I talk to small business owners every day.  I admire their talents and adventurous spirits and it is a joy to work closely with them.  Most of these entrepreneurs are phenomenal at what they do and produce valuable, high-quality products and services.    The fact that the entrepreneur’s business is running suggests that he or she is also at least a half-decent marketer.  But most will not hesitate to admit that they are not great accountants.  While by admission they are not trained accountants, they often feel that there accounting is “taken care of.”  What they really mean is that there employees are getting paychecks, their vendors are being paid, and their taxes have been filed.  Phew!  That’s what it’s all about, right?  Do we do accounting because we have to do it to keep the IRS as far away from us as possible?  Most small businesses do.  And it’s a shame!

Doing accounting “because the IRS says we have to”  is like ordering an ice cream cone minus the ice cream! The barely edible styrofoam cone certainly serves a purpose and is necessary to keep us out of a sticky mess.  But the real value in the ice cream cone is the delicious scoop of ice cream on top.  The most successful business owners don’t do their accounting to prepare a tax return, much like they do not order an ice cream cone for the bland cone.  We should do accounting because it provides a wealth of tasty information that will help us to make and keep more money.  Good accounting will make you multiples of it’s cost!

Below are some questions that successful  business owners ask and answer frequently.  Whether or not you do business with us, if you will ask and answer these questions every month, your business will benefit.

• How do last April’s expenses compare to this April’s expenses, and why?
• What types of advertising are paying off, and which aren’t?
• What is historically my most profitable month?
• Which month is always terrible, and what can I do now to improve it next year?
• How do my overhead costs compare to my competitors’, and how can I reduce them?
• When I go to the bank for a business loan next month, are my financial ratios going to be good enough?
• What could a 5% increase in price do for my bottom line?

Questions like these, my friends, are the delicious ice cream that is so often entirely ignored and wasted.  The small business owner often has neither the time or accounting knowledge to answer these questions.  They are flying blind!  We can help.

At Universal Accounting Services, we provide our clients with peace of mind.  They know that their accounting is being done accurately and timely.  More importantly, we help them to understand their business accounting by meeting with them monthly to review financial information and ask questions that result in growth and increased profits.  If you feel that we can help you or someone you know to maximize their profits, minimize their taxes, and optimize their cash flow, let us know!  It’s what we do.

Tough Economy Hitting You Hard? Fight Back!

Have you been hit hard by the recession?  Are you finding that your margin of error in managing your business is gone?   Never before has it been more important to fully understand and manage your business by the numbers.  Accounting is the language of business.  It’s not enough to do the work anymore, especially when the quantity of work may be down.  It is critical to fight back by cornering your expenses and profitability.

With a great accountant in your corner (Cut me, Mick!),  you too can be a champ.  As in any good fight, it’s about being strong on the fundamentals, keeping your guard up, keeping your feet moving, and knowing when to punch.  We have helped many other small businesses stand toe-to-toe with the toughest economic challenges.  Let us train you for your main event, so you can be the contender you were meant to be.   We will get your numbers in order so you can more clearly see the opportunities in your business to book more income and to cut unprofitable expenses.   We’ll break it down for you by customer, by product, by employee, by department, by geography, by ad source, and any other way you need it to pinpoint poor performing components of your business, and realocate resources to the high performing components.  We’ll cut unnecessary expenses due to late fees, penalties, and interest.  We’ll make your business a lean, mean, money machine.

Contact us today to get your business up off the mat, back in the fight, and dominating your competition.   Ask about our complementary business benchmarking report that will show you exactly how you’re doing overall and specifically in regard to similar businesses of the same size in your industry nationwide.  This is regularly a $300 consultation.

STEVE ECKMAN
(801) 550-7808
stevene@universalaccounting.com

Would you ever drive your car blindfolded? Obviously, not!

Nonetheless, every day millions of business owners drive their businesses without knowing their financial locations: where they have been, where they are, and where they are going. That sure sounds blindfolded to us.

As your profit and growth expert, our primary role is to ensure that you have the historical data that will tell you where you have been and where you currently are. With that information we can provide a professional consultation that will help you determine where you want to go while creating an action plan that will help you get there.

With this 360 degree view of your business, you can plan effectively and then track your progress against your goals. It will also help you anticipate obstacles so that, when encountered, you can easily maneuver around them rather than allowing them to slow you down.

With our help you can’t go wrong.

You want an accounting system that gives you peace of mind while increasing your bottom line. We’re guessing that you also want to reduce taxes, improve cash flow, and manage your business more profitably.

That’s what we do best! Work with us, and select the accounting system that best suits your business’s needs:

1. Receive training to use a system exclusively designed for your business, OR
2. Have us completely manage a custom-designed system at an affordable cost

What Can We Do for Your Business

Wholesale / Retail / Service
Have complete control systems for Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, and Inventory.

TV / Automotive / Furniture
Properly account for Contracts in Transit, Bank Reserve Accounts, and Flooring of Products for Resale (inventory financing). Maintain control of income and expenses.

Manufacturing
Control Raw Materials, Direct Labor, Work in Progress, and Finished Goods. Keep expenses categorized into Manufacturing and General Overhead areas.

Construction
Easily track profits or losses on each job in progress. Control cash flow based on percentages of completion. Minimize losses from under-billings created through change orders.

Professional
Control expenses and income for year-end savings. Take advantage of conversion from cash-to-accrual accounting. Manage Accounts Receivable and improve Collections.

Food / Cafe / Beauty
Utilize a combination of Cash and Accrual statements. Have a low-cost, low-maintenance accounting system.

Enjoy an accounting system designed specifically for your business that shows where you stand at all times. Simplify the books that maintain all your financial data:

• Cash Receipts
• Deposits
• Charge Accounts
• Credit Purchases
• Cash Purchases
• Bank Reconciliations
• Depreciation
• Adjusting Entries
• Inventory Control
• Reconciliations
• Income Statements
• Balance Sheets
• Individual Accounts Receivable Records
• Individual Accounts Payable Records
• Payroll Journal
• Individual Payroll Records
• Property, Plant and Equipment Records

Incredible Benefits You Will Enjoy

Your accounting system will be tailored to your business. You can do it, I can do it, or we can do it together.

Your bookkeeping/accounting costs will be substantially reduced.

Your personnel will be free to produce more profits for you.

We can help you acquire funding for your business through financing, investors, and other means.

You will receive properly-designed financial statements that will allow you to manage your business efficiently and help you better plan for the future.

Choose from hand-posted or computerized programs specifically tailored to meet your accounting needs.

Streamline the accounting task, and free up your valuable time. [Consider this: the average small business owner spends over 10 hours personally, each month, accounting for the business. If your average billing rate is $50 per hour, you may be spending more than $500 of your time per month.]

How Would You Describe Your Business?

• Steady and stable
• Growing fast
• Hanging in there
• Brand new

If your business is steady and stable or growing fast, then congratulations! But IT IS POSSIBLE for your business to improve and generate more profits!

If you’re just hanging in there, you can turn things around . . . FAST!

If your business is brand new, don’t make expensive mistakes that will mean be the difference between success and failure!

No matter which of these groups describes your business, you can benefit from these small business services that can save you both time and money!

Accounting is a core business function. Without accounting, a business is sure to fail. With accounting, a business might survive. With accounting managed by a Profit Center Expert, a business is certain to succeed.

You’re probably already familiar with the bleak forecast for new small businesses. While failure rates have decreased considerably in the last few years, recent studies from the Small Business Administration (SBA) indicate that one third of new employer establishments fail within the first two years, and 56% fail within four years.

Poor financial management is often cited as the reason for most small business failures. Often the business owner or a member of the business team manages this crucial function because they want to maintain complete control of their business, they’re afraid that outsourcing the accounting would be too expensive, or a combination of the two. What they don’t realize is that outsourcing is a useful management tool that can save a business both time and money while preventing potential failure. And when you outsource to the right accountant, it can be the difference between base survival and profitable success.

The Benefits

There are countless benefits you enjoy when outsourcing your accounting. Here are just a few:

Save Yourself Time. You’re in business because you’re good at what you do. Your expertise involves the product and/or service you offer. And we’re guessing your expertise is not accounting. So if you, or anyone on your team, spend time managing your business’s finances, that’s time that could be better spent building your business.

In order to be competitive you must constantly be looking for ways to improve and expand your products and/or services, better market your business, and stay ahead of your competition. When you and your team focus time and attention on the accounting, that’s time not spent on these crucial tasks. When you outsource the accounting to a trusted professional, you can use that time to make your business the best it can be.

Save Yourself Money. We all know time is money. The average small business owner spends over 10 hours personally, each month, accounting for the business. If your average billing rate is $50 per hour, you may be spending more than five hundred dollars’ worth of your time! Chances are you easily can pay for a good accountant and then some with all that money.

Gain Access to Valuable Accounting Expertise, Equipment, and Technology. Reputable accountants have the expertise to not only save you money, but to make your business more profitable. In addition to that, they have access to equipment and technology that most small businesses can’t afford. They will use their resources to your advantage and save you the time and headache of doing it yourself.

Gain Access to Profit-Building Information. A truly valuable accountant is also a Profit Center Expert. They analyze financial data in order to assist you in making profitable decisions for your business. A Profit Center Expert can inform you which products and/or services to expand, which to eliminate, whether your marketing attempts are successful, where you’re loosing money, and where to cut back in order to save and redirect funds in order to become more profitable.

Call us for a free, no-obligation consultation. We can customize a package of services that is competitively priced and designed to save you time, energy, and headache. We offer the following services:

Accounts Payable

• Input vendor invoices to payable system
• Classify invoices to the proper G/L account
• Request and maintain vendor W-9 information
• Maintain vendor master files
• Respond to vendor inquiries about payment status
• Retrieve copies of payments as necessary
• Prepare and file required 1099 forms
• Process requests for stop payments when necessary
• Cut checks to vendors based on due dates or client instruction
• Reconcile vendor statements to accounts payable ledger
• Reporting to organization on detailed aged payables and cash requirements
• Process year-end 1099 forms

Accounts Receivable

• Prepare and mail billings as needed (all billings provided to client for approval prior to mailing)
• Record and account for revenue
• Input receivable transactions into the accounting system
• Prepare and deliver periodic statements
• Issue client-approved credit memos and refund checks
• Maintain subsidiary receivables ledger
• Process client-approved adjustments
• Apply cash received to customer accounts and resolve “short pays”
• Perform low-level phone collections as needed by client

Cash management

• Process daily sales and deposit reports
• Verify daily deposits and report variances
• Reconcile and verify credit card deposits
• Reconcile monthly bank statements

Journal entry and general ledger

Account reconciliations

Payroll

• Time cards, after approval, will be scanned and uploaded prior to payday
• Complete payroll while client prints, signs and distributes paychecks
• Prepare employee earnings statements complete with current pay period and year-to-date wages, taxes, and adjustments
• Prepare department summaries of month-to-date payroll data in addition to customized reports specific to client
• Prepares timely and accurate notifications of tax liabilities and deposits
• Completes year-end W-2 forms
• Respond to requests for employee verifications
• Process and submit garnishment payments
• Respond to employee payroll inquiries
• Prepare and file new hire reporting to state
• Prepare, file, and pay all federal, state, and local payroll taxes
• Reconcile health insurance payments and make payroll deductions when required
• Prepare necessary HR reports such as turnover
• Allocate payroll expenses for multi-store employees
• Prepare and process payroll accruals when necessary

Monthly Closing

Fixed assets accounting & depreciation

Monthly financial analysis and reports

Yearly Business Assessments

Don’t wait another day to partner with a Profit Center Expert (PCE) and make your business more successful. Do what you love to do more; let your PCE take care of the rest. Call now for a free, no-obligation consultation.

Not only is our company genuinely interested in your business’s success, we are also dedicated to providing you with a broad variety of business accounting services at a very affordable price.

We want you to feel like you are our only client. If you have a priority, it becomes our priority, and we will quickly supply the answers you need to run your business profitably. Regardless of company size, our clients should expect our utmost attention.

In working with us, you have access to all the resources of a full-service accounting provider. We have the capacity to fulfill virtually all of your accounting needs; and if we can’t we will connect you with professionals who can.

There’s one distinguishing difference between tax planning and tax preparation: December 31st. In order to be beneficial, tax planning must occur before the end of the year while tax preparation can only take place after year’s end. Although we can’t promise to eliminate taxes, our tax planning and preparation services will help you minimize them.

Tax planning is an important step in reducing taxes. Together, throughout the year, we will discuss various tax strategies that could potentially save you thousands of dollars. This will enable you to make all the necessary adjustments before the end of the year so that you have some control over how much you pay in taxes.

Then, after year’s end and with your help, we will see that your taxes are professionally prepared in a timely fashion in order to avoid ate fees. In order to provide you with such services, we have certified Professional Tax Preparers on staff that will assess your tax liability.

We trust that if you were forming a team for an upcoming golf tournament, you would want to recruit an expert like Tiger Woods.

Although we may not be the golfer Tiger Woods is, we do take our job as your Profit and Growth Expert just as seriously. While our goal is not to minimize your golf swings, we do aim to maximize your profit dollars. This entails a monthly analysis of your financial results, consultation in areas of profit improvement, and the implementation of strategies designed to lower your tax liability.

Together, we will examine past experiences, determine where you want your business to go, and discuss how that can happen. That’s our role as your Profit and Growth Expert.

As your accounting professional and Profit and Growth Expert we apply The Universal Business Model to help maximize the profitability of your business. Each month we apply our financial expertise, combined with access to a variety of analytical tools, to assess your business’s financial position and progress.

With our help you can improve your business’s financial position using  The Wisdom Pyramid.  Here’s a short list of what you will accomplish:

• Know how your business stacks up against the competition using the professional business assessment we provide.
• Recognize your business’s strengths and weaknesses, and use that awareness to improve your profitability.  Consider this a Day with your CFO.
• Identify trends that expose what is both helping and hindering to your business.
• Take advantage of tax benefits through regular reviews of your tax position.

By gathering the necessary information through the bookkeeping and accounting process, we will analyze the data and help you make the changes required to improve your business’s profitability. Whether you need a financial audit or review, we can help move your business forward.

Only about 1 out of 30 businesses are required to have an audit performed by a Certified Public Accountant, CPA. Some businesses have them performed because the bank from which they seek financing requires it. Other businesses seek audits because they plan to be publicly traded. Regardless of the reason, an audit can be costly.

An audit must be performed by an independent CPA — one that is not presently involved in the business in any way. Although, as your Profit and Growth Expert, we can’t perform the audit, we can assist you in locating an auditor who will provide this service in a professional and cost effective way, if you find your business in one of these relatively rare situations.

We have qualified individuals on staff with various levels of experience and credentials–from Certified Professional Bookkeepers to Professional Tax Preparers to QuickBooks Specialists–all of which can provide you with the peace of mind you deserve.