Accounting & Bookkeeping Services Keep Track of All Transactions

Accounting and bookkeeping services are important aspects of any business whether big or small. These are essential for organizing all transactions pertaining to cash flow, assets, and liabilities, among many others. Accounting and bookkeeping services are also very important when filing taxes especially if you cannot do this on your own. Software and online services are available for more convenience and privacy for individuals.

Accounting and bookkeeping services are provided by professionals who have a degree in accounting and related fields. Accountants, bookkeepers and auditors help ensure that an individual or a company’s records are kept accurately and taxes are paid properly and on time. Accounting and bookkeeping services analyze and communicate financial information from individuals, companies, and the government. These services also provide budget analysis, financial and investment planning, consultation on information technology as well as legal services pertaining to accounting matters. Accounting and bookkeeping services can also provide specific jobs related to any of the four major fields accountancy which include public accounting, management, government accounting, and internal auditing.

Accounting or accountancy refer to the measurements and statements about financial information used by company owners, businessmen, managers, lenders, investors and tax authorities among many others. Information gathered can help make resource allocation decisions between and within companies, organizations, public agencies, and even between individuals. There are different forms and “books” called journals and ledgers used for accounting and bookkeeping, but nowadays, there are several accounting software available for easier and more organized financial reports which include the forms required when filing taxes.
Bookkeeping, on the other hand, is quite similar to accounting because it also involves the recording of all financial transactions or cash flow. This is used by many individuals and companies to keep record of what goes in and what goes out of their accounts. Bookkeeping also uses different forms and books as well as software especially designed for this purpose. There are two systems used for bookkeeping and these are single-entry bookkeeping and double-entry bookkeeping.

Accountants are required to take a degree in accountancy or any related field and in order to get better jobs must obtain certification or licensure. This is especially true for public accountants who are required to be certified before taking on jobs with public accounting firms. Some CPAs or certified public accountants also specialize in forensic accounting which involves investigating and interpreting frauds, embezzlements, bankruptcies, contract disputes, and other criminal financial transactions. While bookkeepers (sometimes called accounting clerks) are required to take at least a two-year post high school course on bookkeeping or get an associate degree in accountancy. They are usually responsible for recording the daily purchases, sales, receipts and payments. They have to make sure that all of these are recorded on the correct ledgers.

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Small Business Financial & Accounting (f&a) Offshore Outsourcing Cost

Fortune 500 companies have been off shoring the financial and accounting business processes (BPO) to countries like India, Philippians, China, etc. These companies have big budgets and a big team of consultants who analyzes the total cost and ROI of sending their financial and accounting work to the service providers in offshore locations. Though smaller companies have started off shoring their financial and accounting work to offshore locations but like big corporations small businesses do not have huge budget to hire consultants to identify the total cost of off shoring their financial and accounting work to offshore locations. But small businesses can still perform their due diligence in calculating total cost of their offshore engagement and gain critical knowledge in finding ROI of sending their financial and accounting work to offshore locations. In this report we will go through all of the hidden costs of offshoring financial and accounting business processes.

1. Different Costs of Offshoring Financial & Accounting Work

Small businesses mainly consider offshoring their work, they will consider only the hourly rate they need to pay to the offshore vendor for various accounting works like bookkeeping, accounts payable, accounts receivable, etc. There are several other additional hidden costs small business have to face in their offshore outsourcing engagement. Typically a small business goes through following offshore accounting work cycle in their offshore engagement:

• Selecting an offshore accounting vendor

• Sending the work to the offshore vendor

• Answering questions for the offshore vendor

• Receiving the finished work from the offshore vendor

• Verifying the finished work from the offshore vendor

• Monitoring the quality of the finished work from the offshore vendor

2. Cost of Selecting offshore accounting vendor

The cost associated with selecting an offshore accounting vendor will be small compared to other costs. Most of the time small businesses can find a qualified offshore accounting vendor simply by searching in Google or by contacting other small businesses those who are already using an offshore vendor, for detailed discussion on this topic read Offshore Accounting Success. This cost is the one time cost and it will be similar to selecting an onshore vendor.

3. Cost of sending the work to an offshore vendor

Small businesses must consider various types of cost like Scanner, High speed Internet, Backup Server, etc, to send their financial and account documents to an offshore vendor, but the good news is that it will be a one time investment and most of the small businesses will have these in place already. There are three different offshore accounting models you can use to send your accounting and financial work to the offshore vendors and for these you will incur following one time cost.

3.1. Scanner & Scanning software

Most of the accounting and financial data will be in your accounting software like QuickBooks, Peachtree etc, but there will be other documents like Bills, Checks, Invoices, Goods received notes, etc will be on paper and these should be digitized using a scanner and a scanning software to convert it into PDF documents which will be stored in your computer. Once the documents are in your computer then you can give access to the offshore vendor to view the PDF documents or they can retrieve it from your computer to perform their work in the offshore location.

Most of small businesses already have a scanner, if not a scanner (scanning software comes with the scanner) can be purchased for less than $1000.00. The cost of the scanner will go up based on the volume of accounting and financial documents to be scanned in a given day. It will be a one time cost for the small business and also by scanning all their paper based accounting documents; you can improve the efficiency of overall accounting process.

3.2. High speed Internet Connection Cost

You need to have high-speed Internet connection to send and receive the work to and from offshore location. Again all most all small businesses already have DSL/T1 Internet connection if not they can get a DSL Internet connection for $60-100/month.

3.3. Secure FTP software

If small businesses are using Application Service Provider (ASP) like Quickbooks online, cpaasp.com, etc, then it is possible for offshore vendors to directly access your accounting data directly from the ASP vendor. In this case there is no need to use secure FTP software.

3.4. Backup Server

Once small businesses start digitizing their accounting documents for their offshore vendors, they need to start planning for the backup server to backup all their accounting documents. Most of the small businesses will have this feature already, if not it is a good investment to have a backup server to backup all their accounting and financial data from their main computer to the backup server. For any business “Business continuity” is a vital task and the backup server will help the small businesses to recover all the accounting data in case of main computer failure.

3.5. Additional Accounting software License cost

Small businesses use various accounting software packages like QuickBooks, MYOB, Microsoft Office Accounting etc, for doing all their accounting and financial work. When they offshore the work the offshore vendor will use the same accounting software to do the work. It is very difficult for the small businesses to find an offshore vendor who already owns the licenses for all the accounting software. As described in the offshore accounting models if small businesses decides to use Remote Server or ASP then there is no additional cost for small businesses. On the other hand if the small businesses decided to use Secure File Transfer then small businesses needs to buy additional accounting software license for the offshore vendor to use. Small businesses will incur this cost even if they outsource the work to onshore vendors. This cost is truly soley based on the accounting software package used by the small businesses. Accounting software packages comes with various flavors types of software licenses like concurrent users, fixed number of users, CPU based, Network based etc., Some times small businesses can completely avoid this cost altogether.

4. Managing Financial & Accounting offshore vendor

Once you send your accounting and financial work to the offshore vendor, you need to constantly mange and monitor the quality of finished work that comes back from the vendor. Initially you may need a full-time person educating the offshore accountants and bookkeepers about your accounting process and preparing proper instructions for them to follow in their work. Once you and the offshore team are comfortable in the working relationship then all you need is to verify the work periodically. Basically you need to consider the offshore team as your virtual team and educate them in your accounting processes and procedures, once you are comfortable with their work your own employee(s) will spend less time with the offshore vendors.

5. Offshore vendor wage

For the accounting and financial work performed by the offshore vendor, small businesses will pay either an hourly rate or a monthly rate to the offshore vendor. This will be the actual direct cost small businesses will pay to the offshore vendor and all other costs are indirect cost of sending the work to offshore vendor. Typically the wage cost will be 50-70% less than the cost paid to the onshore accounting and financial vendor. For small businesses this cost savings is one of the major reasons to use the offshore vendor for their financial and accounting work.

Small businesses need to consider several costs in their financial and accounting offshore engagement. As shown in the table Small business F&A offshore outsourcing - Fixed Cost Vs Monthly Cost some of the costs are fixed and some of them are monthly expanses incurred by the small businesses. Among the monthly cost only the offshore vendor wage is the direct cost paid to the offshore vendor. While performing ROI analysis small businesses must consider all these costs to find the Total Cost of doing business with offshore vendors. As shown in the table, for certain items finding out the exact cost may not be possible and it is highly based on the individual small businesses and the type of accounting and financial work that has been sent to offshore locations. The total cost may not be a fixed amount and it can change from month to month. For example in some months there will be more questions from the offshore vendor in clarifications and in other months there will be less questions, this cost will vary from month to month.

Bookkeeping Accounting Outsourcing Services from India

Online accounting services offer professionals who specialize in offering accurate and efficient business accounting advice to companies. The other benefit to hire such accounting professionals is that they are not overburdened with the load of work in comparison to large organizations that are not able to provide the most helpful services due to the lack of time.

Bookkeeping Services India has utilizes a 100% U.S. Based staff providing outsourced online bookkeeping help and accounting services to small, mid-size and speedily developing organization. The Hitech Bookkeeping Company is famous to achieve targeted goal of customer and apply all efforts for best output.

For more details CONTACT US at: Bookkeeping Accounting Outsourcing

Quick Guide to Accounting Training

Are you considering an accounting education but confused by all the jargon? This is a quick guide to understanding the different specialties associated with accounting careers and the training you will need to be successful.

Business cannot function without people who monitor, evaluate, and synthesize productivity, financial, and resource data. Accounting, or accountancy, is the practice of collecting and measuring data in order to allocate resources. Most often accounting is specific to a business’s finances. Auditing is a related field whereby records are reviewed and a conclusion reached; resulting in a recommendation for action; geared to ensure efficiency and to improve performance and ensure adherence to standards and principles. A simple example of the workplace relationship follows: An accountant would enter and keep track of payroll and company expenses. An auditor would review the records kept by the accountant to determine if money and time are being well spent.

When people think of auditors, the first thought is probably one of an IRS man in a suit with a stern expression coming to make sure you paid your taxes. While this type of auditor exists (not to be feared if you have been a good record keeper) auditors are usually individuals who are hired to evaluate the accuracy of accounts kept by a company. Their analyses help management determine effectiveness and efficiency.

Accounting professionals often deal with time to money ratios. In order to keep track of all these numbers, professionals must be well able to use computers; specifically spreadsheet applications (such as Microsoft Excel).

Accountants often specialize in one field. Jobs include bookkeeping, tax accounting, cost accounting, accounts payable, accounts receivable, time keeping and payroll.
Accounts receivable refers to incoming payments.

Accounts payable refers to debits and outgoing payments.
Bookkeeping refers to recording transactions and calculations.

Tax accounting in its simplest form refers to the specialty of preparing tax returns.
Cost accounting refers to the specialty of accounting that deals with analyzing, tracking, and recording business costs. Cost may be measured not only in money, but in time.
Time keeping and payroll clerks do just what it sounds like; they keep track of workers’ time sheets and payroll.

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Factors to Consider Before Starting Your Own Bookeeping Business

Starting your own bookkeeping business is one of the most profitable home based business. Not only that, you have the opportunity to turn your passion about bookkeeping into a full time business! However, before venturing into bookkeeping business, you need to consider the following factors:

1. Bookkeeping skills and experience - you should have the basic experience of handling bookkeeping jobs as well as proficient in bookkeeping procedures. Although it is not mandatory that you should possess qualification in accounting or bookkeeping, it is an added advantage if you have some form of formal training in this field.

2. Target market - although the demand for bookkeeping services is huge as virtually all business need to maintain proper financial records, however, the competition of bookkeeping services is keen as the barrier of entry into the business is low. Therefore, it is important for you to determine what sort of business that you would like to focus on. For example, you may consider providing your bookkeeping services to small business owners who are providing cleaning services.

3. Business plan - like other business, having a business plan is fundamental to the success of your bookkeeping business. If you are planning to start your services from home, then your start up cost should not be your major concern as it will cost you probably $2,000 to $3,000. Your plan should also cover your advertising and marketing of your services. If you were to target small business owner, then advertising in your local classified ad could a better option as the cost is low and yet effective.

4. Basic tools - a personal computer, user friendly bookkeeping software and a printer is a must. These 3 items are considered the basic tools required for your business.
Other things that need to be taken into consideration before you start your own bookkeeping business including when and where to find an accounting mentor when the need for consultation arises.

Hiring a Bookkeeper

Hiring a bookkeeper? You'd think it would be easier to find bookkeepers. Where are they, and when you do find them, how do you hire the best bookkeeper for your business?Keeping track of your company's financial data is vital. In fact, it's so important that you can't just leave it to chance.

You need someone in charge of your books who has the training and experience to get the job done right. But finding a quality bookkeeper can be a challenge - unless you know what to look for.

How to Hire a Bookkeeper
To begin with, you need to understand that bookkeepers are not necessarily the same as accountants. While an accountant's job is to provide financial advice and recommendations, a bookkeeper's job entails things like recording income and expenses, reconciling bank statements, processing invoices, and administering payroll.

If that sounds like the kind of person you need, then it's time to start shopping around for someone to fill the position. Bookkeepers can be hired on a part-time, full-time, or even contact basis depending on the needs of the business. But no matter what kind of arrangement you decide to go with, your bookkeeper needs to meet certain basic qualifications.

Bookkeeper Training & Education
A qualified bookkeeper may or may not have a degree in accounting. Some of the best bookkeepers you'll find don't. But they should have completed some formal coursework in bookkeeping through a community college or other accredited institution. For information about the kind of coursework you should be looking for, you might consider contacting the American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers.

Bookkeeper Experience
Although education and training are important, there is no substitute for experience. Hiring a bookkeeper with only a couple of courses under their belt and no actual bookkeeping experience is a recipe for disaster.

It's not uncommon for bookkeepers to operate on a contractual basis, so potential candidates should be able to provide you with a list of satisfied clients you can contact for a reference. You should also plan to check out references of previous employers if the individual has staff experience on either a full- or part-time basis.

Detail-oriented Personality
Bookkeepers live and die in the details. Therefore, it is absolutely critical for them to have detail-oriented personalities. If the person seems frazzled or disorganized at the interview, that's a good sign that they may not be the right person for the job. On the other hand, if the candidate shows up with multiple copies of a well-organized resume and a color-coded Day Planner, you may be on the right track.

Technological Awareness
The art of bookkeeping has come a long way in recent years. Nowadays, most bookkeeping is done in a computerized fashion. Potential candidates should be familiar with - if not proficient in - the record keeping software your business uses on a daily basis.

Costs for Bookkeepers
How much should you pay a bookkeeper? That depends largely on how much you want them to do. If you're planning to outsource your bookkeeping needs, expect to pay between $20 - $50 per hour depending on the complexity and volume of work your business requires.
Source : http://www.gaebler.com

Why Web-Based Accounting Software Will Help You Succeed In Business

New business tools like online accounting software make it easy for business owners to focus on what really matters.

Red Hat founder and celebrated entrepreneur Bob Young revealed three very practical tips for business success in an online TV interview recently. Though high level, they successfully identify why investing in tools like online accounting software make great business sense. Young told viewers:

1. Every minute you spend doing something that isn’t about making your customer’s lives more successful is a wasted minute.

2. Get above the day-to-day and understand what you’re trying to do. (As they say, when you’re up to your waist in alligators it’s hard to remember the goal was to drain the swamp.)

3. You have to do the hard financial stuff. And you have to do it well.It doesn’t sound like rocket science, but actually achieving this is a huge challenge and one that most business owners struggle with every day.

Fortunately technology is making things easier. Software is getting smarter and it’s moving online. Xero web-based accounting software promises to not only help you follow Bob Young’s advice and do the hard financial stuff well. It will also free up more time for you to focus on your customers and get above the day-to-day.

As David Johnson, FD for BlueGlue and many other customers have found out, the advantages of moving to online accounting using Xero’s web-based accounting system are many. Not only does Xero’s web-based accounting software automate and simplify daily bookkeeping, but it also ensures everyone who needs to can get essential financial information straight away in an easy-to-read dashboard format. And importantly, because the accounts are stored securely online, anyone who needs to can access up-to-date information and generate reports for themselves – no more multiple versions and preparing documents for accountants, investors, directors and senior management.