self employed business

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

How to choose accounting software for small businesses

The accounting software package that you choose when you start your business could affect how much financial control you have in the years to come.

It’s a vital decision that many people make too quickly without really looking at the needs of their business now and in the future.

A good accounts package will be used for all financial transactions and will give you critical information and analysis to let you make sensible decisions. Whereas an accounts package that’s less powerful will just be a way to crunch the numbers and meet your legal obligations, leaving you a little in the dark as to what’s really happening financially in your business.

Any package, whether it is accounting software installed on your computer or an online service, must meet all legal requirements now and in the future. That means it must comply with accountancy standards. It should also be something your accountant is comfortable using.

Read More Article...

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Bookkeeping error bites city of Yakima

The city of Yakima had "inadequate controls" over its financial reporting that led it to overstate its cash and investments for 2006 by nearly $9 million, according to the state Auditor's Office.

The Auditor's Office's Nov. 26 report said that while the state Legislature, state and federal agencies, and bondholders rely on financial statement information to make decisions, there were "material weaknesses in controls that adversely affect the City's ability to produce reliable financial statements."

The audit also found the city improperly included more than $1 million in consulting expenses incurred from 1999 to 2005 in the 2006 financial statements.

Read More Article...

Monday, December 3, 2007

IT fails environmental accounting test

More than a third still do not consider the environmentwhen purchasing new products

Despite concern for environmental initiatives, 86% of IT professionals do not know the carbon footprint of their organisation, according to in-depth research released today.

Only 15% of enterprises are planning to calculate their carbon footprint, according to a survey of IT professionals conducted by Computerworld UK on behalf of practical environmental charity Global Action Plan.

Time pressures, cost, lack of corporate commitment, scarcity of information and lack of knowledge in the enterprise are the biggest obstacle to implementing green IT technologies, found the survey.

The national survey of IT professionals of large enterprises, which was backed by Logicalis, found the majority (more than half) of ICT departments do not see their company's energy bills, even though IT is a significant consumer of energy.

Read More Article...

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Parma Heights bookkeeping under fire again by state auditors

Parma Heights- For the third time in three years, state auditors hammered the city for shoddy bookkeeping, this time citing city officials for a $20,000 accounting error and $181 in lost checks.

Many of the problems dealt with the city's Cultural Center, which brings in about $225,000 a year. Auditors found that the center's bank account showed more money than the Finance Department's records. And center workers admitted they lost checks used to pay for events at the center. The money was later repaid.

The audit, which was released Thursday and dealt with city finances in 2005, also found three problems that the city had been cited for in 2003 and 2004:

Read More Article...
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