How does better accounting affect my bottom line?
Many small- and mid-sized businesses fail to adequately measure and manage their finances, even though poor financial management is a major cause of business failure. If you don’t have good financial practices in place, your business could suffer in a number of ways:
A great monthly accounting service will handle your profit and loss statements, monthly balance sheets, and regular account reconciliation to help you take back control of your finances without much effort on your part. Read more here.
Monthly accounting services provide substantially more value than only an annual service. If an accountant only sees your numbers once a year, it is too late to offer advice that would have helped to make that year more profitable - and definitely too late to lower your tax liability for a year that is already over with. Here are five ways monthly accounting pays for itself:
Truthfully, not all business owners see the need, but our clients sure do! We provide consulting and business advice throughout the year. Our proactive approach allows you to see trends earlier and spot any issues before they become larger problems. Monthly financial statements are a tool to stay on top of your business, which allows you to focus on growing your profits. Read more here.
Pricing for our monthly accounting services varies by your company’s needs. It is not based on the size of your company, rather your company’s accounting activity and the complexity of your financial statements.
We will work with you to arrive at an affordable, fixed monthly fee. These fees are all-inclusive; services provided include:
Our customer service sets our firm apart. We make it our priority to reach out to clients on a consistent basis because we care about the success of your business. Our experienced team of accountants also provide proactive business advice and tax planning, allowing you to maximize your profits. See what makes CSI special here.
Our monthly accounting process starts with receiving your source documents. Our staff compiles the information and reports back to you with a profit and loss statement, balance sheet, and general ledger. These monthly financial reports are presented in digital or hard copy form and become the foundation for our monthly conversations. Here is a brief breakdown of common services.
We primarily use two systems: Xero and QuickBooks Online. That being said, we will work with other systems depending on your preferences and needs. For more information about our accounting service, check out this page.
As your business expands, your financial needs and concerns are going to be dramatically different than they were even a year ago. There are three tell-tale signs you’ve outgrown your firm:
Read more about these three warning signs here.
If your business is too small to hire an in-house accountant or you simply don’t have the desire to do it yourself, you should consider outsourcing the task. While QuickBooks is used by many small business owners, the software can be more complicated than first realized. By outsourcing your accounting, you free yourself to focus on other aspects of your business. Find out more here.
Transitions are tricky, but preparing your business to switch to an outsourced accountant doesn’t have to be hard.
To efficiently help you with your business goals, we require access to your source documents -- either in electronic or hard copy form. Common documents include, but are not limited to:
Depending on your level of expertise, we will train clients on how to prepare these documents. What we require from you will be customized to your unique business.
Have questions about what we would need from your business? We can tackle that in a free consultation!
We do it in the same system if you're using QuickBooks. We recommend having you handle the day-to-day aspects of your business that need immediate attention, such as paying your bills. Then we'll handle the monthly accounting and bookkeeping.
Want to know the other ways a monthly accounting firm can help your small business? Click here.
Mixing business and personal finances is a major problem for small-business owners. Not only does it create headaches at tax time, but it also makes it difficult to track the profitability of your company. Worst-case scenario: you get audited by the IRS and end up with major fines. Keeping these two parts of your finances separate is essential to preserve your sanity and to have a sustainable business model. Here are some tips to help you divide the two.
It depends. We’d be happy to have a brief consultation to provide personalized financial advice for your new business, but at a high level, you need three things:
Read more about these three elements of financial success here.
You should include items from a few categories:
Outsourcing payroll saves time and money. It is actually less expensive to have an outside service process your payroll when you factor in all the variables. You also get the peace of mind of having a payroll professional making sure that you are in compliance. Read more here.
Pricing for our payroll services includes a base fee, which is based on:
Other contributing factors include:
Read more about what payroll services can cost you here.
With CSI, you work with a specific processor who is assigned to your account. Your dedicated processor will become familiar with your account, and it will be like working with your own employee. You will get customer service that only comes from working with a small business (just like yours). Read more here.
After you provide us with the basic information, we do the rest:
Here's a brief breakdown of what our payroll services look like.
We'll need:
Have questions about what we would need from your business? We can tackle that in a free consultation!
CSI's payroll clients need only to send taxing authority correspondence to their dedicated processor. We handle it from there. Once we have looked into the matter, we will notify you as to why it was sent and what action, if any, is needed.
CSI's payroll clients need only to send garnishment orders to their dedicated processor. We handle it from there. The order will be followed as required by the law.
Let us know what your policy period start and end dates are, and we can produce customized reports for that time period. If you want us to conduct the audit at our office, just let your auditor know, and they will contact us to schedule a time.
We schedule our clients' state and federal FICA/withholding tax payments on the IRS's semi-weekly deposit schedule.
This means that if your payday falls on a Wed, Thu, or Fri, the deposits will be on the following Wednesday. If your payday falls on a Sat, Sun, Mon, or Tue, the deposits will be on the following Friday. Some exceptions may apply.
We schedule the state and federal unemployment tax payments on the last business day of the month following the quarter.
Generally, these dates are Jan 31, Apr 30, Jul 31, and Oct 31. Some exceptions may apply.
Minnesota unemployment rates are calculated once a year. They are based on a 4-year lookback period, using a ratio of the amount of benefits paid out to the amount of taxable wages during the same period. The formula is provided when you log in to your unemployment online account at uimn.org.
Find the federal minimum wage here. Find Minnesota's current rate here. The state minimum wage takes precedence if it is higher. There are some exceptions for small employers that don't engage in interstate commerce and exceptions for teenage employees.
Federal law requires overtime pay of at least 1.5x regular rate for any hours worked over 40 in your regular workweek. There are exceptions for small employers that don't engage in interstate commerce.
If you're not sure, the best thing to do is treat them as an employee. There is a Form SS-8 that can be submitted to the IRS, and they will determine the classification of the worker for you. The factors involved are in three basic categories:
If an employer is found to have misclassified an employee as an independent contractor, they will be required to pay income tax withholding at 1.5% of the wages paid and 20% of the wages that would have been subject to social security. If the employer also didn't file a 1099 for that worker, the percentages double.
There are a number of instances that could trigger an audit concerning misclassifying an employee as an independent contractor. They include, but are not limited to, the following:
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