first blogs info

Introduction

QuickBooks is tax far the easiest program to use with the most complicated and diverse applications in it that never get used by most business owners. Fraud happens every day and as I have said before, small businesses lose more money every year due to fraud than some of the largest corporations. What a lot of Fraudsters, who happen to use QuickBooks don’t know is that every move they make, every step they take, is being ‘watched’ by the QuickBooks software.

Prevention

The key to preventing fraud of course is making sure that it is not the same person who handles more than one tax function in a business. You don’t want the same person who is opening the mail, being the one who sends the checks. You don’t want the same person who can sign checks being the one determining the amounts to put on the checks.

Upon setup, QuickBooks allows the business owner to set up users. The owner should always be the Administrator, not the bookkeeper, not the CPA or accountant, but the Administrator. Anyone else using the program can be limited to the parts of the program that they can access by the Admin. Sales persons needing to enter sales can do so, but they don’t need access to the bank account information. Purchasers need to be able to create purchase orders and invoices, but not able to adjust inventory on hand or create checks to pay for invoices. Only the admin should be able to make these adjustments. Name the users of QuickBooks so you know who is doing what and when. This will give you an eagle eye on the security of the QuickBooks transactions.

Detection

There is a little known feature of QB that is called the Audit Trail. The Audit Trail records any changes made to original transactions, any deletions of invoices, checks, etc. You’ll want to do this when the place is closed or when you have plenty of time because this report can take a very long time to generate. Go to the Reports tab on the menu bar and click on it. Find the Accountant’s Reports and you will see the Audit Trail as one of the options. Click on it and apply the dates you wish to check, (the longer the period of time and more transactions, the longer the report will take) and wait.

In the audit trail, if an entry has been altered or deleted there will be two or sometimes three lines for one transaction. The one on the bottom is the original entry, the one(s) above it have been altered or deleted and the report will give what tax changed, the payee, the amount, or an account and tell you which user entered the original, which user changed it and the day and time it was done.

So how do you tell if it’s fraud or just someone making changes? First, deleting an invoice should rarely be done, if there are a large number of deleted invoices then chances are, your company is not using the Estimates icon. The invoice should only be created when you know for sure a customer is going to go through with the arrangement, if you are using the invoice feature to send estimates, those estimates are posting to your accounts receivable account which should not be done.

So how would someone commit fraud by altering an invoice? If the same person that prints the invoices also sends the checks, it is very easy to print the invoice for your approval at $200 or more than what was actually invoiced for. Once you’ve approved what should be a $5000 invoice for $5200, the clerk will change the $5200 to $5000 and send the vendor the right amount, and at the same time issue themselves a check for $200 which would be written off to another account somewhere in the books. The bank reconciliations would always match and no one would be the wiser. This is one reason that you cannot print an invoice without saving it first.

Another common method of fraud is altering the payee of existing invoices to benefit the relatives, friends, etc of the crooked clerk. So an invoice may come in that has been created at home and submitted to you for payment by the person creating the invoice. Or, you may be cutting a check for a legitimate expense only to have the funds redirected to the crooked clerk.

You might also be on the lookout for checks being issued for identical amounts, during the same period every week, every month, etc. Sometimes the fraudster will send two checks to the same vendor and call up a day later and ask the vendor to return the check ‘mistakenly’ sent. If the fraudster is the same person who opens the mail, he will take the check and ‘wash it’ and make himself the payee. (If your bookkeeper seems to be continually doing her nails, you smell nail polish remover constantly, your company is at risk as that is what is used to remove ink off of checks) You can catch this by exporting the check detail to Excel and sorting it according to amounts, if you have one or two more checks a month for identical amounts, call your bank and ask for a copy of the cashed checks, front and back. The back of a check tells you which bank cashed it, and often, the name of the person who cashed it as well.

If you get your bank statements already opened by your bookkeeper, watch for checks that have cleared but that aren’t placed into the envelope with the statements. Compare your bank register to the images of the checks on the statements and confirm that the person or company you wrote the check to is the actual person or company that cashed the check.

Conclusion

If you take the basic precautions, it makes this kind of fraud much harder to commit. But you have to be vigilant and ready to take action should fraud be occurring in your business. Remember, however, that this is America, home of the Free Land of the Lawsuit. NEVER directly accuse your bookkeeper of stealing, especially in front of others. Find the services of a Certified Fraud Examiner in your area and they will be able to help you put a successful case together for prosecution, should you choose to go that route.

David Roberts, CFE, CQBPA, MBA, lives in Kissimmee, Florida with four girls, three dogs, two snakes and one wife. He has been a member of the ACFE for four years and has been studying fraud for longer than that. He is the owner of Homesoon Accounting Services which specializes in Quickbooks Consultations and Fraud Prevention and Detection.

We’ve seen people on things like Dragon’s Den, The Apprentice. They make their pitch to save themselves and really, what it all boils down to is this: what is the bottom line? How much have you made?

Are you Making Money?

The truth of the matter is, if you ask someone ‘So, How’s Business?’ really, this translates to – ‘So, Are You Making Any Money Yet?’

Don’t be fooled by decoded answers, like, ‘Yeah, not bad’ or ‘It’s going OK’. They probably don’t know.

How To Find Out

If you want to know if you are making any money, then one thing is for sure – you need to have good records. Without the books being in order, you don’t stand a chance.

Yet, it amazes me, how many people work ‘blind’ to whether or not their enterprise is winning or failing. They’ll take their receipts in a shoebox, once a year to their accountant, and expect a miracle. They could have made a profit; they might have made a loss. They’ve a rough idea – but no firm opinion. This, folks, is how not to do it.

How Much Have We Made?

To discover how you are doing in your business, you need to be committed to being methodological, to keeping receipts, and to setting some time aside regularly to go through the paperwork, to come to the answer. A good accounting package will assist you in this process greatly. As will engaging a bookkeeper to pop in, and do the books for you, on an ad-hoc basis.

Benefits Of Having A Part Time Book Keeper

If you are just no good with figures, and you know you won’t do it, then you can rest assured that the person who pops in, will know. And what’s more, believe it or not, they’ll actually ENJOY it. Many people find it hard to believe that people could actually enjoy numbers, and balance sheets and cash flow forecasts and (even) some credit control – and chasing in your monies for you – but they do.

And when you have someone on your team doing this you begin to get the answers and see the results. You’ll soon see what your most profitable product lines are, how much your phone bills are costing you every month, and whether the monies spent on advertising are actually pulling in the customers. Armed with this knowledge, you can set about to make some important changes and your time is freed up to get on with the important business of making (even) more money!

Amazing Fact

When people read their profit & loss figures, they immediately think – ‘oh my gosh, I need to make more money’. Not true. It’s actually much easier, to cut back and reduce your expenses – then to get in more sales orders. When you are on top of your books, then you can see all of this for yourself.

Cash Flow

The most important word in business. Many small businesses actually go under because of this, and nothing else. If your customers aren’t paying you on time, then this can cause huge problems. You need to be collecting in your debts. And if you don’t, someone needs to. Remember that a sale isn’t a sale until the money is cleared in the bank.

Busy

Sometimes people are so busy running around, rushed off their feet dashing from one crisis to the next, that they just don’t have the time to think about these things. But you need to make the time. Spend at least 2 hours a week working ON the business, on blue-sky thinking – and not just in the thick of things. It’s important to stand back and take stock.

Secrets of Big Business

The key in business is to create systems and have good people operate those systems for you. And then your business runs independently of you. With or without you, work gets done because people know what they have to do. Ask yourself this – how long would your business survive without your input? Big businesses have this under control. Everyone has their own responsibilities and it means it can make money continuously, as it’s not dependant upone one sole person. If you can grow your business to that stage, then the only thing that will matter is this – “How are you going to spend all your money?!”

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If you are interested in receiving further information on any of the topics discussed above please visit us online at: http://www.booglesltd.com or contact us on 0844 8844 622 or at admin@booglesltd.com

Attending to the growth parameters of an organization is not without its own complexities. A shoddy management on ones’ part can only add problems to your long list of tasks. Usually, bookkeeping involves compilation and assimilation of financial information tax one single statement. Since maintenance of data is a big issue with organizations today, therefore hiring the services of able personnel is a highly sought out activity. In New York, professionals assist you in this endeavor to provide you with quality services in bookkeeping and its other aspects. Bookkeepers in New York work on the given projects according to the regulated business ethics and sees to it that they are completed on time. The professionals are simply excellent in their skills and a methodical approach by them works wonders taxes many an organization.

Tax season is the most hectic one when one needs to furnish the details on time. A number of aspects like payroll process, invoice generation, billing, bank reconciliation statements, trial balances, balance sheet, financial reports, accounts receivable/sales and other important documents have to be taken care of. The bookkeepers New York assist in these tasks and correct the errors which might have crept in by mistake. Mostly, this happens due to the haste with which the project work is undertaken by the in-house staff. Understanding the situation of the market, they execute the accounts tasks with a finesse which is reflected in the sophistication of the final financial statement. This is made possible by the skilled expertise of bookkeepers New York whose brilliance is simply, unmatched. What makes them most sought after is their dedication towards completing the given projects on time and their ready ability to perform under stress.

Apart form New York, innumerable such bookkeeping firms are present, whose staff take pains to understand your unique situation. Ethics and patience rule their work procedure as they begin their tasks attending to smallest detail possible. They take upon themselves to minimize the chances of errors and also save you from unnecessary burdens of loads of paperwork which is nevertheless important. With bookkeepers in New York, you are assured of quality services because if the sheer professionalism they show towards the timely execution of their tasks. A number of services provided by the bookkeepers like data management procedure for industrial, commercial and domestic business environments help in minimizing the manpower you have to utilize otherwise in New York. The expertise with which they create the data sheets of business revenues and expenses is something of a benchmark set by them.

Certified public accountants are an asset to any organization as far as their bookkeeping management skills are concerned. Being the intrinsic part and parcel of in-house staff, they are accurate with accounting and financial document details. Bookkeepers New York assist their clients with latest tax mistakes software module which is customized according to their peculiar requirements. The software is specially designed to perform tasks such as recording daily financial activities, printing the receipts, payment vouchers and tax receipts. Speed and precision of the final statements is guaranteed due to the presence of certain techniques present in the accounting software. The professionals are adept in suggesting a number of tips for you, for a proper management and upkeep of bookkeeping records and other statements. With the assistance of expert bookkeepers, you are always sure of being two notches higher than the rest, in the competitive market.

Peter Terry has extensive knowledge about bookkeeping and knows the importance of this for running a successful business. To know more about Accountant New York, accounting New York, accounting firm NYC and Bookkeepers New York you can visit http://www.nycbookkeepers.com

Starting a small business isn’t for the faint of heart. Think of it as a huge jigsaw puzzle that each piece needs to be put perfectly in place in order to have a successful startup. What happens if there’s a few missing pieces? If those missing pieces fall into your business’s accounting, your startup will be shaky. Here’s the Accounting 101 information you need to have:

1. What is your business structure? You need to choose the best small business ownership structure for you. Many small businesses choose the simplest of legal structures, the sole proprietorship, but there are more to choose from. Your choices include partnership , limited partnership, limited liability company (LLC), or an S-corp. Knowing which to choose can be confusing, so you might want to talk to an accountant or, at the very least, do some research so you understand the basics.
2. Filing deadlines are different for small businesses than for individuals. We all know the April 15 th deadline for personal tax returns, but corporate and business returns are due in March. This mistake could cost you extra fees and penalties for filing late.
3. You’ll need an EIN (employer identification number) to file your taxes and to be recognized by the state. How do you get one? By registering your business with your state. You should be able to find this information at your state’s web site.
4. Don’t forget to get business insurance when you’re tallying up those business expenses. Whatever risks are associated with your business, you need to get the proper small business insurance to protect you AND your new business.
5. Choose your accounting software and system. Even if you plan on having an accountant, you still need to have a basic understanding of your business’s finances. Again, if you have any questions, you should talk to an accountant to help you choose correctly.
6. Are you hiring an accountant and/or bookkeeper? If so, there’s no reason to wait. A financial professional will be able to assist you in all accounting aspects of starting your small business.

The above is not meant to be an all-inclusive list, but rather a starting point of the necessities you shouldn’t forget to take care of. Your small business startup will go much smoother, and be much more successful, if you’ve dealt with the above accounting issues.

If you are starting a business the Accounting Aisle can help you find the right small business accountant.