Our comprehensive services: Tailored solutions you need

Our accountants keep your books day in and day out. We perform all financial reporting in an electronic accounting system so you can have accurate and immediate access to all your reports.

Our certified management accountants focus on recording the financial transactions of your business by maintaining records, balance sheets, tracking transactions and creating financial statements.

Having an experienced accountant on your team is proven to offer compounding advantages for your business. Through our accounting services, we make it easy for you to track problems and find solutions that generate greater profits for your stakeholders.

We have a disciplined and centralized onboarding process to ensure that we are efficient with your time and that you benefit from the highest quality system design we have to offer. We handle your books right away! However, we take the time to really understand your business and incorporate your feedback into the onboarding process. The complete design and optimization of your systems, accounting policies and procedures, and reporting needs takes sixty to ninety days.

If you’re a sole proprietor, you have probably wondered at some point whether you’d be better off if you incorporated your business. Here are some facts for you to consider.

The single biggest benefit of incorporating a business is limiting an owner’s liability. In theory, a stockholder in a corporation risk only his or her investment in the corporation stock. A lawsuit against the company generally cannot be satisfied by attaching the stockholder’s personal assets. In practice, most small corporation stockholders must personally guarantee bank loans for their corporations. Thus, if the corporation fails, the stockholder’s personal assets are at risk. In addition, where personal services are involved, the individual performing the services may be personally liable for his or her actions even though the business is incorporated.

The second advantage of operating as a corporation is that it may be easier to raise capital because the business can do so by issuing stock and selling bonds.

A third advantage is that ownership interest in a corporation is easier to transfer than in a sole proprietorship.

A corporation files its own tax return and pays its own income tax. Therein lies the major drawback to the corporate form: business profits may be taxed twice – once at the corporate level and again at the shareholder level when paid out as dividends or liquidating distributions. Double taxation can generally be avoided by electing S corporation or LLC status.

The corporate form does allow for more fringe benefits that are deductible by the corporation and tax-free to employees, including an owner-employee.

No business owner should incorporate without carefully considering the pros and cons of doing so.

What records should your business keep, and how long should you keep them? There are several categories of records that are important to a business, some for internal purposes and some for tax returns and other government requirements. Let’s take a look at these by category.

Tax records. First, consider the records you need to substantiate your annual income tax return. The IRS says that you must maintain adequate records, so support the items of income and expense that you claim. That means you must be able to produce receipts, invoices, cancelled checks, or banking records supporting expense items. Similarly, you should keep sales slips, invoices, or bank records to support income items.

Accounting records. Most businesses have adequate accounting systems to capture routine transactions, but not for nonroutine transactions such as the purchase of depreciable assets. When you buy a car, computer, or piece of office equipment, be sure to file all purchase documents, assign an inventory number, and immediately set up a depreciation schedule.

Travel and entertainment expenses. Good recordkeeping for travel and entertainment expenses is essential. Although the rules can be complex, in general you should capture where, when, who, how much, and the business purpose for each expense. A well-designed standard expense report form can help insure that your records contain all the required information. Also, if you have employees who drive on company business, make sure they keep an auto log showing the miles driven for each trip.

IRS audits. Generally, the IRS can audit a tax return for three years after the date it was due or the date the tax was paid, whichever is later. However, if there is a major understatement of income, they can audit for six years after the due date (or seven years after the tax year). For that reason, you should keep most income tax records for seven years. The IRS requires records relating to employment taxes to be kept for at least four years after the date of the return or the date the tax was paid, although here again a seven-year rule is safer.

Sales and Use Tax. State taxing athorities are focusing their audit activities by targeting small businesses sales and use tax. Keep invoices and reports showing your sales tax amounts and tie them to your sales and use tax filings. More importantly, keep records showing all your purchases and sales/use tax reporting. Include details behind any corporate credit card payments to defend the payment of sales and use taxes.

Corporate records. Every incorporated business needs good corporate records, including documents associated with forming the company, bylaws, business licenses, and minutes of all board meetings. Shareholder records should include stock registers and records of all share issuances and redemptions. Also keep copies of all contracts and leases. Finally, don’t forget current and terminated employee files, and records of employee pension or profit sharing plans. Most corporate and employee pension plan records should be kept indefinitely.

Computer recordkeeping. The IRS has established a series of rules and recommendations concerning how electronic records must be maintained. Generally, such records should contain the same information as paper records and should be kept for the same length of time.

If you start your own business, improve your chances for success by avoiding these common pitfalls.

Lack of money. You’ll probably need capital to start your business, plus a cash reserve until your business becomes self-sufficient. Plan your cash needs carefully and realistically, and provide a generous cushion for setbacks and unexpected expenses.

Consider leasing equipment instead of buying. If you must buy, look into used equipment.

If your business is going to need a start-up bank loan or other financing, obtain the money before you make any major commitments.

People problems. Make sure that you’ll be able to hire and pay for the employees you need, especially if your business requires specialized skills.

Evaluate your own business skills honestly and objectively. Do you have both the financial and marketing skills that your business will need, or do you plan to hire someone who does?

If you plan to take partners into your business, take a very close look at your potential partners. Partners don’t have to be best friends, but they should like one another. Even more important, they should have mutual trust and respect for the contribution each will make to the business.

It is always a good idea to draw up a partnership agreement so that each partner can examine in advance the pros and cons of the partnership arrangement. Have your tax advisor and your legal advisor review the agreement before the document is signed.

Be sure to line up qualified accounting and legal advisors, as well as any other experts you may need. Good advisors can mean the difference between success and failure, especially in the early days of your business.

Insufficient planning. Research your industry and your competition in depth, and prepare a written business plan covering several years. Write a short mission statement for your company, identify your target market, and state your business plans as specifically as possible.