Accounting for a small business

One of the hardest things to do as a small business is to account for all processes involved.  These processes include the purchases process, inventory management process, the human resources process (for larger companies) and the financing process.  Every activity that a small business will take on is classified in one of these processes.  These are the four most important processes involved.

Accounting is an area that many companies take for granted.  When a company is first starting up the last thing an owner will think about is how to account for everything and trust me it is a lot easier to take the time from the get go instead of trying to back track and figure everything out then.  For acessory depot the main areas i have to account for are inventory and shipping/ebay fees.  All inventory i have stored in a secure area but actually accounting for and keeping track of what i have on hand is the hardest part.  I have experimented with programs that will give me an accurate number to what i have on hand but they have only created a hassle because i would have to scan every product in and out.  This took so much time and eventually became a hassle.  It really did work but i just did not have the time to devote to just that and manage my website.  Another program i have been experimenting with has been Microsoft office accounting 2009 for small businesses.  This really gives me a lot of flexibility to do the things i feel necessary for my company as well as keep track of certain products and inventory.  One of the hardest things to look for when selecting an accounting software is whether or not it links with eBay and PayPal.  Office accounting does but is very limited in its access to those sites.  Since so many of my shipments come off of eBay, i have to pay fees associated with those shipments and also shipping costs.  Office accounting will not give me an accurate view of funds because of this barrier.  Coming from Microsoft’s website here are the capabilities of office accounting ’08:

“Office Accounting Professional 2008 is a complete accounting solution that helps small businesses save time managing everyday financial tasks, get organized, and grow their business online

. With its familiar Microsoft Office interface, this program is easy to learn, so you can be productive right away. Smooth integration with other Microsoft Office programs makes information sharing simple and helps boost productivity.

By organizing all of your business information in one place, Office Accounting Professional 2008 helps you find the right information at the right time, so you can make better-informed business decisions. Plus, new features will help you sell products online, get paid faster, work easily with your accountant, and more.

To get the free complimentary license of Microsoft Office Accounting Professional, you’ll have to enroll your organization in the Microsoft Professional Accountants’ Network (MPAN). The steps includes providing your organization contact information, signing the Microsoft Partner Program legal agreement for your organization, and completing the registration process by providing profile information about you and your organization.”

Another program that my brother has tried to get me to experiment with is Quick books.  I do not know a lot about it but he tells me how superior it is to office accounting since he is working on his masters in accounting.  HE claims the product is so much easier to use and a lot easier to learn.   That was one of the problems with office accounting…….it was so hard to learn at first.

“Quick books really is a great product because it is much easier to learn and you can map the business processes of your company with greater efficiency.”

This quote came from my brother again and really explains the intuitiveness of quick books.  Listed below are the specs for quick books and some of the capabilities and strong points of it:

Save time when tracking your finances
Easily print checks, pay bills & track expenses   Easily print checks, pay bills & track expenses. Aggregate all your checks to be paid and print them in one batch. QuickBooks will keep track of each check so you can keep tabs on where your money is going. Enter bills from vendors. Since QuickBooks organizes everything in one place, you’ll be able to access all past payments & bills for each vendor with just a few clicks.
Track sales, sales taxes & customer payments   Get rid of piles of paperwork. Easily enter customer payments. Since QuickBooks organizes everything in one place, you’ll be able to access all past payments for each customer with just a few clicks.
Manage payroll & payroll taxes; offer Direct Deposit 1 (sold separately)   Intuit QuickBooks Payroll Services, QuickBooks Payroll for Mac powered by PayCycle, and Payroll for QuickBooks Online save you time by eliminating steps and giving you the tools to get your payroll done right.
Create professional-looking invoices and forms 2   Select from Free professional designs to create a distinct look for your business across all your invoices, statements, and other forms. Apply across all your forms at once.
E-mail estimates, invoices, reports, and more 3   Create customer communications and e-mail directly from your QuickBooks using Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express using your existing e-mail address.
Organize and back-up documents by attaching them to your QuickBooks records.4   Document Management lets you save time by attaching any electronic or scanned document –to any customer, vendor, employee, account, or transaction.
Accept credit and debit cards right in QuickBooks 5   Process credit card approvals right in your QuickBooks software. If you use Intuit QuickBooks Merchant Services, the data is automatically recorded in QuickBooks when you make a sale. And, it has no teaser rates, no hidden fees, no cancellation fees, and no long-term contracts.
Scan and deposit your checks with Intuit Check Solution for QuickBooks (subscription required)6   Easily scan and deposit your checks into QuickBooks with Intuit Check Solution for QuickBooks. Subscription required; scanner sold separately.
Track time, mileage, and expenses to bill clients   Record time and expenses by client job so you can easily stay on top of your projects. From there, it’s easy to invoice clients in a few clicks so you won’t miss any billable time and expenses.
Get insights so you make better decisions
Allow multiple users to work in QuickBooks at the same time 7   Multiple-user functionality enables more than one person to work on a company file at the same time, increasing collaboration and productivity. It ensures that all users are working on the most up-to-date data.	Up to 5		Up to 5
One-click business reports   Get pre-designed, customizable business reports to gain insights into your business. See all available reports in one screen to easily choose the right one. Drill down with one click to see the detail behind the numbers. Export any report to Excel – your QuickBooks formatting and formulas go with it. Access industry-specific reports in QuickBooks Premier and Enterprise Solutions.	100+		150+ Industry
Import data from Excel, Quicken, Microsoft Office Accounting & prior QuickBooks versions 8   Get up and running fast by importing data from the tool you use to track your finances now. However little or much data you currently have, you won’t have to start over from scratch.
Track inventory, set reorder points & create purchase orders   Easily track your inventory to avoid overbuying and backorders. Indicate re-order points for each inventory good and turn on reminders to automatically let you know when its time to reorder.
Download your bank & credit transactions into QuickBooks9   Save time and avoid data entry errors. Instead of typing in your bank and credit card transactions, download them securely from over 3000 participating financial institutions and easily import them into QuickBooks.
Get an immediate view into your bottom line all in one page with Company Snapshot   Stay on top of your business by customizing your Company Snapshot. Choose at-a-glance reports of yearly expenses and income, expense and income details, and top customers.
Track international sales & expenses in multiple currencies10   QuickBooks supports all global currencies and does all the currency calculations for you. You can even download exchange rates or do wire transfers from right in QuickBooks.
Easily create a business plan   Build a professional business plan quickly by answering step-by-step questions. QuickBooks fills in the numbers based on your QuickBooks data. You can export the projections to Excel for further analysis or save it as a PDF file.
Forecast sales & expenses   Click a button to create a forecast of income and expenses for the coming year, based on your existing QuickBooks data. Increase or decrease line items by any percentage to adjust for future changes.
Create industry-specific reports and install industry features   Access over 150 industry-specific reports in QuickBooks Premier and Enterprise Solutions such as: Profitability by Product for manufacturing and wholesale businesses, Job/ Project Costs for professional services firms & contracting businesses, Donor Contribution Summary for nonprofit organizations, Sales Tax Liability for retail businesses. So after looking at some of the features of both I will say that i have to agree that Intuit Quick Books definitely looks better.  This will definitely be a project in our near future and i am going to start allocating funds toward R&D for it. To all small business owners out there if you have any comments or have had problems or pointers please let me know. Accessory Depot

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