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If you want your business to continue to grow, you need to set up an accounting department structure that can take care of a wide range of accounting tasks and expand your business.

 

What is the key to success? How to build Accounting Room?

The secret of success for small/medium businesses, and especially startups, is people as well as technology. These two factors need to appear together, complement each other.

 

While people are a must-have for any small business, HR isn’t everything. You need software to double-check numbers, analyze outputs, coordinate systems. That aren’t integrated, and make sure your business isn’t defrauded by vendors or employees fraud fraud. Currently on the market of management software there are many types: you can refer to free software such as: UpDiagram, trello, basecamp,…

 

At a minimum, you need someone to run the payroll. Someone to pay suppliers and send invoices and someone to handle the monthly books so they are balanced until tax time.

 

As an organizational leader, you’ll need to demonstrate assertiveness to figure out exactly what that combination looks like for your business and the resources you have.

 

5 essential accounting tasks and how to effectively tackle them

In the sections below, we’ll look at five essential business accounting tasks, the skills you should be looking for to handle them, and signs that you need help. In the end, we’ll look at some of the ways accounting software can help with each task, and give an example of a basic small business accounting department structure/Accounting Room.

1. Billing/invoicing

The US Small Business Administration reports that low sales/cash flow was the number one cause of small business closures in 2015. This is relevant. What about payment? The longer it takes to pay your customers, the longer it will take you to get paid. You need to be paid to be able to pay your employees and suppliers. If you are not paid correctly and on time, your business is at risk of failure because of low cash flow.

 

You don’t need a CPA to process your payments; Anyone who is good with numbers and has an eye for detail can handle the job. In addition to accuracy, timeliness is important for payments, so you need someone who is on time and meets deadlines.

 

Task telltale signs:

1. Not receiving invoices on time
2. The customer is being paid the wrong amount
3. The partner is not paying the correct amount or is not on time

2. Payments /accounts payable

The Institute of Finance & Management reports that at top-tier institutions, it takes a professional full-time to process nearly 23,000 invoices each year. That’s about 85 bills per business day. If you’re only paying a few bills at once, you’re probably not keeping up. And if you don’t prioritize on-time payments to your partners, you’ll pay late fees or worse, lose business partners.

 

As with payments and invoicing, accuracy and timeliness are of the utmost importance. If your organization is small, you can let one person or a small team handle accounts payable and receivable (payments). This role should be played by someone who can double-check your suppliers to make sure you’re not overcharged, overcharged for something they don’t provide.

 

The telltale signs:

1. Vendors are complaining that they are not being paid.
2. Despite your best efforts, your account billing team can’t keep up and is paying late.
3. Your Accounting Room payable specialist is working overtime to keep up.

3. Salary calculation (Payroll)

Salary is an important thing to decide the human factor in the company. If you don’t pay your employees on time and don’t pay them the right amount, you will start to lose employees.

 

When your business is small, it can be difficult for you to collect and pay fees, and to process payroll. However, once your company grows beyond that, you’ll need an experienced payroll professional or a third-party payroll service. What makes a well-paying professional? In addition to being punctual and meticulous. The person on your payroll also needs to work well with others to resolve the inevitable problems.

 

The telltale signs:

1. Employees often get paid late.
2. There is a change in personnel or overpaid wages
3. The staff responsible for payroll are overloaded and work overtime to get paid on time.

4. Bookkeeping

Good bookkeeping means that all your bills are paid and paid. The books of accounts should show what your customers have paid you, what they owe, and vice versa. Although it is never easy to keep the books of account, it is absolutely vital to the financial health of the business. And if you want to save time; resources, you can use the management template UpDiagram to calculate payment – payment expenses with different partners.

 

In a way, every other task on this list involves bookkeeping, so you need someone who is fluent, precise with numbers, and works well with others. While invoicing is responsible for sending invoices and accounts payable is responsible for paying bills, your accountant is ultimately responsible for recording and keeping track of all transactions and balances there. Your bookkeeper will also be working with accounting software most of the time. So they’ll need to be proficient in whatever accounting program your business uses.

 

The telltale signs:

1. Book Accountants yoke is not balance.
2. You lack the necessary reports and receipts for the accounting of charges.
3. There are unusual revenues and expenditures in the accounting books.

5. Tax preparation

You’ll need to pay the government the taxes that are requir by law where you do business. But you also need to know all the deductions so you don’t have to pay more than that. You also need to provide W2s to all your employees so they can pay their taxes on time. If you think this doesn’t matter, just wait until the IRS knocks on your door with a long list of questions you don’t have an answer to.

 

Ideally, an employee CPA or from an outside company who can represent your business before the IRS if necessary. Although the tax period only comes once per year. Keeping expenses and income up to date throughout the year, and recording them properly, creates a great deal of consistency and clarity when it comes time to calculate taxes. Your accountant should work side-by-side with whoever is responsible for tax returns to make sure. They have everything they need to prepare your company’s tax returns thoroughly and accurately.

 

The telltale signs:

1. You’re trying to pay your business taxes at the end of the year and struggle to find the right reports and forms.
2. You get a much higher refund or amount owed at the end of the year than the previous year and can’t explain why.
3. After you file your taxes, you will receive an audit notice from the IRS and you will not be able to answer questions from them.

If you have grasped the above 5 accounting tasks, make a plan to build for the accounting department. Do not forget to choose a suitable management tool for your accounting department. Good luck in setting up your accounting department.