Staying on top of your bookkeeping gives you a clear picture of where your money is going and coming from. You are able to make smarter financial decisions – such as whether you can afford another employee or how you can increase profits – when you have an accurate measure of your business’s financial standing. Having up-to-date books also allows you to avoid feeling unprepared during tax season or missing out on any deductions.
At LNS Bookkeeping Services, we offer customizable packages that are developed between you and me based on your industry. Typical bookkeeping services include categorizing your transactions, reconciling your accounts monthly, and preparing your financial statements. Although we do not file your taxes, we can make adjustments to your books to ensure they are tax-compliant. Besides a monthly check-in and asking for your input on things like categorizing a transaction properly, we try our best to make bookkeeping as hands-off as possible for you.
Bookkeepers and CPAs share a lot of the same duties and can work closely together, however, they both fulfill different business needs. Bookkeepers deal with the everyday tasks of a business such as recording sales, organizing receipts, and processing payroll while a CPA may focus on the income tax strategies for your business. In other words, bookkeepers produce financial statements using all the financial information happening daily, whereas the CPA takes that already organized information and gives tax advice.
Trusting a person online with your most important financial information may seem daunting, but the benefits are worth it! Accounting, cloud-based software (such as QuickBooks Online) allows us to log in through a secured internet browser using a complex password. As your trusted advisor, we will encourage you to use secure software, like Google Drive, Dropbox, or HubDoc to send documents containing sensitive information. Cloud-based software also allows you to access your books at any time without having to schedule an appointment with your bookkeeper.
At this time, we do not file taxes, which requires a specialized focus and skill set. Instead, we concentrate on being experts at bookkeeping so we can better serve you. However, you will receive a portfolio at the end of the year with notes to give to your tax preparer to make their job (and yours!) much easier. We are happy to speak with your tax preparer to make the process more seamless for you.
You sure can! As a business owner, I remember how hard I worked to keep my expenses as minimal as possible in the beginning. In fact, you should make sure you have your expenses under control before considering an outside service. However, you should also consider the time it will take to learn and keep up with the accounting software, which gets a little more complicated than other types of software. Additionally, if your books aren’t set up correctly, things can get messy very quickly and a cleanup or catchup service can get expensive. Most business owners find the small fee for hiring a bookkeeper is often worth it.
Resources
Government Links:
The Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service website has many great tax resources for you.
U.S. Small Business Administration
This site contains a wealth of information for entrepreneurs and small business owners.
New Employee Forms:
W4 Form
Use this form to determine an employee’s federal income tax withholding.
I9 Form
All employees must complete this form at the time of hire for the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Resources
Government Links:
The Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service website has many great tax resources for you.
U.S. Small Business Administration
This site contains a wealth of information for entrepreneurs and small business owners.
New Employee Forms:
W4 Form
Use this form to determine an employee’s federal income tax withholding.
I9 Form
All employees must complete this form at the time of hire for the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
As I sought to grow my tutoring and test prep business, Lauren’s bookkeeping knowledge and professionalism made my life so much easier. She is trustworthy, organized, and always communicates well. Relying on Lauren freed me up to focus on other areas of my business, knowing its finances were in good hands.
