Entrepreneurs are visionaries and captains of the ships they steer. They have to wear many hats and have to be experts in their trade. However, there are many responsibilities that business owners can release to an expert, who will make sure they are done correctly. One of those things is taxes.
If you have solid bookkeeping practices all year long, you can turn the information collected over to your accountant for easy, accurate, and timely filed returns. For extra help, SayEducate.com shares some methods you can implement in your business to make the next tax season run smoothly.
Upgrade Payroll
While established companies have systems set in place to pay payroll taxes, it’s worth examining your current payroll method to determine whether or not you need a new upgrade. First, make sure you’re properly designating exempt and non-exempt employees. This will help ensure you’re withholding taxes properly and are in compliance with local, state, and federal laws.
Next, Deel suggests using a platform that automates payroll tax calculations and payments and gives you easy access to payroll reports that you can share with your accountant. Check out payroll software that can be integrated directly with your timekeeping software.
Also, accounting software like this allows for paycheck direct deposit, which gives you the ability to run payroll at your convenience and avoid the hassle of dealing with paper checks. All the better if you can also manage your staff and encourage your team from one central spot.
Automate Bill Payments
Paying bills each month can be a headache if you use the traditional paper statement and checkbook method. It requires you to sit down each month to not only evaluate statements that come in but to also take the time to issue payments, send them out, and ensure delivery. Especially if you have recurring payments, you would be better served to automate your payments.
This means that you could have your bills sent automatically to your bill payer, have the bill payer make the payments at a set time every month, and have them delivered on time through electronic payments.
Bill.com points out that automated bill payments allow you to easily track expenses throughout the year, make sure your accounts are current, and establish a consistent payment history with vendors or utility services.
Automate Internal Billing
Automated internal billing can make a world of difference in your business operations. If you don’t already have a program that does this for you, it’s time to get one. Or, if you have a program but don’t use all of its features, it’s time to learn how it works.
A good program will help you establish pricing models, send out invoices, provide payment options, track payments, generate revenue reports, and more. Consistency in billing can help you prove what is genuinely uncollectible debt.
This is valuable information that can be provided to your accountant so they can understand your business revenue stream, and you won’t have to scramble to fund what’s been paid or not through the year.
other valuable tips from our business blog (new win):
Too Much Off the Bottom Line? How to Ease the Tax Burden on Your Business
Accurate Bookkeeping
It’s crucial to keep accurate books as you go. Trying to remember business expenses and what they were used for later on down the road is tricky. Finding a system that electronically stores receipts and invoices will help create the big picture and not leave you scrambling at the end of the year to issue reimbursements or trying to substantiate potential deductions.
It can also be helpful to use online tools that allow for fast PDF to Word conversions for document management. This is particularly helpful if you have quite a bit of business travel or are investing in business improvements. Your accountant will value the details and be able to make accurate deductions based on the records.
No one knows your business as you do, and only you can set it up for success. By investing time now to make necessary changes to the way you track things like payroll, expenses, and income—and by making a lot of the tracking digital—you can give your accountant reports at the end of the year that help them see the big picture.
Image Credit: make the tax filing process more efficient by envato.com
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