Tax season is in full swing and small business owners have taxes on the brain. Don’t get me wrong, tax professionals are an important advisor to your business. Good tax CPA’s can help you save tax money, plan for future tax costs, and create a plan to reduce future taxes. However, did you know that CPA’s can do more than just taxes?
Let’s stop and think about your business. If you run a small business, bookkeeping is a huge part of your daily, weekly, and monthly routine. Bookkeeping is the backbone to your small business. It provides you with a trail map detailing where your business has been, where your business is today, and where your business is headed in the future. Good bookkeeping can mean the difference between a successful business and a failing business. In addition to your tax CPA, why not choose a CPA that specializes in helping small businesses with their day-to-day accounting and bookkeeping needs?
In addition to taxes and audits, here are a few other ways CPA’s can help your small business.
- Management Consulting
- Analyze business operations and suggest changes.
- Help businesses make better use of their resources, thus increasing efficiency and improving profitability.
- Pricing strategies for new products and services.
- Develop marketing strategies and track marketing plans for profitability.
- Create a business plan for entrepreneurs or for existing businesses wanting to roll out a new department, product, or service.
- Setting up a business – consult on business structure and registering the business with the correct government agencies.
- Financial Consulting
- Create forecasts and budgets.
- Produce financial statements – Balance Sheet, Income Statement (Profit & Loss), and Statement of Cash Flows.
- Perform ratio analysis – watch for business financial trends, problems, and growth.
- Teach business owners how to read and understand financial statements, budgets, forecasts, and ratio analyses.
- Financial Analysis
- How much revenue does my company need to generate to be able to hire an employee?
- Would my business save money if we purchased parts from a vendor instead of manufacturing them in house?
- Create and calculate compensation plans – commission plans for sales staff, salary and bonuses for management, salary plans for staff, etc.
- Why does one department continually loose money every month? What can the business do differently or change to start generating a profit?
- Tracking cash flows – how much does my business need to make payroll? How much cash does my business need to pay next month’s bills? How much cash will be left over to pay the owner?
- Bookkeeping
- Accounts Receivable – record payments, assist with collections, generate invoices and statements.
- Accounts Payable – record and pay bills and track expenses.
- Bank Reconciliations.
- Credit card statement reconciliations.
- Reconcile PayPal accounts.
- General ledger clean up and review.
- QuickBooks Consulting – QuickBooks set up, QuickBooks training, QuickBooks clean up.
- Cloud based and/or SAAS (software as a service) bookkeeping solutions.
- Create, set up, and organize an accounting system.
- Payroll
- Online payroll processing for your small business.
- File your quarterly and annual payroll returns – 940, 941, W-2’s, W-3, and 1099’s
- New hire reporting.
- Post payroll figures into the accounting software.
- Human Resources
- Generate an employee handbook.
- Draft and create job descriptions.
- Calculate compensation plans.
- Consult on employee benefit plans – retirement savings plans, health insurance, and paid time off.
- COBRA administration.
- Workman’s Compensation.
- Employee management consulting.
- Unemployment Insurance.
This by no means is a comprehensive list of things your CPA can help you and your business with. As your business grows, changes, and enters new areas contact your CPA. You might be surprised at the additional services and resources they can provide for your small business!
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Written by Michelle Edwards, CPA
Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor
Michelle is the owner of Trailhead Accounting Solutions CPA, LLC, an Erie, CO based CPA firm focused on providing small and mid-sized businesses with day-to-day accounting, bookkeeping, and business solutions. Michelle is a CFO turned consultant who loves working with small businesses and entrepreneurs. When she’s not crunching numbers, she can be found hiking, remote camping, gardening, quilting, and hanging out with her family.