By: vish ks
Submitted: 2010-04-09 02:28:20 | Word Count: 540
When you set up your own bookkeeping or accounting system, call your CPA or CFO to help regarding the matter. This is because this is such a critical test for small business owners. The way you set bookkeeping system up is directly related to the usefulness of the information. Part of the problem many a people has to deal with is usually related to a very poorly set up bookkeeping structure. The set up has to be done in such a way that all the useful features such as bank reconciliation and job costing tasks should be rendered highly useable. Having a good bookkeeping system set up in the right manner in the very first place will cost only a pittance. Just compare this to having someone or some bookkeepers come in and spend hours or days fixing the mistakes at a later period in time. Exercise caution, and make sure that you have got good internal controls in place to protect your business from embezzlement and fraud. For instance, never repose the responsibility on the same person who signs cheques to reconcile the bank statement. For another, always scan through cancelled cheques or your bank's cheque copies for any thing that look weird, and make it a point to protect your passwords securely. Keep all the cheques including the ones that come from your credit card company in a very safe and secure place. Learn the nuances of navigating your bookkeeping system so that you will at least be a little bit knowledgeable. Always have trained bookkeeping professionals or bookkeepers to look after your books regularly in order to avoid fraudulent practices, and pick up any signs related to fraud.
Whenever you
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are on your way to hire bookkeepers for your business, whether they are CPAs or CFOs, find people with experience in a business similar to yours. If you happen to be a contractor, find bookkeeping professionals or bookkeepers who have worked with other contracting businesses. And, if you are a lawyer, find bookkeeping personnel who have worked for some law offices or other professional service offices and check for references. Ask them for a few customers or employers so that you can contact them to find out more about the person. But, be on the look out for red flag aspects, otherwise known as the unwillingness to provide any information regarding their ability to do the job. It is better to make use of bookkeepers to enter one’s invoices, to receive payments, and to keep the job folders under tight control. The CFO’s service may be availed on a monthly basis to learn more about the numbers side of your business, to receive the information a person needs to run his business, and to supply elements of insight and other professional inputs for the bookkeepers. The involvement of expert finance personnel and bookkeepers will definitely bring in the much needed stability and consistency that a business needs for furthering its growth. With proper systems in place you can heave a good sigh of relief.
