Accurate payroll accounting is important to businesses of all sizes. Avoiding sloppy payroll accounting ensures accurate tax returns, reduced cost from accountant untangling and no omissions of valuable tax deductions. Few businesses realize that the Internal Revenue Service makes an accuracy assessment by comparing payroll figure consistency on a variety of filed reports. No business [...]

Tip income is an important area of concern for several types of businesses. Employers are responsible for including tips received by workers on their W-2 forms. Workers must report to their employers the total tips received in a calendar month whenever the amount exceeds $20. Employers include reported tips in calculations for withholding of income [...]

Generosity is a beautiful thing. But that doesn’t mean you should give away money to business customers who aren’t even asking for a handout. This is exactly what you’re doing, though, if you charge less than the value people are willing to pay. Business owners are always reluctant to raise prices. They worry that charging [...]

The bookkeeping process for a small business gets about as much respect as the children’s table at a big family reunion. You know it’s there, but coordinating the details isn’t too important. The excitement in business is conducting sales, creating marketing campaigns, implementing new technology, improving efficiencies, and expanding with new products or services. But [...]

Small-business owners understand the expression that you have to spend money to make money. But that doesn’t mean you should spend unwisely. Wasting money is a luxury in good economic times and a path to certain doom in a strained economy. Determining expenses to cut is an effort that too many small-business managers find excuses [...]

You don’t have to possess a high degree of financial expertise to manage a small business. But there are three critical areas you need to monitor: Input Efficiency The first aspect of business operations to examine is input efficiency. This is commonly measured by knowing how much cost you incur for everything you sell. It [...]

The biggest headache confronting most small-business owners is payroll. An incorporated enterprise must prepare paychecks even if the owner is the only worker. That also applies to an S corporation or LLC that’s federally taxed as a corporation. Payroll calculations are complex and tedious. Computing payroll taxes, determining employee deductions, writing checks and remitting tax [...]

Although a business owner spends a lot of time determining how to earn money, the bottom line is equally affected by limiting how much money is spent. Fortunately, saving money is easier than earning it. The best way to start is by examining money-saving strategies in three areas where wise spending improves business. Make the [...]

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) audited 1.11% of all tax returns filed in the last government fiscal year. However, business returns with gross receipts of $25,000 or more were audited twice as frequently as the overall rate. An IRS audit requires a time-consuming and frustrating process of collecting detailed business records. There’s no perfect method [...]