Time Keeping

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Keeping track of your time sounds easy but what if you are handling two jobs at once? What if you are handling only one and you have 2 staff on board? What if you have more than one and each staff have several as well?? On top of that, what if you have to travel to different locations or your staff have to travel…? There are so many different situations that having a stopwatch sometimes just won’t do.

Time to check out TSheets! This amazing time keeping app is seamlessly integrated with QBO, it can be used from anywhere on any device (even has a GPS tracker on mobile devices!!) and gives you access to real-time business data with accurate, detailed reports to better understand your company’s biggest expense: labor.

It’s essentially effortless and very accurate providing you peace of mind and money in your pocket saving you time from manual entries and fixing mistakes.

Features:

Get real-time reports, customize company settings, and manage employee timesheets in one place. Then track, edit, and submit time from the TSheets web dashboard or the TSheets Chrome app.

Employees and admins can use the TSheets mobile time tracking app to capture, submit, and approve time from their smartphones. Push notifications remind employees to clock in and out, and mobile scheduling makes it easy to update and share employee schedules.

TSheets Time Clock Kiosk is a simple way for employees to clock in from one device. A cost-effective alternative to traditional punch clocks, TSheets Time Clock works on any computer or tablet with an internet connection, is biometric, and is optimized for quick clock in.

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Save time by tracking it and knowing where it all goes in order to manage it better!

First Year in Business

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Here are 10 things to keep in mind when your journeying through your first year in business:

1. Set Your Business Up Properly

Use the right set of tools to launch your business in today’s expanding and changing economy. That means the right app’s for procedures, the right software, registrations, licensing/permits, the right business bank account and cards, the right accounting system and support and a lot of patience. Just like a major painting of the whole house - preparation is key. It may seem to take longer than you think and at some points may seem not useful but trust me, your future self and your business will thank you.

2. Organize For Success

Begin your journey with the right information to move yourself forward with your business venture. The biggest mistake people make is spending all their time working in the business rather than on the business. Budget your time and money for a proper business plan, marketing, accounting, operating systems, management, IT and data security.

3. Cash Flow 101

Monies coming in; monies going out. Know how to evaluate your cash flow situation so that you too can be aware of your cash needs. check out our cash flow blog post for more info!

4. Your Best Business Partner – Your Accountant

The knowledge and expertise of an accountant will help you take those first successful steps in business. Contact us for a free consultation where we will discuss how we can help you set up and manage the accounting portion of your business.

5. Setting Up Payroll

Payroll is complex. It is more than just income tax calculations. Understanding how to pay your staff will save you time and money.

6. Invoicing

Are you billing or invoicing your customers? Expand your awareness of how invoicing affects you and your business. Invoicing seems simple enough but its actually a crucial step that needs to be done right the first time and every time. If you don’t do a good job invoicing, you could seriously damage your small business’s cash flow, which in turn could seriously damage your new small business’s chance of success.

7. Prepare for your Income Tax

Learn what is considered an acceptable tax deduction and leave the shoebox of receipts at home. We can help you set up a system that will leave you with nothing to do once income tax time comes!!

8. Prepare for Year-End Ahead of Time

Year end is stressful enough. Make the job easier on you and your staff by learning how to prepare for your year end. We can show you how!

9. Helping to Audit-Proof Your Business

Audits go wrong when you misrepresent your income or your expenses. Learn how to protect you and your business from a potential audit.

10. Dealing With the CRA

Revenue Canada is a vast conglomerate made up of many departments. Learn how to maneuver your way around the CRA today.

For a more in depth look at any of these points, visit the Quickbooks article!

Cash Flow

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So what is cash flow anyways?

In short, cash flow is the money that is moving (or flowing) in and out of your business. But there is more to it than just that.

If you are in a “positive cash flow” situation then you are making more money than you are spending. You have enough to pay your bills etc. If more cash is going out than coming in, you are in danger of being overdrawn, and you will need to find money to cover your overdrafts. This is why new businesses typically need working capital (like a loan or line of credit) to cover shortages in cash flow.

Lack of cash is one of the biggest reasons small businesses fail.

A great video summarizing cash flow and a real world sample can be seen here, click below (thank you Investopedia!):

Cash Flow When Starting a Business 

Dealing with cash flow issues is most difficult when you are starting a business. You have many expenses and money is going out fast. And you may have no sales or customers who are paying you. You will need some other temporary sources of cash, like through a temporary line of credit to get you going and on to a positive cash flow situation. 

The best way to keep track of cash flow in your business is to run a cash flow report. We can do this for you! Click here to see more or ask us how. Sometimes cash flow reports need to be done on a weekly or even daily basis…

Cash Flow vs. Profit 

It's possible for your business to make a profit, but have no cash. How can that happen? The short answer is that profit is an accounting concept, while cash, is only the amount in the business checking account. You can have assets, like accounts receivable (money owed to you by customers) but if you can't collect on what's owed, you won't have cash. 

Your accounting system may also show a difference between cash and profits. If your business runs on accrual accounting, you recognize income when the invoice is sent, even though the customer hasn't paid. In this case, you might show a profit but not have the cash. 


Check out this Tip:

A tip from The Balance Small Business website;  A quick and easy way to perform a cash flow analysis is to compare the total unpaid purchases to the total sales due at the end of each month. If the total unpaid purchases are greater than the total sales due, you'll need to spend more cash than you receive in the next month, indicating a potential cash flow problem.

To dig deeper into this tip: 

1. At the end of this month, look at your total sales.

2. Add up the purchases you have made that still need to be paid for. 

3. The difference is what you will need to bring in as income to stay even. 

If this monthly cash shortage continues for several months, you'll get further and further behind. 

So how do I solve my cash flow issues?

There are several ways to tackle cash flow issues. Especially for a start up business, a budget is very important to understand how much you need and where you stand financially. at Cloud Accounting we have all the tools to work with you to create a budget, analyze the budget and also forecast the future budget so that you can have control over your finances all the time. Click Here to see more information on our services or contact us anytime to discuss further.

Looking to do more research on your own? The Balance Small Business site has a great article with more information on how to solve some cash flow issues!