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Properly handled finances are crucial for business success. It’s tempting to try to operate without keeping a close eye on cashflow but be careful. Just because there is money in the bank doesn’t mean you can spend it. You want to keep a good amount of runway to help you grow your business. It’s important for a business owner to be familiar with basic accounting. Here are 5 basic accounting tips for small business owners: 
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It's easy to get bogged down with your business when you're an entrepreneur. Long days that lead into late nights, business trips across time zones and a diet that consists of eating whatever you can grab as you rush from one meeting to another can wreak havoc on your physical and emotional health. If you're an entrepreneur fighting stress, it's important to remember that you need a break. Here are 5 easy ways entrepreneurs can take care of themselves:  Starting your own business was the easy part. Leaving it behind at the end of the day? Much, much harder. Entrepreneurs spend an AVERAGE of 55 hours a week making sure their business continues to thrive. They wear every kind of hat from accountant to janitor, and rarely ever take it off. But this is where the problem lies. Family life can suffer from the long hours, and forget about staying in shape! And then comes the burnout. Below are three easy ways for entrepreneurs to take care of themselves:  Starting an online business can lead to a successful and rewarding career. With some advanced preparation, you can increase the odds of success. Here are our 6 steps for starting an online business: Identify and research - This is the most important part of your journey. Identify your interests and what type of business you want to run. Research your ideas and see what already exists on the internet. Are there already businesses out there competing for customers or will your business fill a unique niche? Take inspiration from what others are doing. Then improve on those ideas and make it your own.  When I talk to anyone considering change, I always ensure they are in the right mindset and understand the pain this transition might bring. I like to ensure everyone is fully prepared for the change they are about to undertake and ensure nothing has been underestimated. It really is a mindset change. Mike Tyson once said, "everyone has a plan until you get punched in the face."  Going to the Gym
As a regular gym goer, I compare the move to Xero like going to the gym for the first time. Take for example the Christmas and New Year period. You have spent the summer eating and drinking, relaxing and enjoying time to yourself. You’ve more than likely gained a few extra kilos and become complacent. Because why the hell not? Your friends and family are off work for the holidays, so you let your hair down. This is comparable to using your current method of accounting; it is familiar and comfortable, as you have used it for sometime. Then reality hits and it’s time to set New Year’s resolutions. You have all these fantastic intentions and set some huge goals. More than likely one of them is to get back into shape. You sign up for the 21-day trial at your local gym and pump yourself up for the new you. In the accounting world, this is you realizing you can do things better, faster and more efficiently. Perhaps you have heard great things about Xero from friends or other businesses using it. Or maybe you are just fed up with your current method of accounting and know there must a better way. So, when you finally stop procrastinating and haul yourself to the gym, it is a very uncomfortable experience. You feel super awkward (and a bit fat) in these foreign surroundings. Everyone appears to know what they are doing, looking good and acting all confident. Meanwhile you can’t even find the changing rooms! This is how it feels when you first log in to Xero. It is all very foreign and looks so different to what you’re used to. Perhaps you feel like you’re wasting time and could do this in half the time in your old system. Back at the gym, you’ve had your induction and you are ready to give it a go. You get stuck in using machines that look familiar, like the treadmill and the bike. You wait until it is a little quieter before you move on to weights, as you don’t want to look like a fool floundering around clearly not knowing what you are doing. Similarly in Xero, you need to do some training and get up to speed on how this new system works. So you jump onto Xero TV and Xero U, and start watching training videos. So far so good. You’re feeling a little more comfortable and you have completed the bank reconciliation no problem. In fact, it was kind of fun. Just like the gym, using our cloud accounting software gets easier with time. Soon you will shake your head at the idea of using a pen and paper to keep your books! Ready to get started? Contact us today! *Content edited from Xero It's Sunday night, and you’re relaxing and doing your best to pretend the weekend is already over. You found a new show on Netflix and you’ve already watched 6 episodes. You know you could be getting stuff together for the week, but you don’t know where to start. We’ve all been there. The exhaustion fueled crash session that is Sunday evening. To overcome this and make the most of your time, try out a few of our tips for jump-starting your week. Sunday night you might not be too happy about it, but Monday morning you will thank you. Here are 5 tips to jumpstart your work week:  Finding and retaining great people is something all small business owners spend a lot of time doing, so staying on top of ever-changing labor regulations is important, both for employee retention as well as for labor law compliance. Xero and TSheets have amped up our partnership to help small business owners avoid the regulatory challenges associated with changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
Under the FLSA employers are required to keep accurate timesheets for overtime-eligible employees for at least two years. Without easily accessible records, it’s very hard to defend against wage and hours disputes in a court of law. The integration of TSheets and Xero can lessen the burden that this puts on small business owners by guaranteeing fewer data entry inaccuracies and offering increased transparency to employees throughout the process. Many people dream of becoming business owners. Often, this dream a romanticized image of lots of free time for leisure, access to limitless amounts of financial gain and so much more. However, the average entrepreneur works very long days, especially in the first 3 to 5 years to get the business up and running. These crucial years are spent partially in the red, then breaking even, and if all goes well, then profitability. Let's talk about the time factor. On a given day, a business owner must make countless decisions. Here are 10 helpful tips for making solid decisions:  Managing the cash-flow of a small business can sometimes feel like a large task. It isn't always easy to keep up with the receipts and the inventory and the payroll and not to mention working on top of it all! But understanding where your cash is coming from and where it is going, is by far the most crucial step to take while operating your own business. Knowing that big purchases are coming up can feel paralyzing. What happens if you lose a client after making the purchase? What if an invoice isn’t paid on time? Understanding your cash on hand and budgeting accordingly for necessary purchases is the first step to managing your cash flow.  We have all heard the term "work-life balance," but when it comes down to it, how well do we actually understand it? More importantly, how do we achieve this balance? If we are honest, most of us will admit we are not quite sure how to balance all life throws our way, especially if we are dealing with start-up businesses or entrepreneurship along with family and other important commitments. The good news is that achieving this balance is not reserved for the far-advanced or super-zen. No. Anyone who is patient and dedicated enough to cultivate it can strike this balance. Let's explore a bit, shall we?  If you manage a payroll department, it's important you calculate overtime payments for nonexempt salaried employees correctly. A variety of criteria are used to determine if a salaried employee is exempt or nonexempt. Payroll managers must be careful when calculating these payments to ensure employees are compensated correctly. Here are the 4 steps to calculate overtime pay for salaried employees:  For many entrepreneurs, the most exciting thing about starting a new business is the opportunity to nurture a small business culture. Obviously, you want your business to be successful and to make a lot of money, but by starting your own business, you have the opportunity to create the kind of company you've always wanted to work in.  As fun and exciting as running your own business is, it can be stressful sometimes. Stress in other areas of your life can negatively impact your work too. Regardless of your sources of stress, there are a few ways to reduce and prevent it. We bet that some of your stress is avoidable. By this we don't mean ignoring client emails or avoiding your wife, but preparing for stressful events and choosing to not place yourself in an unnecessary stressful situation. An example of unnecessary stress is being stuck in morning traffic. If you choose a different route or time to go to work, then you won't experience that stress. Or you could listen to podcasts during commute to make good use of the time, which will help to lessen your stress. Here are our 3 tips for avoiding unnecessary stress:  Life as an entrepreneur is stressful when you don't have work-life balance. You may feel like there aren't enough hours in the day to do everything and find yourself neglecting certain areas of your life. The truth is you don't have to sacrifice an aspect of your life to be an entrepreneur. You can still be a successful entrepreneur while living your life, spending time with your family, and enjoying a few hobbies. Here are 3 apps that help you achieve work-life balance:  As a business owner, you might always be looking for jobs that you can handle yourself. Doing so allows you to be more involved with your business and you may be worried about paying for services. However, even though it might seem like an appealing option, the truth is that you are typically much better off hiring a professional. These are a few reasons why you should not attempt to DIY your bookkeeping, no matter how small your business is:  You’re out on your own and you know all the day-in and day-out operations of your business. Getting your business started will require an online presence consisting of any of the usual social media or all of them: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Instagram. How do you keep it all straight? Here are 5 tips we've learned about managing social media:  Schedule Posts
Facebook allows you to schedule posts right on your page. You can also employ a social media management tool such as Hootsuite or Buffer to help you schedule your posts out. The secret is to not be afraid to make changes. If you schedule a post about sunny weather and there’s a spontaneous blizzard, it’s easy to go in and change your content. As a small business owner you are familiar with the idea of a stressed life. The pressure to balance work and life and manage a company can feel crushing. While there is a never ending list of recommendations to help you reduce your stress, you may be looking past one key element. Your diet. Your brain requires 25% of the body’s energy to function properly. That’s a lot of calories. And with your brain running on overdrive, you need to be sure to feed it properly. Stress and anxiety are caused by the feeling of being unable to solve problems.  Any good entrepreneur knows the importance of cash flow. Having to front costs for a project while waiting for a customer to pay can be painful, like the blood of your company is being drained. Solidifying a payment system protects you and the customer. You don’t want to be the nag always asking for payment, so instead use new tech to your advantage. Here are our 3 tips for getting your invoices paid on time:  So you have the next great idea, you image yourself in a black mock turtleneck running an empire like Steve Jobs. Whatever your business idea is, you are chomping at the bit to get going. Just one problem. You don't have the start-up capital you need. There’s no denying that it’s easier to launch a business with money than without, but there are solutions for every problem. Big empires have been created out of nothing before, why can’t you be next?  Here are our 7 tips for launching your business with little to no working capital:
Know your numbers: Gain a firm grasp on what it costs to produce your project and where you need your margins to be in order to pay rent. This simple knowledge will help to guide your decisions and set your prices. When you are doing what we love, it's easy to get lost in the work and eventually burn out. If you are your own boss, you must take great care of your employee. That means you! Being your own boss is very much about finding harmony between your work and your personal life. Doing so allows busy entrepreneurs and start-ups to reduce overall stress while increasing happiness. If you're feeling exhausted and burnt out, it is time to work towards a better work-life balance. Here are 4 ways you can start creating a positive change:  One goal all small businesses have is to see growth. For some, this means obtaining top talent in the industry. Others, however, are more interested in increasing sales and improving customer service. Regardless of what you are looking for, there are some things you can do to take your small business to the next level. Here are three things to consider. Here are 3 ways to foster growth in your small business:  It's so tempting for small business owners to just throw all the bills and receipts at their bookkeeper or CPA. While that system can work, we want you to remain in business for many years which requires you to understand what your business's numbers mean even though you can't and shouldn't track every penny. Here are our 5 basic accounting concepts for every small business owner: 
Your business is starting to grow. There are exciting opportunities for your company to soar into the stratosphere. At the same time, there are new problems that you didn't need to address when you were in the infancy stage of your business. How do you deal with these new problems and keep your business moving up and to the right.
Here are 4 tips to keep your startup running smoothly during times of growth: 
Managing payroll is a time-consuming task and if not done correctly, it can result in a loss of precious time and money. For instance, late or inaccurate payroll could cause delayed paychecks and late penalties from the IRS. But, do not despair, we've compiled a list of 10 tips to make payroll management simpler.
Here are our 10 tips to streamline payroll management: 1. Select a good payroll system Identify a cloud-based, payroll system that records and documents data, tracks health care insurance contributions, 401K plans and wage garnishments. 
You've done it! You've set out on your own and now you get to make all the decisions. Maybe you’re learning that decision making is tough, and you’re feeling overwhelmed. You may need to bring in some help, and we think a bookkeeper can be one of your most valuable assets as a business.
Here are 5 reasons you should seriously consider adding a bookkeeper to your business: 
Peace of Mind. Financial and tax issues can kill your business before you get the opportunity to reap the benefits of all your hard work. Hiring a bookkeeper can give you the peace of mind that your finances are handled correctly and ready for tax time. You can focus on your area of expertise, while they focus on theirs.
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