Meet Alison. Our clients think of her as their go-to resource for cash flow questions, but to us she’s so much more. A recent newlywed, a lifelong Boston sports fan, and an exceptionally fast talker, Alison is a vital part of our team. She’s honest, ambitious, straightforward, and goes above and beyond to ensure our clients understand their balance sheets. We can’t promise she’ll make your bookkeeping and accounting fun, but she’ll get pretty darn close.
Alison was recently promoted to Senior Accountant, so we asked her to share some accounting advice for small business owners and entrepreneurs:
Respect the Budget
It’s understandable when clients have the urge to change their budget when not on track to hit it. That being said, budgets are not meant to be broken, and we encourage business owners to use them as a tool to measure their progress—month after month, quarter after quarter, year after year. Sometimes it’s appropriate to amend a budget, but not as an arbitrary decision after a tough stretch. As an outsourced accounting team, we’ll help establish a sensible budget and put a plan in place to meet it. We’ll review information regularly, track the progress (or lack thereof), and readjust the number if necessary.
Get on the Same Page
When businesses are managed by more than one person, we strongly recommend partners get on the same page about business objectives. And once the initial vision is clear, we’ll spend time with them establishing goals to build upon that foundation. We’re always here to be a sounding board at every point of the process, but at the end of the day we find businesses have the most success when partners work together as a team to come up with primary business goals.
Use the Tools
We work with a handful of powerful accounting and bookkeeping solutions like QuickBooks Online, Bill.com, Expensify, and Fathom. While most clients have subscriptions to all four of these platforms, they don’t always harness their full capabilities. People, these incredible tools help you understand the ins and outs of your business—use them! Get in there and look around. If the system seems a little overwhelming, we’re here to help customize views, build reports, and pare things down so it makes sense to you. Maximize the power of these tools to minimize the unknown to your bottom line.
Do these sound like good ideas? Thinking you could benefit from a little advice?
We’re always up for a brainstorming chat to talk about ways we might be able to help you scale your business.