The Importance of Capital

In general, capital is a term used to define resources used to make money. Basically, you use capital to make something else. If you are interested in economics, there is a lot to learn about the concept of capital as an input into the production process.

But we are talking about accounting and finance for your small business, so we will lean towards the accounting interpretation of fixed capital. In practical accounting terms, you can think of fixed capital as fixed assets. The fixed capital assets are used to make something which is then sold for revenue. This is how you convert your capital to cash.

If you want to see your capital, pull out your balance sheet and look on the asset side. Do you see machinery, buildings, trucks, or trailers? If your balance sheet does not include that level of detail you may need to ask the accountant for an asset listing. For those of you who are already hands on, you may have created the asset listing yourself.

In addition to your fixed capital, you should have some working capital. The working capital is what you use everyday in operations - think of it as your on hand capital. Remember from our earlier discussions that resources like inventory and raw materials are assets?

If you take your current assets, like cash, raw materials and inventory, then subtract your current liabilities, like accounts payable, you will get your working capital. Hopefully, the amount of working capital you have is enough to get you through a few weeks of tough times. The working capital is what you need to manage everyday because if you do not, it will diminish and you could run out.

Running out of working capital is bad because that means you are off balance. Your assets, including cash, will begin to pale against your liabilities. It is not easy, however, to manage the working capital. It takes hard work and understanding. We will talk a lot more about working capital in lesson two.

Most small businesses begin getting capital when they first start out. You plan to make money and you need to have some capital to use in making money. Some small businesses can take off from the beginning and do not need another infusion of capital.

If your business is growing at a rate that lets you reinvest earnings and keep growing then you might not need to look for more capital. But some business plans require regular infusions of capital, especially in the beginning growth stages, to stay on target.

It is okay to need more capital so long as your growth plans and future profits can support the payback of more capital. Some capital is secured through collateral and is not really at risk until you can not make a payment and the equipment is taken away. This could have disastrous effects on related parts of your production system.

Source : www.articlecircle.com/accounting/the-importance-of-capital.html

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Final Statements

Accounting does not end with recording transactions. The owner or the management needs useful information about whether the business made a profit or loss or how the financial position at the end of the accounting year compares with that at the start.

From the trial balance all the income and expense items are transferred to the income statement. Further, certain other items are also adjusted before transferring the balances. Consider rent. Now, rent becomes payable at the end of a month. Therefore, following the accrual principle the accountant posts the rent as payable outstanding and adds this amount to the rent expense. The rent payable appears as current liability in the balance sheet and squared off when the actual payment is made.

Similarly, insurance payments are made annually. But, they would not match the accounting year. On the date of the preparation of final statement, there could be some months of insurance remaining prepaid. This amount is deducted from the expense and shown as current asset in the balance sheet. It becomes expense for the next accounting period.

The excess of income over expenses represents profit while the reverse scenario would mean loss. Profit adds to the equity or owners' capital while loss erodes the same. In effect, profit means the assets have increased while liabilities have decreased. Loss means assets have decreased and liabilities have mounted.

To find out the exact position of assets and liabilities, the accountant prepares the balance sheet. Although one would know whether the business made profit or loss or the value of assets and liabilities have increased or decreased, there is a need for a statement that gives complete information about how the financial position was achieved. The Cash Flow statement serves this purpose.

The basic rationale behind the cash flow statement is that all operations of the business are connected with receiving and paying cash. This is also called the cash-to-cash cycle. The firm buys inventories, sells them, incurs expenses and pays off the dues. So, there is always a parallel run between the firm's debtors and creditors. There are also transactions like fresh infusion of capital, paying off loans and making investments.

Therefore, to get the correct picture about how the firm's operations and other non-operative items contributed to the changes in financial position, the cash flow statement is useful.

The starting point for the cash flow statement is the balance of cash at the start of the year. There are three segments in the cash flow statement: Operating, Investing and Financing. For the first segment, we knock off non-cash charges like depreciation and loss on sale of assets to derive the operative profit in cash terms. We also adjust the net increase or decrease in all current assets and liabilities except cash.

In the second segment, we include the investments in fixed assets or financial instruments. In the third segment, we show the dividend or withdrawal of capital. The net effect of all the three segments is adjusted with the opening cash balance to get the closing cash balance.

Source : www.articlecircle.com/accounting/final-statements.html

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Payroll Outsourcing Choices

Outsourcing of payroll processes simply means that you transfer this traditionally in house function to another company. All of the tedious duties involved with payroll processing are shifted from the company itself, allowing more constructive use of staff time.

Once a firm entrusts its payroll processing to a reliable outsourcing company, they can be assured that not only will all the payroll be taken care of, but expert advice will also be available. The costs of setting up your own payroll systems, which include software purchasing, maintenance and upgrades is avoided. Using payroll processing outsourcing avoids many issues such as penalties, salary calculation errors and claims.

There are many payroll processing outsourcing firms to choose from. Make sure the company you decide to work with has the right experience in your locale and that their references are impeccable. A company can make a comparison of the methods of various vendors.

In addition to payroll processing, payroll outsourcing companies will provide the necessary accounting reports. Accounting data can be very tedious for companies to put together. In addition, there is a certain amount of risk around accounting reports since audit usually uses such reports. The last thing you want to take a chance with is messing up your audit data and getting yourself in trouble in that arena.

Outsourcing payroll services added that extra benefit and piece of mind that your accounting data and reports is accurate. Outsourcing payroll services provides this extra piece of mind. All data time capture and entry must be documented, and the company should provide round the clock help for employee assistance.

The lure of an economic solution for a tedious and time consuming chore should not be over shadowed by carelessness. It is imperative that the provider of these services can provide the maximum security to its clients through the use of encryption technology and password protection.

There are so many attractive benefits besides costs savings of payroll processing outsourcing. Increased productivity, employee satisfaction with online assistance, avoidance of late taxes and penalties are just a few additional benefits that add to the attractiveness of payroll processing outsourcing.

Best of all, a company may avoid going out of business by incurring a cheaper, more efficient system of operations through outsourcing. What better benefit could there be? If a companys competitors are outsourcing do to cost reasons, most likely they should outsource alos to ensure they can stay in business and compete.

Source : www.articlecircle.com/accounting/payroll-outsourcing-choices.html

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Tips On How to Make Profits Online

It is not just enough that you increase your sales or area of operations. You need to know whether you are actually making a profit or not. If you do not do this exercise, you will not likely judge whether your business is successful or not. Moreover, keeping track of your profit is the best way to measure effectiveness of other functions like production planning, marketing, advertising, etc.

There are many instances of businesses that did high volume, but lost their advantage because they ignored adequate profit planning. For small businesses especially keeping constant track of the profit plan is the best way to increase competitiveness.

So, we repeat again that the gross revenue is not that critical as the net profit is. You need to know what eats into your profits and how you can plug it.

The best way to keep track of your profits is to make a financial plan and measure actual performance on a periodic, preferably monthly basis. This allows you to detect problems early and correct them quickly.

Here are a few surefire strategies:

Make a realistic financial plan. This means put down in money terms how much revenue you project for the period. Factor in the corresponding expenses.
Install a suitable accounting process that records the transactions in a timely and accurate manner. Always set aside some time to review your accounting transactions. This prevents frauds.

Remember that time and money lost can never be recovered. At best, you can only recast your projections and work towards a more achievable target. This approach however does not allow for risk-taking. Therefore, a plan that combines aggression with pragmatism should be followed.

Analyze the loopholes and plug them right away. If your sales have not increased as expected, consider efficiency of marketing staff or effectiveness of the marketing strategy. Remember, accounting profit does not occur out of the blue. Make team work the cornerstone of business success. Brainstorm for ideas on improving efficiency and cutting down costs.
Always do a complete cost benefit analysis for any investment. Extra outgo for the purchase should be more than matched by sales inflow.

Increasing your profit should be the motto. Therefore, attempt measures to improve profit through reduction of costs or better utilization of resources. If your growing revenues were just about matched by soaring expenses, you would soon go out of business. Higher dollar inflow from sales should actually translate as higher dollar for keeps as profit.

Source : www.articlecircle.com/accounting/tips-on-how-to-make-profits-online.html

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Accounting Competition

There are numerous competitions that are currently going on around the world, but many of us don't know to life’s growth. As a responsible company, www.competearoundtheworld.com plays a vital role in bringing individuals, rich or poor, who may not have access to the global community, a chance to have an opportunity to participate, and win a competition.

Both where to find them. In this scenario, www.competearoundtheworld.com offers you a resource full of information on various categories of competitions that is going on through out the world. Whether it is on writing, dancing, painting, drawing, mathematics, science, quiz, music, photography, poetry, or no matter what it is or where it may be, if you can name a competition this site finds it for you.

In this way, anyone, from a small village to a big city, can have access to find what they want. A healthy competition is a great way to build confidence, appreciate talent, and help to create new innovative ideas, while contributing winners and losers of competitions come away with valuable experience. This experience increases interest in their chosen field or talent, as well as encourages creativity and innovation.

While winners want to win more, losers strive to beat the winners after realizing their mistakes. This healthy environment gives a great boost for new talent, benefiting all of our society. Competitions also are instrumental in building a reputation for participants in their fields, both as individuals or as a group.

The goal of this site is to obtain all information about current competitions around the world, for both online and onsite competitions. This site wants to be a valuable resource for everyone in the future. The specialty of this site is that it bans all competitions that are not suitable for general audience, i.e., adult, sex, sweepstake, and lottery. Further this site follows strict guidelines and ensures reviewing of all reported competitions before making it available for the public.

It is a known fact that each and every individual has a unique talent. This site aims to play a role in bringing out that talent, providing a comprehensive resource of information to find competitions and competitors. This is purely a confidence building site; again, through healthy competitions. Practice makes perfect, people make mistakes and by correcting mistakes, improvement and success is achieved.

Competition in this world is a continuous process, whether its business, studies, or career everyone has some sort of competition in his or her life, and competing with others is a never ending job. Even before our birth we competed along with other sperms to get first place into our mother’s ovary. So we all have won a great competition even before our birth! Every one of us is a winner, a born winner, but we lose that confidence as we grow older, and we forget our past successes.

Competition is one of the best ways to identify the talent, innovation and growth for this world. This site aims to play a small role in that growth, by providing this rich resource. All you need it to log on to our website and join your preferred category of competition and win prizes and accolades from all over the world. This site and all its resources are offered freely to all who are interested.

Source : www.articlecircle.com/accounting/accounting-competition.html

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