Global Public Articles

Imagine you are watching a movie. Two men are in a lifeboat that has a hole in it and is slowly sinking into a school of sharks. One man is screaming, “We’re going to die!” The other is bailing water and fending off sharks with the oar. Which one are you?

Just because your business is sinking in these troubled economic waters doesn’t mean all is lost. You can rescue your company but only by taking a hard look at the financial picture and planning for the future.

Track The Numbers

One of the first steps is to get together with your accounting services and look at the company’s books. When things are going well it’s easy to run a casual eye over a report, see revenue is greater than expenses, and file it. When times are tough, you have to look at things more carefully.

Look at what you can cut and, more importantly, what you can’t. If you are running a store, you can’t give up paying rent without closing the business. By finding these kinds of expenses you get a realistic picture of how much revenue you have to make to stay afloat. If your revenue is above this number, you can survive even if you have to make some painful cuts. If it’s below, you have a problem.

Consult with accounting services more often. If you’ve been getting quarterly reports, start getting them monthly or even weekly. Things change quickly and you might not realize how bad things are until it’s too late to do anything about them.

Look At Business Indicators

The reports from your accounting services are a useful tool but too often they are showing you the past rather than the future. You don’t need to know what’s already happened. You need to know what’s coming.

Think of less concrete things you can analyze to judge how your business is doing. Are there fewer customers in your store? Has traffic at your website dropped? Are your sales reps fielding fewer calls? These can be the first signs of future revenue falls.

Explore related markets. Sometimes one market segment might be doing poorly while a similar one is doing well or even growing and this can lead to a repositioning strategy that could save your organization. A fine restaurant might see a drop in customer traffic while less expensive family establishment isn’t doing so badly. While an exclusive French bistro isn’t going to start offering hamburgers and soda pop, it might add some budget-conscious choices to its menu to maintain customer traffic.

Working closely with accounting services and paying careful attention to the business climate is more important now than ever. Anyone can run a business during a boom. It’s your performance during hard times that determines the future of your company.

Author is a freelance copywriter. For more information on http://www.osibusinessservices.com/.

Businesses are struggling to survive in today’s economy. No matter when things are going to improve, your company has to make it through today. Business owners are facing hard choices, such as, “Should we cut loose outside contractors such as outsourced bookkeeping services?”

Are You Actually Saving Anything?

Canceling a contract for outsourced bookkeeping services doesn’t make the work disappear. You are bringing the books inside the company to be done by your own staff.

Do you have people qualified to do this? Often the work is outsourced because there is no one in the company with the skills. This tough economic period is not the time to put your finances in the hands of an amateur.

Even if you have an internal bookkeeper, time is lost as the work is transitioned into the company. The work-flow changes and new systems have to be implemented to accommodate these changes. Every hour your employee works on the books is an hour not spent on other work.

Saving Today Can Cost You Tomorrow

Running a business means thinking about the future. Every decision should be made while considering the long-term implications. Inexperienced managers often make short-sighted choices, hurting the company down the road. When you cut staff or services, you are essentially gambling business won’t pick back up. You are saying things are going to stay bad, so you cut loose dead wood that won’t be needed later.

The problem is that most of the time, things do improve. You find business picking up again and have to bring new people on board, train them and get them comfortable with the company. The net effect is you have lost valuable and experienced talent that may never be replaced.

This is true with outside contractors as well as internal staff. Outsourced bookkeeping services have to get acquainted with your books from scratch. The transition period mentioned above is repeated as work is moved back outside the company.

Consider Other Cost Cutting Measure

Canceling outsourced bookkeeping services seems like an easy way to save money, but easy choices aren’t always the best ones. Your organization may be able to cut costs in other, more strategically sound areas.

For example, rather than losing staff you might consider losing customers. This might seem counterintuitive, but most businesses know they have a certain group of customers who just aren’t worth the trouble. They earn the company little profit and yet demand as much or more employee time as your more lucrative clients.

In the end, you the business owner are in the best position to decide what the best decision for your organization is. If that means terminating outsourced bookkeeping services, then so be it. Just be sure the decision is part of a comprehensive, long-term strategy for success.

Whatever you decide, revisit the plan in a few months and decide what needs to be changed. With ongoing attention to your finances, you will survive this downturn and be stronger for it.

Author is a freelance copywriter. For more information on outsourced bookkeeping services, visit http://www.osibusinessservices.com/.

Information technology is changing at the fastest pace in history. This has allowed today’s business owners unprecedented freedom in the management of their businesses as more of the modern office exists virtually.

The Past: Modems and Telephones

Online account services got their start in the early days of the internet, even before the advent of the web. Capabilities were quite limited by the technology of the time. Managers and employees could dial into their work computers from home over normal telephone lines, doing simple data entry and file management.

Accessing these services while traveling was tricky. Dialing into company computers was difficult or even impossible through hotel switchboards. Connections were very slow and it wasn’t a particularly viable solution for staff members who were on the road a lot. The complications were even greater when traveling internationally, as modems for US phone lines couldn’t be easily used on systems in other countries.

These connections were often not secure and using online account services meant exposing sensitive company information to potential intruders.

The Present: Web Technologies

The development of the World Wide Web initiated a fundamental change that turned online account services into a real solution for business needs. Software now had a standardized framework to deliver information in an efficient and user-friendly manner.

Along with new communication technologies came new encryption techniques. Weak 40-bit encryption keys, implemented in part due to US government restrictions on exporting encryption technologies, were replaced with stronger 128-bit keys for secure connections.

Hotels, coffee shops, libraries and countless other places provide easy access to the web which allows company managers to access online account services from nearly anywhere in the world just as easily as from their desks at work.

The Future: Wireless Connections

Although the current technology of online account services is far beyond the old system, it is still limited by the availability of an internet connection. Even with a wireless modem and a laptop, users must be near a wireless access point to get to their accounts.

Although mobile devices like BlackBerrys allow web access anywhere there is a cell phone signal, their browsers are limited in functionality. They are slow and can’t run the ActiveX controls some online account services need for access.

Recently, Intuit released beta versions of QuickBooks Online designed for use on the BlackBerry and iPhone. Their interfaces are optimized for the screens and controls of these devices to allow easy use of the application.

Current versions have limited functionality, mostly restricted to looking rather than doing. Users can access vender lists and bank balances but can’t yet pay bills or send invoices. However Intuit is working to add these features before the software gets its official release.

Other companies are sure to follow Intuit’s example and it won’t be long until we have access to all of our business information no matter where we are.

Author is a freelance copywriter. For more information on online account services, visit http://www.osibusinessservices.com/.

That is right folks; tax season is almost upon us. It is time to start organizing your paperwork again. How much time will you spend gathering your accounts receivables, accounts payables, receipts, mileage reports, W-2s and 1099s? And that is only the beginning. More of your time will be spent to meet with your bookkeeper, and then your accountant, each of them reminding you of what information you forgot to get to them, and each of them letting you know what they still need from you. Just how much time will you spend on a topic you really dont want to think about?

Imagine how much time you could save if you were paperless. Imagine if you could take care of everything by e-mail, without fussing with a bookkeeping program. Imagine if there was a virtual accounting office that would take the aggravation out of your bookkeeping and make preparing your tax return as easy as writing a check. What could be better than an accounting office that you never have to visit?

Better yet, how about a virtual accounting office where you access to your books anytime you want? How many times do you get a call from a customer wanting to know his balance and you have to wait to give him an answer until your bookkeeper can look that information up for you?

With a virtual accounting office your books are available to you 24/7. With a secure login you, your bookkeeper or accountant can pull up company records wherever there is Internet access. In real time, you have access to your books and are able to answer that customer’s question about his balance when he calls.

Want to know how much you have paid a vendor this year but dont want to wait to ask your bookkeeper for that report?

With a virtual accounting office you could run a report to give you that information anytime you wanted. A virtual accounting office can give you instant access to your accounting information, including your taxes, profit/loss reports, balance sheets and bank statements, all from the comfort of your own office, home, or anywhere in the world you may be.

Are you tired of printing paper checks you have to sign, stamp and then mail? Do you currently pay some bills through your online banking system, some bills with paper checks, some bills with credit cards, and some with automatic withdrawals, all the while never quite knowing your cash balance?

A virtual accounting office will save you time by locating all of your payables, all automatic withdrawals, and all deposits into one accounting system. You can pay your bills when you want, easily and directly through your online accounting program. You can also track any payment quickly and easily since you have only one place to look.

A paperless bookkeeping system though a virtual accounting office will streamline information into one accounting program. Now you will always know your available cash balance.

How much better would your business be if all your accounting needs were handled without the clutter of paper, through a Virtual Accounting Office, giving you more time to focus on your business? I would cut this sentence, repetitive. The last sentence is a strong close.

As a wise man once said, Dont sweat the small stuff. Let others do it for you. A paperless Virtual Accounting Office can do exactly that.

Debby Jones is a freelance writer who is known for writing his reviews on diverse topics & industry. In this article he proposes to take help from a virtual accounting firm to file your taxes. To hire one for your business visit MyVao.com & DawsonCPA.com

Business owners should know that they are required to record all financial aspect of their business and this is according to the law. The books that you record it in will be for the purpose of taxes and this figure must be accurate. Considering the fact that you have an online business, there will be many things in your mind and you may often tend to forget doing the books. Neglecting on this part can incur serious penalties. If there is not enough time for your book keeping, then you can try outsourcing book keeping for your online business.

These days, many companies are outsourcing book keeping jobs which can save time and to be more efficient in managing their business. If you let other people handle your books, this will mean that you are able to concentrate more on your business. Outsourcing book keeping is very popular and can be very cheap.

You should consider outsourcing has become a trend in the business world. This is because it is cheaper to outsource than to have a full time book keeper or accountant and many businesses today have now outsourced their book keeping jobs.

The advantages of outsourcing your book keeping, it will give you more time to concentrate in running your online business and it will also save you money. Before hiring a book keeper to do this job, you must remember that you must choose the right book keeping service first.

The qualifications of a book keeping outsourcing company must first be in its staff, they should be knowledgeable in the field of book keeping, and they must be certified professional book keepers. Besides these, they also need to have experience in the field of book keeping and knowledgeable in the inner workings of businesses most especially on financial transactions in businesses.

There is no need to hold a degree in accounting to become a good book keeper. Everyone can become a book keeper the most important thing you should look in a book keeper is their experience. The portfolio of the book keeping outsource company should also be good. The more clients you see will mean that they are trusted by people. Besides, as business owner understanding the fact that people only buy the services of businesses that they can trust.

These tips will be able to help you have more time on running your business and saving a lot of money. When outsourcing book keeping for your online business, you are sure that you will have nothing to worry when tax time comes. Just remember that you have to give the book keeper you hire all of the needed information about your business and your financial records.

The author is a freelance writer and also writes about business topics such as call centers in the philippines and philippine call center .