Accounting Basics

Learn the accounting basics. We'll teach you how to balance your books, how to read financial statements, highlight how your business can save money, and review popular accounting programs.

 

  • Saving Money: 15 Tips On How To Save Money In Business

    The hard hits our economy has taken over the past two years have left many businesses looking for ways to cut costs and save money without cutting employees. In this article, I'm going to introduce you to 15 ideas that will save your business money despite the downturn in the economy. The following steps are simple, yet effective, and most are applicable to both businesses and individuals.

    1. Renegotiate Contracts

    Many vendors will agree to reduce your contract rates especially if you dictate to them that another vendor has offered you a better rate. Below are some specific types of contracts you might be able to renegotiate:

    Telephone - I know of someone that was paying $500 on his cell phone alone per month. I urged this individual to renegotiate his contract. I have also renegotiated our business services and saved $2,000 per year on long-distance and regular business services.

    Mortgage - With mortgage rates not able to retreat further than low tide now is the time to refinance with a lower rate. Make sure to check that the penalty for ending the higher rate mortgage is not more than the interest rate savings over the term of the mortgage.

    Find Out More Money Saving Tips

  • How to Prepare Bank Reconciliations

    Many business relationships have been affected negatively by companies not having accurate records. Misconstrued records lead to inaccurate budgets, poor purchasing decisions, unsound gross margins, inaccurate financial statements, and quite possibly checks being issued for which there is no cash in the bank. These types of adverse incidents can be averted with regular bank reconciliations.

    Preparing a bank reconciliation, or a bank rec, at the end of each month is one of the best ways you can check the accuracy of your accounting records. A bank reconciliation statement will confirm that all the transactions in your cash account match those of your bank statement and vice versa. Bank reconciliations not only catch errors and adjustments but they can also discourage fraud.

    In this article, you will learn how to prepare a bank reconciliation and I will define all of the related terminology. I'll also give you a simple example that you can use as a bank reconciliation template and answer some of the more common questions people will have about procedures and policy.

    Learn How to Prepare Bank Reconciliations
 

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