We’ve said it before, but it’s well worth repeating: cash flow is the lifeblood of every successful business. It’s often a lack of liquidity, in fact – rather than a shortage of sales – that prevents newer companies from growing. One way to keep your business afloat during a cash flow shortfall is to sell your accounts receivable invoices to a factoring company. Factoring doesn’t come free, however. So here’s what you need to know before exploring it further.
Topics: Accounts Receivable
Money owing from customers in the form of accounts receivable is one of the biggest contributors to your company’s cash flow. While business success hinges on having positive cash flow activity - where there’s more money coming in than there is going out - the money that flows into your business can’t really be counted as income until it becomes cash-in-hand.
Topics: Cash Flow Management, Accounts Receivable, Growth Coach
Properly managing your small business cash flow is critical if you want to succeed. Even if you are just a startup with no revenues, but you have raised money, cash flow is still incredibly important.
Topics: Cash Flow Management, Accounts Receivable, Financial Forecasting
Let's face it, you are in business to make money and a good invoicing system is key. You provide a service to your client in exchange for money. I once heard that money is a certificate of service rendered. Well if that is the case, you are in business to get clear and correct certificates for your service. Your clients likewise want clear and correct service.
Topics: Accounting Reconciliation, Accounts Receivable, QuickBooks Invoicing
Controlling accounts receivable is a challenge for any small business owner. You are so relieved and happy when you make a new sale and you send out an invoice. The problem is sending an invoice is only half the battle; you still need to get paid. I don't consider a new client closed until funds have been received and cleared the bank. Managing cash flow is so important for a small business so you need to stay on top of it. Controlling your accounts receivable is a great way to help maintain a healthy cash flow. Here are five ways to control your accounts receivable.
Topics: Cash Flow Management, Accounts Receivable, QuickBooks Invoicing
I was having lunch with a business colleague of mine a few weeks ago when he told me how much changing his bookkeeper had helped him. He had been dealing with incompetent bookkeepers for a while and finally found someone good. He said something that really stuck with me, "just getting a good bookkeeper doubled my cash flow." It made perfect sense to me as I use QuickBooks as a tool to manage cash flow. Cash flow is something that many small businesses struggle with and just by actually handling your bookkeeping the right way cash flow can really be improved.
Topics: Cash Flow Management, Accounts Receivable, Small Business Bookkeeping
We work with a lot of small businesses and I have noticed some commonalities in the challenges that they all face. I particularly can speak to service based businesses as we are one and have faced and still face all of these challenges. I noticed that although product based businesses face similar challenges their resolutions are different. Here are three common challenges I see serviced based businesses face and how to overcome them.
Topics: Cash Flow Management, QuickBooks Cash Flow, Accounts Receivable, Small Business Growth, Scaling A Business, Inbound Marketing
Rick Roberge frequently comments on this blog. He's been a salesman for decades, but is recognized as an early adopter of tools, technology and techniques that help salespeople sell more effectively. He shares freely and has helped develop many 21st Century Sales Rock Stars. In his own words...
Topics: Accounts Receivable, Sales Advice, Small Business, Small Business Sales
As a small business owner you need to know how to get the most out of your bookkeeper. If handled properly your bookkeeping system can be a tool that you can use to make decisions and grow your business. In order to have a bookkeeping system that you can actually use you need to know what you need. Here are five things I would demand from my small business bookkeeping system.
Topics: QuickBooks, QuickBooks Reconciliation, Cash Flow Management, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Bookkeeping Tips, Financial Forecasting, Financial Reporting, Small Business Bookkeeping
Running a bookkeeping consulting firm geared towards small businesses teaches you a lot about business startups. We see all sorts of missteps, whether it is right from the beginning or several years down the road. It is very rare that a business will do everything right during the startup phase. The list of tasks that need to get done to get your business up and running can be overwhelming. No matter how experienced you are in business you can’t be an expert in every facet of launching a business. It is amazing to me how reluctant people are to ask for help during the startup phase of a business. I think many people have the mindset to get their business launched by spending as little money as possible. However, this approach often leads to costly mistakes, which are more expensive in the long-run. It is usually much cheaper to pay someone to do something correctly the first time rather than pay them to fix your mistakes in the future. Here are 8 common bookkeeping mistakes I see new businesses make when starting their business.
Topics: Accounting Reconciliation, Bookkeeping Errors, Bookkeeping Services, QuickBooks Reconciliation, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Bookkeeping Processes, Bookkeeping Help, Financial Reporting, Bookkeeping Theft
