What Outsourcing Can Do for Your Real Estate Accounting

The real estate business has been tough this year. From last year’s roller coaster ride of 2% interest rates and tight inventory causing crazy, over-list-price cash offers to today’s 6-plus percent mortgages with far fewer buyers and even fewer sellers, it’s been exhausting. But for real estate businesses like yours, the key to success is understanding and planning for the business cycles that make this industry both exhilarating and sometimes frustrating. To be successful in the long haul, you need sound business practices, and that is where good financial accounting systems are most critical.

They say that one of the most important keys to success is in managing cash flow. You can’t manage cash flow without reliable bookkeeping. Most real estate firms are first and foremost sales operations. So owners and managers need to be as close to 100% focused on sales. It harkens back to the old classic movie Glen Garry, Glen Ross’ famous line, “Always be closing.” While that is essentially true, in reality, owners are also running a business operation like any other, so they must find reliable infrastructure they can depend upon to make their working hours as hands-free as possible to dedicate as much time as possible managing a never-ending cycle of finding inventory, attracting buyers, and managing closings.

That is why outsourcing your accounting services process makes the most sense. In an outsourced scenario, you don’t need to hire staff or worry about software upgrades or training. If you hire the right business partner, your outsourced provider will have properly trained professionals who use the most up-to-date software. Instead of paying for expensive office space and salaries, a reliable monthly payment takes care of the overhead. Plus, you are assured that entries are made on time, deposits are properly logged, and any reporting you require is delivered when you need it. Your chart of accounts can be established professionally too, so when you review entries they make sense, are not duplicated or confusing, and help you to build financial reporting which all parties—including lenders—will be satisfied that you are running a professional operation.

Do you operate a real estate management company? Then you understand how important it is to have solid accounting systems in place to reconcile common area maintenance expenses as well as mortgages and interest payments. Your accounting professionals are also relied upon to keep track of agent commissions, rental payments and pre-payments, taxes, and more.

With all the administration involved, an outsourced accounting service can deliver your firm the maximum amount of efficiency without the hassle of hiring, training, and vacations, as well as the insurance costs of staffing. Best of all, an outsourced accounting service can grow or shrink as your business changes, so growth spurts or downsize issues are minimalized. Your outsourced provider can adapt to your changing needs as the industry demands.

If the idea of outsourcing your real estate business accounting sounds like an interesting idea, and you want to learn more, we encourage you to contact us for a no-obligation consultation by clicking here.

Is Your Healthcare Practice Fiscally Healthy?

Just because your practice is busy doesn’t mean you are running a financially sound business. We routinely speak to healthcare practices experiencing poor performance despite reporting packed patient appointment calendars. However, if you don’t accurately track your cash flow, record your expenses on time, or have good systems in place for billing and collections, your practice might be heading for the red.

Of course, as a medical practice, care facility, or clinic, medical professionals must serve many masters in the payment chain, so if accounting, billing, and collections systems are inadequate, things can go haywire in a short time. Besides billing patients, healthcare organizations must have systems in place for handling multiple insurance platforms, which, as everyone knows, can range from capitation programs, where the insurer provides a set dollar per month with overages left to the patient, per diem rates (a set fee per day) or a schedule based on the procedure. And then there are Medicare and Medicaid patients who rely on yet another set of rules. Needless to say, if cash flow is an issue, billing software performance is certainly the best first place to examine. That’s because errors or unchecked issues with any of your stakeholders—patients, payor organizations, or the government—could be starving your practice of income.

To keep a healthy practice, your accounting professional should be providing you with information that is the key to building a successful practice. For example:

- Providing oversight that invoicing and accounts payables are timely and correct.
- Helping you to develop an annual budget, and measuring both expense and revenue against budget
- Design and produce accounting reports required to measure various performance indicators
- Develop ways to track your reimbursements
- Develop budget allocations from your annual budget plan
- Develop financial reporting to track performance, comply with any loans or bank covenants, and aid in future planning.

In addition, like any other business, the accounting staff and outside professionals work together to develop proper bookkeeping records, payroll requirements (including the assurance that adequate withholding and retirement deposits are made in a timely manner) and that your time and billing systems are tracking payables and receivables.

If any of your current systems are limited in their ability to deliver required reporting, or are simply out of date for today’s efficiency and patient security needs, it may be time to consider a formal system review. In this way, you can also see what competitive products are available that have features to enable the practice to keep pace with the automated needs of today’s practice. Even simple upgrades like patient portals and online payment options might facilitate improved customer experience while at the same time delivering improved cash flow and reduced appointment no-shows.

It is always a smart idea to sit with your accountant at least once a year (but twice a year or even quarterly might be more beneficial, depending on your unique situation) to discuss planning, review performance, and determine steps and best practices for the business. This includes tax planning and staffing needs, as well as large purchase planning.

If you feel that your practice is not getting the oversight you feel is required to build a healthier business, you may want to reach out to our team for a no-obligation conversation about your issues, goals, and aspirations for success. We look forward to your inquiry.

Building a better Accounting System for Your Construction Business

There is something very special about having a construction business. Every day, you have the chance to create a new world in a very real way. Turning concepts into structures that will withstand decades of traffic, people, or perhaps inventory requires skill, training, and vision. It also requires the ability to keep track of thousands of budget items, purchases, and sub-contractors. Many contractors who do exceptional work have fallen prey to flawed accounting systems that failed to help them manage costs, cash flow, and the capital needs of their vulnerable businesses.

Your accounting system is like the plumbing of a building—it keeps the circulation of cash and expenses flowing properly to allow your business to keep moving forward. Cash makes things happen; your accounting system makes sure that cash does the right thing at the right time.

Nobody goes into the construction business because they like the accounting side of things. Yet, as an owner, you understand that an accounting system (and the people who manage it) must be as meticulous as the tools you use to create and restore. Pardon the pun, but dull and rusty just do not cut it. That is why outsourcing your accounting services can make sense for your growing construction business.

Why Outsource?

When we build an organization, there is a natural, albeit old fashion, tendency to want to hire and create teams that are “yours” to oversee as you see fit. However, outsourcing your accounting function provides several inherent benefits to your business. First, you don’t need to hassle with the endless hiring and training of personnel, which, in all fairness, as a construction expert, accounting may not be your first language. Without the people, you have less worry about bonuses, vacations, insurance, compliances, etc. that go along with the people side of running any business. And, fewer people means more room in your physical operations for other things, like equipment, storage, or other critical staff.

An outsourced service does not go on vacation. More importantly, the outsourced firm will hire and train the best people, folks who work on the most recent software every day, and have the experience to know and understand the nuances of your construction business, too.

Outsourcing lets you manage costs, too. And if your business grows, your outsourced resource can grow or shrink to deliver whatever you need.

You also will find that an outsourced service has the motivation to be timely, accurate and responsive to your inquiries. That includes building a professionally-developed chart of accounts to create reports that make sense while providing insights to help you better understand the health of your business—as well as where adjustments might need to be made—to make improvements.

Making the transition to outsourcing is not as difficult as you may think. While you may have resistance from existing internal personnel, we often find employees are relieved to know that they can be rechanneled to perform other work while the accounting task is transferred into trusting hands.

From controlling costs and managing cash flow to improved communications and better reporting, an outsourced accounting service may be just what your business construction business needs to run more financially efficiently, while at the same time permitting you to devote more time working on other, more pressing matters.

If outsourcing seems like an interesting idea for your construction business, we encourage you to reach out to us for a no-obligation consultation about how our outsourcing solutions might make sense for your operations. We think you will be surprised to learn how easy and cost-effective the transition can be.

5 Business Deductions for Trucking Taxes

Nobody enjoys paying taxes. As a trucking operation, taxes are a major cost of doing business. Between fuel, tolls, and taxes on tires, parts, and of course Federal income tax, your company has plenty of reasons to keep a sharp eye on how to mitigate your tax obligations.

Luckily, the IRS tax code provides at least a few deduction opportunities that could end up saving your trucking business big dollars. Here is a quick list of five business deductions that can save you on your taxes this year:

1. Medical Expenses and premiums

If you are not covered by a spouse’s employer and your company is covering your medical expenses, these costs, including your insurance premiums, may be deductible.

2. Technology

These days every business, including trucking, relies on technology to conduct business and stay ahead of a fast-changing business environment. The good news is things like cell phones, GPS devices, laptops, printers, and software are probably deductible. So are expenses related to your office; even those small things like copying, postage, pens, paper, etc. are supplies that you may deduct–even envelopes and business cards—that appear to be small expenses until you add up these costs over the course of a year.

3. Membership Dues and Fees

If you belong to an association, did you know that those dues are deductible? So are fees you might pay related to dispatching, as well as the cost of your CDL license. Subscriptions to publications related to your business are also deductible.

4. Uniforms and Equipment

As small business, you can deduct special uniforms or work clothes. But that’s not all. You can also deduct the cost you incur for items related to doing your job, including things like equipment blankets, chains, and tools, as well as locks or straps used to perform your work.

5. Road Expenses

From meals and business travel expenses to the fuel you buy related to your trucking business may be deductible expenses.

A Word About the Section 179 Deduction

We would be remiss if we didn’t mention the opportunity you have as a small business to take advantage or the Section 179 Deduction. The tax code offers this unique deduction for businesses as an incentive to invest in new equipment. The 179 Deduction was designed specifically for small business. It offers a small business to take accelerated deduction of up to $1.08 million in depreciation on up to $2.7 million in purchases in a single calendar year. That means you can deduct the full purchase (or lease) price of equipment—including most business vehicles like cargo vans—in the year purchased. It can be used for machinery, like presses, packaging equipment, or even software investments or support equipment fork lifts. And yes, most over the road tractor trailers should qualify for the deduction. There are special rules for vehicles over 6,000 pounds. You can read more about depreciation deduction on the IRS document referenced here.

With all of these opportunities to save money on your taxes, you would more than likely find that doing your own Federal and State Taxes, as well as your required quarterly tax filings, might be a bit much to handle yourself. To ensure you get the maximum deductions possible, feel free to reach out to our office for a no-obligation consultation about your unique situation.

Accounting for Trucking: 10 Facts to Know

The thing about the trucking business that makes it special is, well, that truckers love the road. Paperwork? Well, maybe not so much. So, getting help with your business accounting is the very best way you can keep your attention on the work you like best.

So, first of all, let’s start with the basics. What is accounting and why should you pay attention to your business accounting?

According to the website Investopedia, accounting is “the process of recording financial transactions pertaining to a business. The accounting process includes summarizing, analyzing, and reporting these transactions to oversight agencies, regulators, and tax collection entities. The financial statements used in accounting are a concise summary of financial transactions over an accounting period, summarizing a company’s operations, financial position, and cash flows.”

So, in plain English, when someone says they are doing accounting work, they could be doing any number of activities related to the books and records that tell the story of your business in terms of money spent, money earned, and money owed. Pretty important stuff.

If all this seems a bit overwhelming, let’s consider these ten things about accounting for your trucking business.

1. Your Books and Records

This is the financial history book of expenses, payments, and deposits made in your business for the year. Good records provide reliable information about the health of your company and is the foundation for financial management and planning.

2. Tracking Expenses, Not Just Writing Checks

Many individuals who own a small business run their company finances out of a check book. But if you want to be successful, you need to track where your money is coming from and where it is being spent. That means tracking expenses by category, amount and date. By doing so, you will start to realize that certain expenses can be economized by rethinking the way you buy. Running to the copy center to make a few expensive copies every other day? How about buying a printer with a copy and scan function instead? Are you writing out invoices on a word processor? Maybe a software that can write invoices and keep track of your outstanding invoices might be more efficient, especially as you get busier and tracking who owes you by memory is no longer an efficient way to work. It all starts with the mindset of tracking expenses instead of just your checkbook.

3. Tax Planning

Getting the most out of the tax code requires some planning on your part. Your tax professional can help you in this department. By sitting down and planning out your known expenses and anticipated income, you can make decisions that will let you leverage deductions available to you and avoid paying additional taxes needlessly. Sometimes a little tax planning will tell you when to make a large purchase—and when it may be best to postpone it to the new year. Since the tax laws change every year, its an idea that every small business should avail themselves. An hour or two of professional conversation might save you thousands in additional tax expenses.

4. Knowing What to File…and When

Trucking businesses have some complicated tax matter to navigate. From fuel tax reporting to state and local nexus issues, the way you conduct your business can have a huge impact on when and where you might need to file important documents. A tax professional can help you navigate this reporting schedule—especially if you have employees—in order to avoid problems with the IRS, the Department of Labor and your state and local tax officials.

5. Knowing What Receipts to Keep

Record keeping is not just a matter of keeping copies of your invoices. So many small expenses are critical to substantiate your on the road expenses. From meals and fuel to repairs and supplies, those small items need to be recorded and receipts saved in an orderly manner to protect yourself down the road if officials ask questions. This is even more important when it comes to contracts, agreements, and insurance policies. Best practice is to keep things like insurance policies in a fire-proof safe place…forever.

6. Profit and Loss

Are you making money or not? If you don’t understand what your true expenses, how do you know that what you charge is generating enough profit to be a worthwhile endeavor? If you lose money on short runs, why do them? Unless there is a strategic reason for spending your time and money on losing activities, wouldn’t it make sense to stop such practices? After a while, a business that consistently loses money is considered a hobby, not a business. To be successful, we urge you to analyze your profit and losses to determine your true costs and arrive at a fee, or hourly rate that your business must achieve to operate at a profit. You should know how much revenue is required to bring on another team member, and what it costs to run your rig every day, including insurance, labor, repair, taxes, etc. Knowing the true cost of doing business is surprisingly not everyone’s top of mind. Many small business owners don’t take the time, and for this reason, they are not successful, or at least as successful as they could be in the long term.

One other thought on this matter. When you know the key performance indicators that drive your business and the true costs of producing your product or service, you can make smart decisions. For example, driving old equipment that is paid for may sound like a cheaper way to work. However, if you know that the old equipment is less efficient, costs more in fuel, requires hundreds of dollars a month in repairs and is more expensive to insure, the actual cost of leasing or buying new equipment over time may actually be more cost-effective while increasing your productivity. If you take this logic to every aspect of your business, you will quickly find great satisfaction in knowing you are running a lean, mean profit machine.

6. Most of my income goes to bills. How do I save for retirement? How do I get started?

No doubt, it’s a hard battle. Yet, as difficult as it might be when you are young, think of how tough making ends meet will be decades from now when you are ready to retire, or if you are forced into retirement due to a disability? Even a small amount of savings every week will make a difference. If you have $20 or $50 a paycheck automatically removed, chances are you won’t even miss the money after a while. Some advisors say taking the cost of a cup of coffee at a Starbucks every day from your budget and moving it to savings could make you a millionaire in 40 years. The point, of course, is that even small amounts at the beginning will deliver you real savings in a few years. The earlier you start, the better off you will be in retirement.

7. Buy or Lease Decisions

As discussed above, the lease verses buy decision depends upon many factors in your financial situation. Leasing is an excellent way to buy the newest equipment every few years without the capital outlay required of an outright purchase. However, one must look at the cost of financing instead of the lease cost. Today’s rising interest costs may make leasing a better value, particularly if bonus services and maintenance are part of the plan. Upfront costs, like deposits and security may impact your decision, as well as mileage overcharge that may impact the back end of your purchase. Often, owners are swayed one way or the other on the basis of cashflow and the upfront costs. Remember, too, that a section 179 Deduction may apply to either a lease or purchase decision, meaning that your transaction may be partially or completely deductible in the current tax year. A few minutes on the phone with your tax consultant might help you decide what the most advantageous way to go might be for your current situation.

8. Payroll and Keeping in Compliance with Labor Rules

Between state labor boards, unemployment and tax withholdings, the small expense of having someone handle your payroll is so far and above worthwhile no argument can be made to the contrary. If you fail to make payments in a timely manner or underpay, your business can face painful scrutiny and penalties from authorities.

9. Financial Statements and Banking Compliance

If you borrow money from a financial institution, they may require that you provide them with some kind of financial statement periodically, but most certainly on an annual basis. To avoid issues, this is another area where your accounting professional can help you handle the compliance reporting while you concentrate on running your business.

10. Cash Flow Analysis

Having your accountant prepare a cash flow analysis is an important step in determining where your is today and where it may be going, financially. A cash flow analysis will help you understand where the money you earn is going, who you are paying and when, and if there are better ways to manage payments to keep more cash on hand for tougher times. Again, your accounting professional is well versed in putting these important puzzle pieces together and helping to guide you to a better understanding of what is working and what needs to be improved in your business. They can help you manage your payables, of course, but they can also recommend ways to improve your receivables as well as give you insight as to which of your customers are A-listers and which ones should probably be replaced with new business.

Understanding these ten financial factors in your business—and getting professional assistance when it makes the most sense—will help you build a better business and create more profit opportunities moving forward. If you are interested in discussing any of these matters discussed above, feel free to reach out to our company for a no-obligation consultation.

Is Your Accounting System Stealing Your Profits?

Is your accounting system stealing your profits?

Your books and records are the forensic roadmap for your business’s performance and general health. Very small businesses often run their operations off of a checkbook, but everyone soon learns that it is impossible to operate in that manner as the sheer size of purchases, invoices and expenses becomes overwhelming to track in one’s head. Effective bookkeeping tracks payables, expenses, vendor usage, credits, and invoices due and outstanding. Imagine if you could not rely on this information because it was not properly set up from the start? Chaos.

While designed to help keep your business healthy, a poorly constructed or sloppy execution of your books and records can end up stealing your profits, robbing you of efficiency; causing double entries, lost payments, and even impacting credit and vendor relationships.

Common issues with substandard accounting systems include:

Poor cash flow—even if business has been good
Mis-labeled expenses entered into the wrong account
Missing entries, causing the books to not be able to be balanced
Double entries, causing double credits or double payments, also hindering the balancing of books.
The possibility of fraud to happen without your knowledge
Inability to make any good financial decisions
No planning
Ultimate financial instability due to inability to understand costs, expenses, etc.

While it would appear that your accounting system is a “set it and forget it” type of software issue, the fact is, it is much more complex and requires ongoing maintenance and scrutiny. If you accounting system is not performing as expected, you are probably coming to this realization due to one of the above mentioned issues. This means, damage is already being done to your business.

For this reason, it is important to bring in a professional outsource to inspect your accounting system and assess the areas that may need to be improved, abandoned, or replaced.

Is a new accounting software the right move?

Now that businesses have access to many excellent applications available, it is possible that replacing your accounting system will actually save you money in a short amount of time. Analysis of any new accounting system should include an overview of the system’s functionality to ensure it will deliver the reporting you require, as well proof that their support and service is competent (and reasonably affordable) especially after any initial support period has expired. The stability of the company is also an important consideration. Mergers and failures are common in the software industry, so there is little point in investing in a system that is going to be dead ended in the near future.

Another important consideration in finding a new accounting system is compatibility. Will the system port easily with other data sources (inventory, or your CRM, for example) or will it be a patchwork situation?

Other options

But before considering expensive software, a conversation with an accounting professional can help you improve structural matters that may be impacting the performance of information. You may have a poorly constructed chart of accounts, for example, and, while data is being properly input into the system, it is labeled in such a way as to not provide valuable reporting critical to operating your business. For example, if parts purchases are not properly categorized, you may not be able to differentiate between inventory purchases and supplies that are utilized internally.

Another deficiency that commonly surfaces is the lack of training or skillsets of the internal staff working on the system. While proper training may resolve these problems, it may actually be more efficient and cost-effective to outsource the entire task. An outsourced solution will provide you with a predictable level of expertise, back up if someone becomes ill, and assurance that you will always be utilizing today’s most up to date software solutions. An outsource is also a manageable expense that requires no HR perks, such as retirement plans, unemployment set asides, and mandatory personal days. Simply write a check every month and be done with the task.

If you suspect your accounting system may be stealing from your business, perhaps it might be time to consider talking to an accounting professional about your situation to determine next steps. Feel free to reach out to ZMC & Associates for a no-obligation conversation at your earliest convenience.