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Bookkeeping Tips For Small Businesses

It is important to maintain a clean accounting book of your business for tax purpose. This will save you a lot of hassles in the near future. Bookkeeping is the process of maintaining all the records and transactions of a business. Transactions that are tracked are an expense, revenue, net profits, profits, dates of transactions and other details.

The reason why bookkeeping is important to small businesses is because it allows the owners to know exactly what is happening in their business. To make your business grows, you must know the numbers well. Details like revenue and expenses are important numbers that you cannot afford to miss out on.

To save hassles, it is advisable to maintain your book regularly. It should be done either weekly or bi-weekly. This is to ensure that all transactions are noted and enable you to know the current status of your business. Healthy cash flow is what makes a business flourish. You need to make sure that your business cash flow is always positive.

The price of a bookkeeping service usually depends on the amount of work that needs to be done. Depending on the size of your business and transaction volumes, bookkeepers will quote you a fair rate for the service.

Professional bookkeepers will either use their own software or a spreadsheet to maintain your book. You must provide them with all the necessary documents such as receipts, invoices, payment vouchers, etc. All other documents that used to track the transactions of your business must be provided.

If your business deals mostly with cash, it is extremely important that you get a book and record all the daily transactions. Cash is harder to track and therefore simple recording should be done daily.

Before you decide to hire a company, conduct a research on the Internet. Go to Google or Yellow Pages to look for a list of accounting firms. Shortlist a few and call them up. Tell them what you need and gather some quotes before hiring one.

Bookkeeping is necessary for tax purpose. Therefore, it is important for you to maintain it properly to save your company a lot of trouble. You can now easily find professional accounting firms that help you to maintain your book at an affordable rate. H &T is one of the best accounting and bookkeeping service provider located in Canada where you will get accounting services as per your requirements.

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How To Choose The Right Tax Advisor Or Accountant For Your Business

Certified professional accountants are individuals who help their clients in managing their yearly taxes. They can advise you on a long list of other services, which may include advice on your retirement, financial, estate accounting system, and tax planning system. Certified professional accountants are part of a business owner’s professional team along with a lawyer and a banker.

Here are some essential points which will help you to choose the right one for you and your business –

Interview CPAs

Ask how long they’ve been in business full time, and for references and what type of services they do for their clients. You also need to ask them about the benefits of choosing them over another CPA. Make sure that they must have a valid license.

Use the 60% rule

Select a CPA who has sixty percent of his or her business coming from business owners such as yourself. If your business is incorporated, make sure that the person you choose must be specialized in corporate accounting, including financial statements and audits.

Rates

You need to ask CPS about their rates and what those rates include. Also, ask what their hourly rate is and what the cost would be to answer questions during the year.

Ask about record keeping

Ask what computer program they prefer to use for your record keeping and why they prefer that program. Many times, if you use the program they suggest, it can save you some money because they can use your data files.

When do they work?

What are their hours of operation? Make sure that you can call them at hours that are convenient for you.

Corporation vs. individual

Are you interested in hiring a corporation of CPAs or a CPA that has his or her own business? If you go for the corporation then, find out you will be dealing with one particular person. It’s best to build a relationship with one person for making sure that your data is secured.

Making a decision

Interview at least three CPAs. Don’t rush this decision. Make sure you have the best CPA and bookkeeper for you and your business. Build long term relationships with both.

Want to get a high-quality of accounting service provider? Choose H &T Accounting Services. Boost your business profit and manage all data efficiently by hiring our expertise team members for getting accounting services. Our expertise team members are experienced in providing all type of accounting and bookkeeping services to our clients.

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Data Protection – Accountants and BookKeepers – Are You Playing Safe?

It’s essential for the success of your own business that you set out clear assurances and obligations to your clients – both old as well as new – that their data is fully protected.

As a accountant or bookkeeper, your client holds you in a position of trust. Not only do you have access to a host of confidential information regarding their business performance and business finances, but if you are managing payroll services too, you will have in-depth knowledge of their employees’ personal information.

You have a duty of care to your client to maintain high levels of confidentiality and security – and can be fined heavily for breaches of security surrounding personal data which lead to individuals suffering loss or fraud. It’s not just worth the risk when there’s so much at stake.

So, what can you do for ensuring that your user’s information is secure – and how should you advise clients to secure information at their end of the business transaction?

Keep hard copy paperwork away from prying eyes

Using online accounting software is one major step towards client data security, but unless you secure hard copy data, you’re leaving yourself open to risk. With today’s modern technology, you don’t need to print out a copy of every invoice or ledger – and statutory accounting firms and HMRC are generally happy to use securely held digital information to produce year end returns and conduct audits. So, keep your printouts to a minimum – and ensure that the paperwork you do produce is kept in a locked cabinet.

Reduce your risk by minimizing access to client information

If you work in a team, make sure that only those of your colleagues or employees who genuinely need to have access to your clients’ data have access to your online accounting software and other secure areas.

Each user can be assigned different levels of access which ensures they only see the data they need to see to complete their job.

Make sure your internal security systems are up to scratch by routinely changing passwords regularly – and always change all password security when a individual leaves your company or you feel they may be a potential risk to your systems, no matter how small.

All of the above measures can help your clients keep their data secure, too – for no matter how strict your own security measures are, if your customers aren’t adhering to the same levels of data security, there is still the element of risk. Think smart, use your online accounting software wisely and keep that confidential information safely away from fraudsters and unscrupulous competitors.

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6 Benefits for a Business Who Outsource Accounting and Bookkeeping Services

Due to increase in the complexity of the world of business, managing and measuring finances became a difficult task. Without having an efficient system for taking care of back office transactions, payroll processing bookkeeping, and the management of finances become ineffective. These days outsourcing became beneficial to organizations, especially in accounting and financial agendas.

Different essential benefits which a business can receive from outsourcing its accounting and bookkeeping services are-

1. Saves time – Outsourcing financial managers save company time by providing service on time. For managing bookkeeping services, in-house associates may not be as time-conscious as an outsourcing organization who only focus on these financial features.

2. Reduce chances of company fraud – It is important to note that accounting and outsourcing bookkeeping services reduce the probability of fraud within the corporation. As all financial data will be handled by outsourcing organizations so employees won’t be able to access any financial or accounting details. Outsourced organizations will be more objective concerned to all important financial decisions.

3. Saves money – As we known time is money and by hiring a right outsourcing company you can achieve success in getting a quality of accounting service on time. An organization, which is amateurishly trained in one specific area is more liable to deliver service on time with high-quality standards whereas business associates may not be punctual.

4. Focuses on mission – Financial tasks managed by an outsourcing company will do their task efficiently by just only focusing on management of accounts. They are expertise and licensed service providers who have experience in handling accounts of an organization efficiently.

5. Optimizes accounting services – Bookkeeping services are maximized through expert outsourced organizations, rather than from the services of a business’ associates who usually have generalized experience and ideas.

6. More disciplined and/ or objective views – Efficient and reliable accounting organization who is outsourced by the corporation is more focused about the procedures to manage financial issues relating to that corporation.

All in all, outsourcing is a recommended choice for a large number of corporations or businesses, for the purposes of maintaining efficiency in the least expensive and productive manner.

H & T provide accounting and bookkeeping services at very low rates for medium, small as well as large businesses. You can easily access H & T accounting services in Brampton, Mississauga, Oakville efficiently. H & T Accounting Services maintain all records of their customers related to income tax, harmonizing sales tax, workplace safety insurance, and payroll. They have more than twenty-five years of experience in serving different businesses including manufacturers, contractors, importers, exporters, computer professionals, retailers, and other service providers.

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Tax Return Outsourcing – Cost-Efficient and Cost Efficient Service on Time

Paying taxes on time is very important as it will save you penalties later. It is important to note that non-payment of tax is considered as an offense against the government.

If you want to pay taxes on time for getting safe from paying future penalties, you must have proper records of accounts and financial transactions. On the basis of the calculations and analysis of financial records, the amount of taxes is decided.

There are a large number of different business organizations available who use to hire financial expert and accountants for managing of their tax procedure. It is quite difficult to manage accounts and tax procedure by their own therefore they hire accountants and financial experts.

Some of the best key points for cost efficient services on time are:

  • The job of professional is to maintain business accounts, keep balance sheets updates, keeps a record of financial data, and make the ledger and journal entry on the day basis. There are a large number of different vendors available who use to provide accounts management services at affordable price rates. Tax return outsourcing is also nowadays gaining popularity.

  • Hiring an expertise team for managing your tax return is a good option for managing your accounts. They are specialized in analyzing and calculating the financial data. These professionals have sleight in calculating as well as analyzing financial data as well as maintaining all bookkeeping records of your business on day to day basis.

  • Professionals available in tax return outsourcing organizations are well-trained in performing various tasks in a short period of time. They make use of all advanced software’s and tools for furnishing work with ease and swiftness. Professional working for different organizations works on the confidential basis. They have a secured platform for executing all your tax returns.

  • They perform all the tasks with perfection by adding as well as filling data into different forms, tax calculations, and consultations, calculating the monetary transactions, and also analysis the profit and loss of different business annually. These expert professionals are certified who make sure that you will get work cost-efficiently on time.

  • You can also pay your taxes online. With the advancement in technology, nowadays it became quite easy to manage taxes. Now rather than standing for long hours in line for getting the form, submitting it to the local or state collection agency, you can directly submit taxes online.

  • All essential financial documents such as balance sheets, profit and loss statements, trail balances and other financial statements are needed to be in perfect orders for filing the tax return. Nowadays by making use of specially designed accounting software’s all details as well as financial records prepared as well as updated online.

So, if you are looking for quality of accounting service provider in your location then you can go for H & T Accounting services. H &T Accounting Services is available in Brampton, Mississauga, and Ontario. They provide a high quality of service to clients in reasonable price rates.

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Tax Preparation and Accounting For Your Business

Self-assessment is quite irritating, tricky as well as time-consuming. You can make it easier by hiring a smart book keeping. We understand that HMRC deadlines and Inland Revenues are quite stress-inducing, so why don’t you leave it for the professional certified accountants?

Are you looking for professionals who will help you with your bookkeeping and tax returns?. If yes, then choosing H & T Accounting Services will be a perfect choice for you. As the 2017 season for tax filing is officially underway. A large number of people have filed their tax returns. Other taxpayers are waiting to file their tax returns.

In tax returning procedure, whether it is on paper or online, details consist capital gains, expenditure, all income, as well as tax relief claims details. There are various types of supplementary and tax returns pages which depend on your conditions. There are specific deadlines mentioned by the authority for the submission of tax returns and penalties for delay.

Here at H & T Accounting Services, we provide our customers with complete self-assessment return and account management service at affordable and reasonable rates. We will not only help you to save your precious time, but also offer a quality of service.

Importance of Bookkeeping and tax returns

If you are quite busy in some work or not aware of procedure of tax return, then by hiring an expertise certified accountant you can easily get a perfect solution for tax payment. As bookkeeping is a crucial and essential part of a business. It includes the maintenance of daily records of expenditure and revenue. Bookkeeping need trained and certified professionals for working in this field efficiently. The Bookkeeping procedure consist ledgers, entering correct journal entries, maintenance of profit as well as a balance sheet for the final year.

A small mistake in maintaining the record may lead to an obstacle in the growth of any business organization. Further, the cost required for the correction of mistake for correcting the record will take your time and a lot of money in future. To overcome this problem choosing a professional for this bookkeeping and tax returning service will be perfect for you.

Why people afraid of the tax procedure?

People usually afraid of making mistakes on tax return documents. Tax procedure is quite complicated. For overcoming this problem hiring a right certified accountant of an organization is very important. Everyone can make mistake while maintaining record, but least amount of errors can be corrected if you catch it at an earlier stage. So, get your tax paid on time by completing all documentation correctly rather than completing it on last minute and making mistakes.

Money issue

It is also noticed that people who do not have enough cash for the coverage of tax liability also delay in submitting the tax on time. By returning tax on time you will get more time to come up with the money for the payment of tax bills

By setting up the payment plan with the help of H & T Accounting Services expert you can get a solution for this problem. Anyone along with an IRA whether it’s traditional or Roth, can easily contribute to the account for a previous year of tax by the deadline of April filling. You can also contribute to a SEP( simplified employee pension) as well as retirement plan up to the return’s due date with the help of our expert’s advice.

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How to Report Future & Options Trading in Tax Return

F&O is a popular trading concept but usually the concept of Future and options is blurred in the minds of people and reporting the same for tax returns is a hassle concept even in the minds of many accounting expertise. The enlisted points will help you know all in detail about how to report Future and Options trading in tax returns. Go through the same and expand you knowledge depth.

  • What is Future and Options (F&O) trading?

Future refers to a contract of buying or selling an entity or item in future at a price that is agreed upon today.

An option refers to the contract where one of the contracting parties has an option to execute or not to execute trade in future.

  • Reporting F&O trading as business

When one opts for tax returns, F&O is reported as business. When you report the same as business you can always claim expenses that you have incurred. You must follow the under mentioned steps to report the same as business:

  • Calculate your total income
  • See if you lie on the profit side or on the loss side.
  • Calculate all the expensed which means your rent, commissions and all your personal and business costs.
  • Deduct the same from your income.
  • The remaining income is regarded as the profit or the loss from F&O trading activity.
  • Know what is ITR-4

Once you have earned business income, you must file Income Tax Return-4 which would demand your profit and loss sheet, balance sheet. If you have an issue over here you can always take the help of an expertise for the same.

  • Do not run from reporting losses

Losses always carry tax benefits and reporting the same should be done mandatorily. Usually two types of business losses occur, namely speculative and non speculative losses. F&O loss falls under the category of non speculative loss. The loss can be adjusted from other sources of income except for the salary. In case your F&O loss remains unadjusted, it can carry forwarded for 8 years.

  • Application of Tax Audit in F&O trading
    • In case of profit: The tax audit is applicable in case the turnover is greater than Rs. 1 crore or 8% more of the turnover, then only the income is taken into consideration and IOTR has to be filed. In this case maintaining book of accounts is not mandatory
    • In case of loss: The tax audit is applicable if loss is less than 8% or turnover exceeds Rs. 1 crore, than tax auditing can be done and in order to carry forward the process, maintain books of accounts as per norms is must.
  • Maintaining books of accounts in F&O trading

Since F&O trading is considered as normal business income, the rules which are applicable to normal business are applicable here. The important rules for profit and loss are same as mentioned in the case of tax auditing. Keeping accounting records is otherwise mandatory for every business. You need to calculate the turnover and the positive and the negative sum you are carrying. Every business has a return filing ate and you must get your returns filed by the same and submit the tax audit report you have prepared.

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Go Beyond Accounting Without being an Expert

Today the accountant is no longer confined to the traditional accounting activities like bookkeeping and preparing books of accounts. Today accounting services are beyond your imagination and extends its hands in all the domains be it payroll management or tax planning. Today every business sector sees the need of accounting services and you can be an effective an impressive accountant without really being an expert.

Usually when people hire an accountant what they look forward to is profit maximization and the queries related to the risks of investments. In simple terms they look forward to be on the safer side with profits and benefits weighting heavier. You can build lifelong relations with your clients by going beyond accounting without really being an expert in the under mentioned ways:

  • Prepare the FAQs

If you have been in working in the domain for some time, you might be aware about the general set of questions clients always arise and you must be well prepared with at least the certain forms in an impressive format, be it text, audio or video. The time you save can be used to handle your clients better and moreover add quality to your work.

  • Go Technical and make the best use of technical software products

In the virtual era you can just keep all your work in any cloud storage which will facilitate for you easy dealing with the client in multiple forms be it emailing your client, share documents and software etc. You can also make use of skype and other software to communicate with your clients. To quote in a nutshell, go virtual with your work.

  • Do not leave your clients unanswered

What your client is going to ask you certainly has no boundaries however on the other hand it is true that you might not have answer to all the questions at once. But it is your duty to look into the matter and prepare the answer to the same within minimum time span as this would help your client to take valuable business decisions and moreover realize that you are really an asset he has found.

  • Understand the market and other environmental factors

While you are working as an accountant and even beyond that you must not keep your knowledge and growth limited. Instead take time to study the market conditions, the growth being offered to the kind of industries you are working for and moreover what the customer demands from your client. In order to guide your client best you must also be aware about the working environment of the firm as the transition will happen only if the human resources are adaptable in nature. This is something which will help you stay ahead in game and turn the competition to your side.

  • Be a trusted advisor for your client

You are not merely an accountant but also an advisor whom the client will seek at every point of time. You can take time but you should be ready with the piece of advice or the resource your client currently requires. The advices you render to your customer will be an outcome of experience, it might not be something happening today but will certainly happen over years. You are going to have a major extent of control of your client’s business, be ready for that.

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Most Important Facets in Accounting and Bookkeeping

Accounting and Bookkeeping are the two business aspects that helps to keep a measure of financial activities of business such that the performance of the business is always on the rise. In order to maintain the accounts and other legal works aptly, people usually prefer opting for an accountant or even outsourcing their accounting and bookkeeping. This helps to regulate the blood of business, money in an error free fashion.

The bookkeeping and accounting are the two sides of the coins that make the other smooth functionally. They are not limited concepts but have broader outlook, the most important facets in accounting and bookkeeping are:

Know Bookkeeping – Bookkeeping is like a sub section of accounting which actually implies collecting and organizing all your financial information so that it can be used for business growth. The art of bookkeeping is performed by the professionals who would help you to do much more in business than you can imagine. It helps one get tax returns, prepare legal statements, business auditing and moreover deciding that which way is actually the business going. Bookkeeping is the initial step of every accounting system.

Financial analysis and management – Finance is the most important aspect of any business and financial analysis and management is the accounting procedure that must be executed at regular intervals of time. Bookkeeping and accounting helps perform this easily. In case your finance is being delayed or it is not being managed as per the predefined credentials, accounting can help you realize the breakpoints and moreover work on it.

Plan your business – Business is one of the riskiest occupations that can never go unplanned. Bookkeeping and accounting performed by professionals help every businessman plan his activities in a timely fashion, which helps to achieve better results. The accountings statements include profit and loss statement, balance sheet which helps monitor overall profitability.

Bookkeeping and accounting should aim at profit enhancement – Accounting services are diverse in nature, but the center facet of every business activity has always been profit enhancement. The organized records and subsidiary book of accounts would certainly help you climb up the ladder of profit enhancement.

Save Taxes – Tax planning can save you money that you would not have thought otherwise. Tax panning comes with the right bookkeeping as it involves recording your financial matters in a smart way that usually known only to the expert accounting service providers. Summarizing your accounts efficiently can help you save taxes considerably.

Saving taxes involves other accounting activities like minimizing the number of documented errors and investing more time in tax planning.

Accounting is the elder brother – Accounting is an expert based job which cannot be handled single handedly, unless and until one is experienced enough in the domain. Once the bookkeeping is done, the overall business aspects are taken into consideration in order to reach the final steps. Handling all your complex reports and money related issue becomes simpler with the right accounting choice. Bookkeeping forms a section of accounting, whereas accounting ranges all the way from arranging finance to profit enhancement.

To summarize, bookkeeping and accounting are the two activities that go hand in hand. Better bookkeeping always means better accounting services, if the base of any activity is laid strong the results will certainly be better. Same is the scenario for bookkeeping and accounting.

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How Can an Accounting Professional Help You for Your Tax Return!

An accountant is an expertise who will provide you assistance to manage your business accounts and maximize profit to every bit. They can prove out to be gold gem for your business as they can help you get the maximum of tax returns which otherwise would not have been possible. All you have to do is choose the right accountant who would cater to your business needs and work to provide you the maximum business profit as if working for his own.

No matter if your business is small scale or large scale; you must choose an accountant to get the maximum tax returns. An accounting professional can help you for your tax return in the under mentioned ways:

  • The accountants help you minimize the deductions in your tax returns

Accounting professionals are expertise who knows ways to minimize the deduction in tax returns and minimizing deductions implies that you can get maximum profits with you. The deductions can be minimized in form of MIDs which is also known as Missing Information and Documents. Accountants are return experts who would make every possible effort to cut the deductions in tax returns. MID can also help to maximize tax credits which means taking returns to a new level.

  • Eliminate the errors in tax returns

Many times in registering the documents or bookkeeping there is a scope that there are errors in tax returns. Accountants take time to check these documents in depth so that each of your tax return documents is prepared error free. Eliminating of errors and mistakes would help you maximize tax returns and ultimately profit.

  • Prevent audits from occurring

An accountant reduced the chances of audit triggering which otherwise is difficult to perform. An accountant expert in his domain would make an effort to increment your tax return every year and not try to keep it same. An expert accountant would create timely audit trails in order to maintain your records in an ordered fashion.

  • Accountants are experts who would help you plan and strategize tax returns

If you hire an accountant at the beginning of the session it would certainly help you be with maximum profits throughout the year. He would be the one who would take all the important tax decisions and would even provide you beneficial advices at every step. You can take your business to new heights with expertise accountant’s help.

  • The key areas that can fetch you Tax returns

The tax returns are not confined one single factor rather a number of areas can be summed to get maximum returns. An accountant has knowledge about these areas and would help you get returns from these areas. Some of the major tax return areas on which an accountant works is Charity annual returns, corporate tax returns, IT professional’s tax returns, investment income returns, commission earners tax returns etc. An accountant would cater to all these areas and get all the benefits for you.

Tax returns should not be an ignored section instead should be taken with proper care and maximizing tax saving plan can help you perform a lot better in your business and maximize your profit to every bit. An expert accountant is aware of all the tax saving plans and choosing an accountant would be a wise decision.

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