Great accountants always look out for cooked books!

We all know that all companies manipulate their numbers to a particular extent. This is how they make sure that budgets balance. This is also how the executives score bonuses, as well as how investors continue offering up funding. All this is not something that you may be unaware of.

Therefore, it is important for investors to know how they can recognize the basic warning signs when it comes to falsified statements. Along with this, an accountant in San Antonio should be aware of what is going on, and never let something like this happen. 

In this blog, you can see a list of the ways that some companies use to manipulate their accounting practices. Here’s exactly what skilled and expert accounts in San Antonio, successfully look out for: 

1. Revenues that are accelerated - One of the common ways of doing this is by booking lump-sum payments as current sales when the services were actually delivered over the span of years. Take this as an example- a software service provider might be receiving an upfront payment for a five-year service contract. However, they may be recording the full payment as sales, for the particular period in which the payment was received. A reliable accountant in San Antonio would know that the better, correct, as well as a more accurate way, is to be amortizing the revenue over the life of the service contract, i.e 5 years. 

2. Expenses that are delayed - There have been a few companies who have been guilty of delaying expenses, while still in their first distributions. Those companies viewed this as a marketing campaign. They thought it to be a long-term investment that would capitalize on the costs. In this, they simply transferred the costs from the income statement to the balance sheet. This is where the campaign would then be expensed over a period of years. However, an account in San Antonio who knows from right to wrong would know that the more conservative as well as appropriate treatment would be to expense the cost in the correct period. 

3. Pre-merger expenses being accelerated - Now, this one may seem a bit counterintuitive, however, before a merger is absolutely completed, the acquired company will pay/possibly prepay, as many expenses as it is possible for them to pay. Later, post the merger, the EPS or earnings per share growth rate of the combined entity would be looking higher as compared to the past quarters. Moreover, the company will have already booked their expenses in the previous period. An accountant in San Antonio, who has quality experience would know what to look out for here!

Reading all that must have urged you to get an accountant in San Antonio who is skilled enough to spot such things, so that your company never faces a problem because of the books cooked wrong.

Moreover, there’s much more to it than you have just read.

You can find your answers, and a great accountant by visiting http://www.uhlenbrockcpa.com/ or contacting 210-701-1040.  

What should you be looking for in a Tax Preparer?

As an experienced provider of CPA services in San Antonio, we’ve realized that the fact of our lives is, we cannot avoid taxes. This is true in every case, especially when you own a business. Therefore, we might as well do our taxes in the way we’re expected to. The process of tax preparation is one of those less explored and unwanted ones. There are so many people who would just love to skip it. This leads to waiting till the eleventh hour and starting to deal with it when there’s not much time left. To state the obvious, this isn’t the ethical or smart way to deal with taxes. All in all, it leads to disasters. Being late in submitting tax requirements is inexcusable to the IRS. 

Therefore, a smarter way is hiring a good tax preparer who offers great tax preparation services in San Antonio and takes care of all the requirements within the time limit. Following is what you should be looking for in a tax preparer:

1. Make sure he or she is proactive

When looking for tax preparation services in San Antonio, make sure that your tax preparer. is proactive. This is because, it would mean that they will take the initiative of doing things, without having to be prompted. They will be able to foresee the plausible problems. Not only this, but they will also come up with a solution for the same. He or she would know what to expect and be ready for facing it.

2. The more the experience, the better

All qualities in a provider of CPA services in San Antonio, are born out of their experience. Therefore, when looking for someone, go with the one who has plenty of experience in his field already. Keep in mind, that you want someone who is not only exposed to many books and theories but has been exposed to real life situations as well.

3. A great skill set

Look for someone who comes under certified public accountants. When you go with someone who possesses a degree, you can be sure they have the right knowledge as well as expertise. The CPAs have studied accounting for many years and get updated with the development in the legal aspects too.

And that’s why, the above become the essential things to look for in a tax preparer. For professional CPA services in San Antonio, call us at 210-701-1040.

Why and How should you get your Small Business Accounting Practices Organised?

When you have a small business to run, there are immense number of things to consider. This would typically include things like getting an accountant San Antonio and more. For example, tracking costs, expenses, and revenues is an important activity. This process is crucial in order to keep your business out of the paperwork load and cash flow messes. Further, it lets you concentrate on activities that are important to grow your business.

Initially, you might think that you can avoid doing your own bookkeeping and get away with it. However as soon as you realise that your business has to file tax returns and you do not even know how to do that, the real trouble begins. Not spending enough time in figuring out about such processes can be a big mistake as a small business owner. However, your boat can sail by hiring a professional for bookkeeping or accounting service. This would maximize your tax advantages.
Automating the small business accounting practices with the help of modern finance software applications has become easier. QuickBooks is one of the best amongst them. However, every small business should go for the software that best suits its needs. A great idea would be to have user-friendly iPad applications or cloud-based access.
Out of the many chores that the businesses have, bookkeeping is one of the most necessary ones. In a simple language, bookkeeping ultimately helps you in managing your operations and eventually avoiding an audit by giving the IRS exactly what they require.
Like every small business owner, you would want to focus on and achieve your long-term goals while increasing profits. In order to do the same, you can easily follow these essential tips and get your small business accounting practices in order.
1. Major expenses might head your way.                                                         
You should always expect and keep an eye out for expenses like equipment replacement, upgrading of computer systems, and tax deadlines coming closer. These should not come as a surprise to any small business owner. During slower months, there are usually larger capital expenses. Therefore, planning to avoid a cash crunch would be a great idea.                                                                                                               
2. Update your books.                                                                                           
Get necessary paperwork in order, by setting a weekly time to avoid letting invoiced receivables or receipts pile up.
In our next blog, we are coming up with more tips on how you can get your small business accounting practices organised. Stay tuned! Till then, if you have any questions related to business accounting in San Antonio, call us at 210-701-1040.

How to Choose the Right CPA for your Business?

Every business owner needs to make several business decisions that influence the operations, efficiency and profitability of his business. Picking the CPA or accountant is also a vital business decision as the right accountant can help you save efforts, time and money. A CPA can handle all business finance tasks, right from bookkeeping to tax preparation for your business in San Antonio. 

An accountant is skilled, qualified and acts as a trusted advisor for your business. But how do you find the “right” CPA or accountant who is good for your company? Well, here are few points that you should consider – 

• Requirements of your Business – What type of accountancy services are you looking for? Do you need an accountant to handle your bookkeeping or are you looking for tax planning too? Depending on the type of your business and your in-house team, make a list of services you need for an accountant.  Look for an accounting firm that has expertise in services you are looking for.

• Current Clients – Have a look at the client base they are serving. Do they have clients from your geographical area? You can also ask for few names of their clients and get references.

• Software – Does the accounting firm still use paper spreadsheets? Or do they use software to manage bookkeeping of their clients? If you already have a QuickBooks accounting software for your San Antonio business, is the accountant well equipped to work with it?

• Experience – Has the accounting firm served businesses across different industries or are limited to a specific area? Do they have existing clients for your sector? Do they have knowledge of challenges faced in your industry?

• Questions – Interview different accounting firms that you are considering. Ask them questions, get your queries cleared and then come to a decision. The way an accountant communicates and explains accounting terms in simple language indicates their experience.

Every business needs to make a close relationship with their accountant for years. So, the choice of a right accountant or CPA for your business in San Antonio is very important. If you are looking for an accountant for a small or medium size business in San Antonio, get in touch with Uhlenbrock CPA at 210-701-1040.

 

Why You Should Outsource Payroll Management For Your Business

Payroll processing can be really cumbersome and demanding! It is not surprising to see why small and medium size businesses dread payroll processing. Though payroll is a non-core function of the business, it consumes significant time and resources of the business. Risk of payroll not getting processed on time, likelihood of calculation mistakes and more is constantly looming over the payroll management team. Wouldn’t it be great if your business could productively use these time and resources for benefit of the business? Well, there is certainly a way to do so – outsource your payroll management. Find a reliable Certified Public Accountant in San Antonio to outsource your business payroll today.

If you are still wondering whether outsourcing payroll is the right decision for your business or not, here are few points you need to know –

• Productivity – Outsourcing payroll can result in increased productivity as the staff gets time to pursue value-adding activities. The time they used in payroll management can be used to focus on sales, business development and more.
• Time – Payroll requires attention to detail, hence the entire process is time consuming and cumbersome. Right from entering considerable amount of data to calculating tax liabilities, there are several tasks that take time and need to be done for every payroll period. By outsourcing payroll, you can save this time of your staff.
• Expertise – Along with manual processing, payroll management also involves compliance with government legislations. Certified Public Accountants have the necessary knowledge and expertise. They also stay updated with current rules and regulations related to tax rates.
• Cost – Though this may surprise you, but outsourcing payroll is a cost effective decision for your business. When you perform payroll in-house, estimate the cost of resources and time involved. This amount is higher than the cost of hiring a professional payroll service provider.

Focus on running your business without any hassles or worries of payroll processing. Outsource payroll management for your business in San Antonio, call 210 701 1040.