If you just started your first business, chances are you feel overwhelmed with accounting! Read below for insight from our Tampa Bookkeeper.
Growing a Small Business is hard enough, let a Tampa Bookkeeper help you take care of the accounting piece so you can focus on scaling!
3 Small Business Accounting tips & tricks:
Tracking and categorizing expenses
Developing a budget
Compliance 101
1 - Tracking and categorizing expenses is the key to paying lower taxes! Why proper Bookkeeping is crucial.
Small business owners need to know that tracking and categorizing expenses is one of the most overlooked but core parts of paying less in taxes! Many business owners run expenses through a myriad of accounts (business and personal) and often overlook expenses because they're so displaced and they forget to turn over every stone.
Making sure you start off on the right foot, being organized, and having a chart of accounts for categorizing expenses, will save you hours upon hours come tax time! More expenses = less paid in taxes. But when you're disorganized, you can be overlooking easy deductions.
It can't be overstated enough how important it is to have solid accounting software early on. Having accounting software in place helps you make sure you're recording all income and expenses, saves you time during tax season from scouring bank statements line by line, and helps you create real-time financial statements for decision-making.
If you don't have accounting software, you likely don't know your profits or expenses, so it'd be fairly difficult to do any type of tax planning to be proactive due to the lack of data. Always do your research to see what type of accounting software is right for you and your small business needs.
Reach out to us to get a free consult with a Tampa Bookkeeper to address any accounting questions that you may have to make sure you're optimizing for tax time!
2 - Developing a Budget early on helps with creating a cashflow runway + holds you accountable to your goals.
Developing a budget is crucial for small businesses. It helps keep you accountable to the everchanging climate that is small businesses. There will be ups. There will be downs. But creating a budget holds you accountable to variances and changes while still aligning with your bigger picture.
Developing a budget also helps you track other metrics easier such as capacity planning for your current team, when you might need to hire a new team member, and when you might need to downsize. It offers a ton of data when done right, so make sure to take your time when crafting it and always revisit//adjust accordingly.
When businesses don't start with a budget, they can quickly find themselves over-leveraged. It can't be overstated enough how quickly debt can pile on. Being unorganized and over-leveraging can have long-term consequences on your business credit.
Small business owners should create a D&B (Duns and Bradstreet) account to start their credit monitoring early. There's no lack of identity fraud and scams these days, so it's important that you treat your business credit with as much oversight as you do your personal credit!
Reach out to us to get a free consult with a Tampa Bookkeeper to address any accounting questions that you may have to make sure you're not over-leveraging!
3 - Small business compliance - the silent killer.
Not having a handle on your compliance early on can create massive headaches and complications later on. Compliance can be at the Federal Level (IRS) and the State Level (i.e. FL). It can come in the form of things as common as payroll taxes, business licensing, and secretary of state filings or be as complicated as sales tax and niche licensing. It's important that you do all due diligence and research early on to avoid any potential audits by government agencies later on.
Complying with local and federal laws is a must for small businesses. Doing your own research and hiring the right accountant are two ways to ensure that your business is aware of all the local and federal compliance rules that are applicable to you and your business. F
or Example: if you're starting an e-commerce business, it's important to research your state's sales and use tax laws as well as Amazon's sales and use tax laws as they both vary. Similarly, if you plan on opening a restaurant, it's important to research local licensing laws as well as workers' compensation and payroll regulations.
To learn more about payroll taxes, click here!
To learn more about sales tax, click here!
To learn more about other FL business taxes, click here!
Received an IRS Letter recently? client here!
Reach out to us to get a free consult with a Tampa Bookkeeper to address any accounting questions that you may have to make sure you're compliant!
Why Work With Taxes Tampa?
For over a decade, Taxes Tampa has sought to be a communication-focused Tampa Accounting firm. We don’t operate on a volume-based business model which allows us to check in with our clients more than the average accountant in Tampa and offer our clients a more hands-on and advisory tax experience. We want to ensure you understand the ABCs of LLCs, Taxes, and everything in between. Contact us today for a free tax consultation with one of our Tax Accountants in Tampa!
Foot Notes:
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