Last year I had the privilege of`appearing on @carmcapriotto podcast, Remarkable Results. We had a fantastic time talking about how to take care of your business finances and a few things you need to know to have a successful business. Here are a few of the points we discussed.
Know Your Break Even Point
The first thing you need to know about your business’ finances is what your break even point is. What is the point where your income and your expenses balance out? In other words, at w
When it comes to finding the right person to help your business maintain your finances and bookkeeping, trust and comfort are at the top of our client’s priorities. The clients that chose to work with us asked us a bunch of questions before we began working together. And while I can’t tell you the exact questions they asked, I can tell you the kind of questions they asked and the key principles that convinced them we were the right fit.
Look For Value
The first topic our clients cove
One of the biggest and most consistent challenges that my clients face is payroll. All bookkeeping is repetitive, but payroll seems to come up more frequently and present more challenges, especially for smaller companies. One of the first things that I recommend to all my clients when I start helping them with their books is to take payroll off of their plates. Here are four reasons why.
Withholding Taxes Is Tricky
If you are an employer and you aren’t using independent contractors, th
As a bookkeeper, I have unfortunately seen companies fail. They don’t tend to fail overnight. In fact, most of the companies that fail do so for multiple reasons. But before they fail, there are several signs of problems. Three of the most common signs that I have seen are easy to catch and fix, if you know what they are.
Inconsistent Sales
Sales are what make your business a business and not a charity. But if your sales aren’t consistent, your business will begin to suffer. Most people w
One of the most common questions I get is “Why do I need a bookkeeper?” It’s usually accompanied by a “I can do it myself or have a friend help me for less.” I recently had a client I helped that demonstrates exactly what I do and how it helps. I won’t include their name, or any identifying information, but I want to share with you how the work I do impacts their business.
What a Disaster Looks Like
I don’t call errors a disaster lightly. A disaster means major problems. When I got my
Whether you like Tom Brady or not, you have to admit he is the Greatest Of All Time. I’m not a football person, but when I hear or read about his accomplishments, I’m amazed.
If your shop isn’t the greatest, do you know why? What is your vision for your auto repair shop?
One lesson I’ve learned is that you have to see where you want to be in the future. See where you want your shop to be in 3 years or 5 years. When you see this picture of your shop the way you want it to be, what does
Whew! We’re moving on from the PPP loan blog series to dispensing knowledge about the Employee Retention Credit. Hello IRS!
With all of the changes and tax time approaching ~2 months away, I hope you’re ready to go. If you haven’t already filed, here is some information that’s about two weeks old, so grab a cup of coffee as we dive into a summary of this credit.
This credit is designed to make it easier for businesses that chose to keep employees on their payroll through all the challe
The new 5,500+ page Covid Relief Bill is massive, and it will take many weeks to digest everything included in the legislation.
Here's what we know about business relief and PPP funds:
There is now streamlined forgiveness for PPP loans under $150K. This is a significant development for many so check with your lender about how they want that now to be handled.
There is also now an additional $284B in PPP funding for impacted businesses to access.
As you plan for your giving budget in this holiday season, remember that THIS YEAR ONLY (per the CARES Act), you can take the standard deduction, as well as up to $300 of cash donations. It has to be cash though, and it's up to $300 per return, so if you file jointly, it's still only $300.
(Since most people use the new higher standard deduction, charitable giving is not deductible. But this year, you can claim up to $300 on top of that standard deduction.)
With the end of 2020 fast approaching, we’re going to look at annual financial reports. Your shop’s financial report is being prepared and there are some steps for you to take. There are also steps you can take to prepare for a solid start to the new year.
The content of this blog comes from two checklists provided by Three Rivers Bookkeeping. If you would like copies of these checklists, ask by phone or email at the bottom of this post. I would love to deliver these useful tools to you.
Within this post we’re going to pull back the covers and take a look at what goes into a quarterly report. For this conversation we’ll be talking about privately owned auto repair shops only.
By definition a quarterly report is a summary or collection of unaudited financial statements. These include balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements. These are prepared by your bookkeeper every quarter (three months). Some quarterly reports may also include year-to- date figures and
Before this installment, I talked about the balance sheet and before that I educated you about the income statement. Let’s learn about your statement of cash flows and how to read it. My goal today is for you to totally understand the statement of cash flows
The statement of cash flows is also called the cash flow statement. It is a general-purpose financial statement and the numbers are related to the information on the balance sheet. When the balance sheet changes, so does the cash accoun
Check out this post to learn about the three parts of your balance sheet; Assets, Liabilities, and Equity. We’ll break them apart but first here’s a statement about a balance sheet in general.
A balance sheet is a financial statement that provides a snapshot of what a company owns and owes, as well as the amount invested by owners, investors and/or shareholders. In other words, the balance sheet shows a shop owner(s) the shop's net worth.
Now let’s talk about assets.
Within the as
Last time we took a quick look at three financial reports:
Balance sheet
Income statement
Statement of cash flows
We talked about how you should read/review each of these monthly like reading the financial GPS to your repair shop’s finances. How financially healthy is your shop?
Not-so-subtle hint, if you haven’t talked to your bookkeeper about the three reports, book an appointment with her today.
In this day and age, this is a bare minimum service that yo
Let's take a look at three financial reports, balance sheet, income statement, statement of cash flows. You should read/review each of these monthly. Looking at the numbers from these three reports is a clear picture of your shop’s financial health. This is a road map to planning your future.
Let’s begin with the balance sheet.
A balance sheet is a snapshot of your shop's financial condition at a moment in time. In the this article, we’re going to use a month as the bookkeeping period.
Are you thinking about hiring a bookkeeper to handle the day to day finances of your business but not sure of the price tag?
Not to worry, here at Three Rivers Bookkeeping, we want to give you as much information as possible so that you can make an informed decision about hiring a great bookkeeper.
What is the initial cost?
When outsourcing a new bookkeeper there might be some up front costs that are incurred and they can range anywhere from $200 - $5000.
Why can this range b
