Guidelines for Success in Business BUSINESS GUIDE TO ACCOUNTING SERVICES A Successful Entrepreneur's Guide to Accounting Services  Navigating through turbulent financial waters can be difficult for even the most experienced business owner.  This is particularly true if  accounting services are outdated, not used, or are inaccurate.  The following tips will help steady the course and give the most value for the significant dollars invested for small business accounting services.   Set goals: sales targets and a spending plan breed motivation, efficiency and give you the information needed to adjust.  As Yogi Bera said, if you don't know where you are going, you will end up someplace else. Set rewards for achieving these benchmarks.  We all work harder if there is a prize at the end.  If we are given a goal and even minimally recognized for it, there is more focus and satisfaction to our work. Obtain timely, accurate information to compare against your expectations.  Bank reconciliations must be performed, accounts payable needs to be up to date, accounts receivable and inventory should be accurate and capital assets need to be accounted for.  These are not difficult to accomplish once systems are set up and adhered to. Collaborate, think and plan.  Financial statements, sales goals, and budgets can be excellent starting points about directions of profitable growth, purchasing decisions, staffing and tax planning.  Meeting with your inside or outside accountant monthly or quarterly can get you off the wrong path and redirect, or reinforce positive strategies.  Not only do the above items make sense, but we know they are useful because all large, successful companies do these things. There is a tendency to think that the above items may work for publicly held companies or an organization with tens of millions in sales, but a small business can't afford to do all of that.  Amazingly though, most businesses already have the capability in personnel and software to accomplish these four activities. It will likely require additional set-up, training and an initial investment.  However, the additional money spent on set-up, training and services should yield a return many times the cost.   McClure, Inserra & Company, Chartered 1650 N. Arlington Heights Road Arlington Heights IL 60004  847-870-0380