Small businesses focus most of their energy and resources on saving time and ensuring that none of their resources go to waste. As much as this is beneficial to them, when it comes to finances, it takes more than savings for these businesses to thrive, and failure to give this aspect due consideration is detrimental to the operations of the firm. Here are some of the common accounting mistakes companies make.

Mixing business and personal finances
It’s easy to grab the wrong card and make a personal purchase on your business card, but don’t make a habit of it. Using your business accounts for personal use, or not creating a separate account will make tracking cash flow a challenge and could suck profit out of your business. Separate your accounts and write yourself paychecks, but don’t mesh your accounts together.

Cheap solutions
It is no secret that cash-strapped businesses opt for cheap solutions when hiring employees, purchasing technology and buying products, but in the end this becomes expensive for them. When you don’t pay employees enough you will see turnover, which is expensive. Buying low quality technology means having to buy everything again sooner rather than later.

Going it alone
The assumption that one can manage everything in their business either to save on cost or as a passion is a total misconception. Divided attention becomes the order of the day, and this affects operations. If you can’t afford an employee you need to enlist a mentor or someone to run ideas by.

Failure to keep a backup
With so much living in the cloud or as digital files it’s easy to forget to create a backup. When it comes to financial information, client contact information and other important data you want to keep a backup. Data can be lost through computer crashes, accidents and more. Prevent yourself from saying “I should have” and backup today.

Failure to maintain records and receipts
There is a lot of money in and out of business, and you need to know where it’s going. Keep your receipts and keep track of your expenses. Using a bookkeeping service can help to keep you in the black and ready for tax season. It may sound like a lot of work up front but in the end keeping your books up to date will save you time and money.

If you’re ready for help with your business, get started today! ​

Every business must cope with the issue of keeping track of the budget and money flow both in and out of the company. The best way to handle what can sometimes be a complex, time-consuming job is with a good accounting software, but the options seem endless and the variety of software is astounding. So how can you choose the accounting software to best fit the needs of your business? Here are some tips to get you started.

1. Set a budget
Before you even begin to look at accounting software options, you need to set a budget. Available software ranges in price from less than $100 to more than $1000. You’ll need to decide what your business can afford. If you own a small business, for example, you may be fine with a less expensive option, but if you have a large business with a large amount of accounting needs, you’ll want to budget more. Do not simply go with the least expensive option, but do know your limits.

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.
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Here are 5 basic accounting tips for small business owners:

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: 

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. ​

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. ​