Magazine

By counting your inventory, you can avoid mistakes when you order products for your business. Having an organized process keeps you from ordering items you don’t need or forgetting products you definitely need. Here’s a recipe for a perfect process for counting your inventory, including easy to follow directions, tips, and ingredients. Bon Appetit!

Your accountant mentions “accounts receivable aging.” She says it means “the method of sorting the customer receivables by the due date to estimate the bad debts expense to the business. Accounts receivables arise when the business provides goods and services on a credit to the clients.” Here’s what she really means by “accounts receivable.”

Good communication is imperative to getting things done. When communication is interrupted by a change, lack of understanding, or a faulty system, it can become harder and harder to find the information you’re looking for. Here is how one accountant ended a a seemingly endless game of Telephone by creating a whole new process for paying bills. 

Today is payroll day. It is the day accountants clean up employee time cards, get in touch with managers to verify that hours are correct, check paid time off, and submit payroll. While payroll day is not usually very complicated, it can be nerve wracking knowing you’re the one in charge of making sure people receive the correct paychecks on time.

By paying your bills on time, you can make sure you don’t put strain on your relationships with vendors and contractors. The people you work with hold you to a higher standard when you promise the return of payment. If you don’t meet that standard, they might think you are an unreliable partner. Here’s a recipe for paying bills weekly. Bon Appetit!

Your accountant is scrubbing the general ledger this month. She says the general ledger is “the record keeping system of all of a company’s financial data, from debit and credit card spending to expansion, providing a true record of every financial transaction a company makes in its entire lifetime.” Here’s what she really means by a “general ledger.”

Most people assume there is a blueprint for the way you do accounting. While math and spreadsheets are almost always involved, sometimes the scope of an accountant’s work goes way beyond that and into identifying relationships, eliminating redundancies, and auditing companies. Solving puzzles like these require accountants to use their thinking caps.

Today is model building day. Accountants use these days to build mathematical models to track inventory, profitability, forecasting, and more. For accountants who love puzzles, formulation, and math, the spreadsheet is a playground. Modeling requires a high level of detail in functionality and design, which is a project most accountants enjoy.

By creating an organized process for collecting on aging invoices, you can maintain your payment schedule and stay professional when dealing with clients who owe you money. Here is a recipe for collecting payment on invoices that will keep you on track and professional when dealing with customers, including directions and tips. Bon Appetit!

So your accountant is talking about “balance sheet reconciliation.” She tells you it means “a balancing of the amount on your balance sheet GL accounts and the details that make up those balances, while ensuring that any differences are adequately and reasonably explained.” Here’s what she really means when she says, “balance sheet reconciliation.”