A lie has speed, but truth has endurance. - Edgar J. Mohn

Some business owners never like to "look under the hood" of their finances, and their accountants or financial partners can sometimes encourage that behavior by keeping them in the dark.

Well, I hope that won't be you.

In fact, you need the kind of insight into financials to make strong decisions.

One way I'd like to help YOU is by pointing out different reports and metrics that you can find in most accounting software, that business owners or their bookkeepers often neglect. Knowing these numbers will help you avoid an embarrassing flub in YOUR business.

Even if you are using some of these reports, I'm sure you'll find a few more to add to your repertoire. Of course, this is just a very basic introduction, but hopefully it'll spark some ideas.

1) Profit & Loss Summary and Previous Year Comparison: Most business owners rely on the Profit & Loss Summary report, but comparing your results to last year can provide quick insight into whether your revenue is growing or contracting--as well as how fast expenses are rising.

2) Balance Sheet and Previous Year Comparison: As with your income statement, it's important to compare where certain balances stand now versus last year (such as Cash, Accounts Receivable and Payable, etc.).

3) Statement of Cash Flow: Profit & Loss reports enable you to see what you earned, while Balance Sheet reports help you determine what you have--as well as what you owe. (However, neither report necessarily provides a clear picture of where cash is coming from, or going to.) In short, this report shows you exactly what caused your bank balance to increase or decrease during a given report period.

4) Collections Report: Tricky economic times mean it is more important than ever to keep track of your collections. Fortunately, QuickBooks and other platforms make it easy to contact customers with overdue invoices.

5) A/P (Accounts Payable) Aging Summary: Although it's key to make sure that your customers are paying in a timely fashion, it's just as important to pay your vendors, too. Unpaid bills can result in phone calls, e-mails, and other unnecessary interruptions.

6) Voided/Deleted Transactions Summary: It's no surprise that small businesses are much more prone to fraud than large businesses. Small business employees usually wear multiple hats, so it's often impossible to separate financial duties (bigger businesses can do this with ease). Fortunately, accounting platforms make it hard for perpetrators to cover their tracks -- you'll be able to quickly identify any transactions that have been deleted from your books. Granted, this isn't an end-all solution by any means, but it is a helpful management tool. Plus, if a transaction ends up "vanishing" from your books, you can use this report to see who deleted it.

7) Transaction History: QuickBooks or other accounting software will usually display a report that shows the entire history for a given transaction. Think of this as a "report within a report", as you can only run it in certain circumstances.

BE THE ROAR not the echo®

Let's make smart calls together.

Warmly,

Janet Behm
Utah Real Estate Accountants
(801) 278-2700