Every business needs to do bookkeeping if it wants to stay solvent and in compliance with the various rules and laws that must be obeyed. You can learn how to do this if you study the right subjects and attend the proper classes in college. That prepares you for this aspect of running a business if that is the direction your career takes you.
At the collegiate level, before you begin your professional life, you can find online help for assignments from an entity like studybay com. While attending university, online academic assistance can be a real lifesaver if you’re feeling overwhelmed. If you Google phrases like “help with assignment” or “assignment writing helper,” you’ll see several services that can write a paper for you. Just make sure you pick a trustworthy one, like Studybay or Chill&Study. There, you can hire a professional writer if you’re struggling with a take-home assignment.
Once you graduate, though, if you’ve been tasked with keeping the books for your own business or one that has hired you, you should be aware of the most challenging assignments you’re liable to run into. We’ll talk about some of them now.
Keeping Up with AI and Automation
AI is making inroads into many different niches at the moment. You can see it at work in:
- Marketing
- Healthcare
- Transportation
- Education
- Manufacturing
- Banking
- And many more
The business entities who choose to embrace artificial intelligence are usually the ones that thrive. Those who reject it often see themselves falling behind their competitors. That is certainly true in the accounting niche.
Mostly, this tech is helpful because it can address labor shortages, a common issue that many companies find themselves facing. Let’s say you have a company that is having a hard time hiring and retaining its workforce. You can implement a bespoke learning model to not only do some of the tasks that you once would have needed human workers to accomplish. You can also ask it to generate enormous amounts of data.
You can ask the AI to generate data analytics reports, to forecast, to budget, or to do a wide variety of other assignments you once would have asked of a human worker. If you can master what this generation of artificial intelligence is capable of, it can more than handle the staffing shortages many businesses are dealing with these days.
However, you must also be sure to check its work. Assuming every AI-based tool is working correctly can backfire if you don’t scrutinize its output. Remember that as remarkable as these tools seem, the technology is still relatively close to its inception. Once you can be certain the data the AI tool you have implemented is flawless, then you can use it for bookkeeping purposes without hesitation.
Financial Reporting
You must always keep a record of and report a company’s finances, no matter what products you make or services you offer to other businesses or the general public. This can get complicated in a hurry if you do not know the best way to approach the situation.
At a minimum, you should know:
- What financial disclosures you are legally obligated to make
- The entities to which you need to report them
- How to keep your financial transactions and reports safe from prying eyes who might seek to sabotage you or steal your market share
The formula for success in this area is to know what times of the year you need to make your financial disclosures and to be ready as far in advance as possible. It is always helpful to have a quarterly report ready for your shareholders as early as you can generate it and to check it for accuracy before releasing it to them.
Know which entities you need to report to and be aware of how they want the data formatted. You should also have robust security measures in place that will protect any online data about your business.
Encryption can help you in this area. You should also have firewalls in place. At least consider implementing a VPN to add another layer of protection to all the company’s internal communications, particularly those related to financial matters.
Cash Flow
Your cash flow is always going to be one of the most challenging aspects of your business model. You need to be aware of cash management at all levels of your company and its various departments. The larger and more complex your company’s ecosystem, the more difficult it can be to monitor your financial resources and their allocation.
Know how much cash you have moving through each department. By doing so, you can:
- Identify any areas of waste and retool them to make them more efficient
- See if there are any redundancies that you can potentially eliminate
- Generate data that you can then use for forecasting
You want to approach your company’s cash flow not as though it was a known commodity, but more as though it was something malleable and ever-changing because that is exactly what it is. The liquid cash flowing through your business can always be diverted into different departments if that becomes necessary.
Having some flexibility and knowing where you have discretionary income is often the key to modifying your business model if it becomes obvious that it needs it. For instance, improving the efficiency of your accounts payable and receivable processes is often a smart idea, since those are two areas that are often subject to various forms of modernization and refinement.
Knowing About Tax Law Changes
All companies operating in the US must know about existing tax laws with which they must comply. If you get into accounting, you will likely learn all about the most prevalent regulations of which your company must be mindful. Your instructors at the university level should make that a priority.
However, much like all of the new technology that is continually becoming available and altering a company’s financial landscape, tax laws are far from immutable. They can change as well, particularly as new laws are passed, and you need to be aware of it when they do.
It is the responsibility of your whole accounting team to stay on top of the myriad industry regulations with which you must comply. Before you report to the IRS on your company’s financials every year, ask a representative about any changes from the previous year to the new one. You can contact the Internal Revenue Service via phone or email.
If you disobey a rule or break a law because you were not aware of a change from one year to the next, the government will not look at that as an acceptable excuse. It sees it as your responsibility to remain up to speed on tax code changes for business entities.
Payroll Management
Payroll management is so crucial for any company. If you are not able to get each staff member their paycheck on time, whether you’re talking about a worker at the top of the totem pole or the bottom, that is going to increase employee dissatisfaction significantly.
Consider:
- Automating your payroll for better speed and efficiency
- Implementing software that makes is it easier to keep track of any necessary withholdings
- Going to a cloud-based model
You might be one of the many companies that have implemented remote work, or perhaps you’ve gone to a hybrid model. If so, make sure you have time-tracking software in place that meticulously keeps track of what every employee is doing, regardless of whether they’re in the office full-time, part of the time, or never. If you’re doing well managing employee payments for in-office workers but you’re not doing as good of a job with your remote staff, you might soon have a full-scale revolt on your hands.
What Is EcomBalance?
EcomBalance is a monthly bookkeeping service specialized for eCommerce companies selling on Amazon, Shopify, Ebay, Etsy, WooCommerce, & other eCommerce channels.
We take monthly bookkeeping off your plate and deliver you your financial statements by the 15th or 20th of each month.
You’ll have your Profit and Loss Statement, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow Statement ready for analysis each month so you and your business partners can make better business decisions.
Interested in learning more? Schedule a call with our CEO, Nathan Hirsch.
And here’s some free resources:
- Monthly Finance Meeting Agenda
- 9 Steps to Master Your Ecommerce Bookkeeping Checklist
- The Ultimate Guide on Finding an Ecommerce Virtual Bookkeeping Service
- What Is a Profit and Loss Statement?
- How to Read & Interpret a Cash Flow Statement
- How to Read a Balance Sheet & Truly Understand It
Conclusion
There are a whole host of other potentially difficult challenges in the bookkeeping niche. You might spend some time thinking about beefing up cybersecurity, trying to handle the low morale of your accounting team, or creating the most accurate financial forecasts if you’re concerned about declining profitability.
Remember, though, that while the financial aspects of a business entity are some of the most vital to keep an eye on, there are so many other working parts that can’t be neglected. There are certain tasks that fall under the purview of the company’s bookkeepers, but you can’t be responsible for everything.
Only handle the parts of the company’s performance that it makes sense to allocate to you. Make sure the rest of it gets handled by the right departments. You have a job to do as a bookkeeper, but remember that you’re also not the sole reason why a business rises or falls. All departments must do their part to keep the entire operation running smoothly.
