Accounting & Bookkeeping

40% of small business owners spend 80 hours on tax preparation/bookkeeping tasks each year — from manually entering transaction data into a spreadsheet to determining how to categorize transactions. The time spent on this process is frustrating enough. After all, you have other business activities to take care of, such as marketing and budgeting. But […]

According to the Small Business Credit Survey, 19% of small business owners are hard-pressed to find funds to keep the lights on. While making more revenue would obviously be the ideal solution, reducing business costs is often necessary to ensure the survival of your small business. At Neat, we’ve had to reduce business costs many […]

Financial management is a pivotal part of every business. A business’s financial health directly dictates how it will operate. No matter how successful your business is, your financial situation should always be improving. Optimizing your finances will set you up for a great second half of the year. Having a healthy reservoir of cash will […]

Unless you have a background in accounting, the majority of bookkeeping terms seem like jargon and can be confusing. From “general ledger” to “chart of accounts,” these terms require small-business owners to spend time researching just to reconcile their books. It’s added pressure on top of an already complicated and overwhelming process. In this article, […]

If you’ve used small-business accounting software, you’ve been faced with dozens of expense categories. (Does printing for a client go under the “Cost of Goods Sold” or “Office Supplies” category?) It can be overwhelming, to say the least. But it doesn’t have to be. At Neat, we’ve found that organizing business expenses into just five […]

As a small-business owner, you’re a jack-of-all-trades. You can confidently switch your “business operations” hat to “chief marketing officer” hat in the blink of an eye. But when it comes to bookkeeping, a feeling of dread grows in the pit of your stomach. You’re not alone. “I [expletive] hate it — the worst part of […]

Frankenstein bookkeeping — a patchwork approach to bookkeeping creates a monster out of your books, a lot like Frankenstein. When you rely on too many systems to carry out tasks that could be consolidated in one place, you find yourself doing more work to get the same result.   Using multiple systems to reconcile your books, […]

Learn the accounting lingo necessary for small business owners to effectively communicate with their accountants and manage their business finances.

Getting a letter in the mail from the IRS indicating that you are going to be audited is one of the scariest things that can happen, whether you’re a small business owner or not. Some of these things may not be avoidable, but if they apply to you, you need to ensure your returns are done as accurately as possible.

Even with strong policies in place and regular auditing, fraud can still occur. However, keeping accurate records can help you identify offenders and lower the risk of long-running expense schemes occurring at your organization.