Tag: small business

5 Useful Time Tracking Apps for Small Business

Time is the most valuable resource for small business owners. But in order to get adequately compensated for your time, you need to track how you spend it. Here are the 5 useful time tracking apps for small business needs.

1. Toggl: Toggl offers the ultimate in simplicity; just click to start the timer when you begin a task, and click again to stop it when you end it or take a break. Toggl also creates visual reports that show you how you and your employees are actually using your time and which projects are the most profitable. Toggl integrates with popular project management apps such as Asana, Basecamp, and GitHub. It works with one-person businesses or teams.

2. Timesheets.com: Timesheets.com works for both hourly employees and salaried workers who need to track billable hours or time spent on projects. Timesheets.com works with popular payroll companies including QuickBooks, SurePayroll, and ADP; you can also export the data into a wide variety of formats. There are even HR tools, including standardized documents and the ability to store documents privately so only relevant managers can see them.

3. TSheets: Employees can clock in on their smartphones via text, email, voice call, or even Twitter. Crew features let you send entire crew alerts at once or clock them all in and out at the same time. The drag-and-drop schedule creator makes it easy to schedule employees for shifts, such as retail or restaurant work, or particular jobs, such as landscaping or construction. TSheets is well suited for businesses with hourly workers, work crews, or mobile employees, such as field services or construction. It integrates with the most popular accounting and payroll software.

4. Harvest: This time tracking app creates visual reports that show you how much time your team is spending on each project. Employees can use the app’s timers to track their time or input it manually. With the mobile app, it’s easy to track time and billable hours anywhere. You can also track expenses by simply snapping pictures of receipts and automatically pulling data from Harvest into invoices.

5. Hubstaff: The Hubstaff time tracking app runs on computers or mobile apps and builds in plenty of employee monitoring tools. The app tracks mouse movements and clicks, takes random screenshots to show you what employees are actually working on, monitors employee internet use so you can see what websites they’re visiting, and even tracks which apps employees use the most. The mobile app uses GPS to track employees’ time and location on the road; employees can also track time on their mobile devices.

Need help choosing the right time tracking and scheduling software for your business—or any other aspect of managing your employees and your finances? Let us help you handle your business finances while you focus on growing your business.

Summer Financial Health Check: Assessing Your Business’s Financial Well-Being

As the sun shines brightly and the temperatures rise, summer presents the perfect opportunity for business owners to take a step back and conduct a thorough financial health check.

Assessing your business’s financial well-being during this season can provide valuable insights and help you make informed decisions for the rest of the year. Here are some key steps to consider in your summer financial assessment:

1. Start by analyzing your income and expenses for the first half of the year. Identify any trends or patterns, and compare the figures to your initial projections. This review will give you a clear picture of how your business is performing financially.

2. Review your profit margins and overall profitability. Identify areas where you can reduce costs or increase revenue. This assessment can help you fine-tune your pricing strategies and budget allocations.

3. Take the time to adjust your budget for the second half of the year based on your financial assessment. Account for any changes in income, expenses, or business goals. A well-adjusted budget will serve as a roadmap for the remainder of the year.

4. Consider gathering customer feedback on your products or services. Satisfied customers are more likely to become loyal, repeat customers. Address any concerns or suggestions to enhance customer satisfaction.

5. Engage with financial advisors or accountants to gain valuable insights and expert advice. Their expertise can help you make well-informed financial decisions and set your business up for success.

Conducting a summer financial health check allows you to identify strengths, weaknesses, and growth opportunities for your business. With this knowledge, you can proactively address any financial challenges and build a solid foundation for continued success throughout the year and beyond.

Looking for help with your business finances? We’ve been working with small business owners to free up more time, get more financial clarity, and create more cash flow in their businesses. Ready to learn more? Book a call to get started!

The Benefits of Hiring Independent Contractors for Your Business

As a business owner, you’re constantly faced with decisions that impact the success and growth of your company. One such decision is whether to hire employees or independent contractors to meet your business’s needs. Hiring independent contractors can offer numerous advantages, and understanding the benefits can help you make an informed choice for your business.

1. Cost-Effectiveness: One of the most significant advantages of hiring independent contractors is cost-effectiveness. Unlike employees, independent contractors are not entitled to benefits such as health insurance, retirement plans, or paid time off. This means you can save on payroll taxes and other employee-related expenses, resulting in significant cost savings for your business.

2. Flexibility: Independent contractors provide a high level of flexibility for short-term or project-based work. Whether you need extra help during peak seasons or require specialized skills for specific tasks, independent contractors allow you to scale your workforce as needed without long-term commitments.

3. Specialized Skills: Independent contractors often bring specialized skills and expertise to the table. By hiring contractors with unique talents, you can access high-quality work and knowledge that may not be available within your existing team.

4. Reduced Administrative Burden: Hiring and managing employees comes with various administrative responsibilities, from payroll processing to compliance with labor laws. When you hire independent contractors, many of these administrative tasks are often handled by the contractors themselves, easing your administrative burden.

5. Limited Liability: Independent contractors are responsible for their own business operations and liability. This means that you may have reduced legal exposure compared to hiring employees.

It’s important to note that misclassifying employees as independent contractors can lead to legal issues and fines. Make sure to adhere to legal guidelines and the CRA criteria for determining worker classification.

Discover the seamless experience of working with our expert team. Let us handle your business finances while you focus on growing your business.

5 Step to Conduct a Mid-Year Financial Assessment

A mid-year financial assessment is the best way to evaluate whether or not you are on target to hit your goals. It’s also the perfect time to pivot if you’ve gotten off track. However, to point yourself back in the right direction, you have to know where you’re currently standing:

  1. Check-in With Yourself. First and foremost, how are you feeling about your business at the mid-year mark? Do you feel like you’re on your way to achieving whatever it was you originally set out to achieve? If not, this is a great time to get clear on whether you’re running your business or whether your business is running you.
  2. Revisit Your Budget. The mid-year check-in provides a perfect budget review opportunity. Take a look at what you forecasted for the year in terms of revenue and expenses.
  3. Review Your Financial Statements. Profit and loss statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements are standard financial documents to review during a financial checkup. Compare your financials right now to your financials from this time last year to trends and cycles.
  4. Evaluate Your Goal Progression. Remember those goals you set for your business at the start of the year? It’s time to see where you’re at in meeting them. Whether you set concrete financial milestones or identified systems and processes you wanted to employ, take some time to see if you’ve made meaningful strides toward getting there.
  5. Check-in On Your Taxes. This is a good time to make adjustments to your 3rd and 4th quarter estimated payments if you’re forecasting an increase in revenue for the second half of the year. If you haven’t made your estimated tax payments, then it might be worth scheduling an appointment with your tax professional. Putting off making tax payments causes unnecessary stress. Attending to taxes all year can make for an easier, less stressful spring.

Building good habits as an entrepreneur, like running a mid-year financial checkup, is critical to the success of your business. But habits aren’t always easy to establish or maintain. Maybe you don’t even know where to start. If your business needs support, contact us today to schedule a consultation.

Is Outsourcing the Right Option to Grow Your Business?

Outsourcing helps you abandon the mindset of “I can do it all myself” and offload boring back-office tasks and hand them over to professionals with better expertise and reasonable costs.

Before outsourcing, consider:

  • If you can afford and have the monthly budget of the services
  • If the costs incurred by outsourcing benefit the business in any way
  • If you are equipped to handle the task on your own
  • If outsourcing helps you focus on the strengths of the business

Here are the advantages of outsourcing:

  1. Increased productivity. Many entrepreneurs think they can do everything, but by eliminating the most time-consuming tasks, you can focus on tasks that make a huge difference in meeting the goals of your business.
  2. More time. Time is a limiting factor, you can spend your valuable time dealing with more important tasks like providing the best customer service and improving your ROI rather than wasting your time managing your bookkeeping.
  3. Expert services. Outsourcing allows you to hire an expert for a specific task without dealing with the risk of degraded quality. By outsourcing the right work to more qualified professionals, the books are handled timely and accurately than if business owners handled the same thing themselves.
  4. Cost-effective. Recruiting and training people is expensive and time-consuming; there are other hidden costs to consider as well. You will be able to harness the expertise of a professional without breaking the bank or incurring high overhead costs.
  5. Investing in other growth areas. Comparatively, it is much more affordable to get a task done by a professional externally rather than paying a monthly salary to a hired professional within the business. This increases your budget in other areas.

Outsourcing can bring significant benefits to the business. If you’d like to learn more on how we can help take managing your business finances off your plate and help you grow your business, schedule a call with us today!

5 Financial Reports You Should Track For Your Business

There are a number of financial reports that can give information on the business’s past, current, and future financial state. The top five financial reports that every business owner has to regularly and yearly review to better understand the business’s financial performance are listed below.

  • Balance Sheet. It provides a snapshot of a business’s financial position, including the economic resources the business owns or owes and the sources of financing for those resources.
  • Income Statement. It summarizes the total revenues and expenses incurred by the business, showing the profitability (net income or net loss) over a specified period of time, usually a month, quarter, or year.
  • Cash Flow Statement. It is presented in three sections: operating, financing, and investing activities, and it indicates which areas of the business are generating and using the most cash. One of the best uses for the Cash Flow Statement is to estimate future cash flow, which will assist with budgeting and decision-making.
  • Accounts Receivable Aging Report. It categorizes outstanding accounts receivable into groups based on the due date of the invoice, typically current, as well as 1-30, 31-60, 61-90, and >90 days overdue.
  • Budget vs. Actual. It can help identify areas that were over or under budget, indicating the ability to hire additional employees. The Budget vs. Actual Report should be prepared on a monthly basis and reviewed with the financial statements to determine if any areas of the business are not meeting expectations and should be investigated further.

We consistently provide timely and accurate financials and reports (like the ones mentioned above) on a monthly basis, as well as the actionable financial analysis you need to effectively run your business, analyze operations, and guide business decisions. If your business needs support, contact us today to schedule a consultation.

2022 Is the Year to Upgrade to QuickBooks

2022 Is the Year to Upgrade to QuickBooks

Are you ready to make some changes to your business in the New Year?

When it comes to New Year’s resolutions, there’s an old joke that no one can remember their resolutions by February. The reason why is because most New Year’s resolutions are more like wishes than they are goals with strategies behind them. If you’re going to make some positive changes in the new year, you need a goal with a plan, not a resolution!

If you’re a small business owner, you might “resolve” to better manage your finances in the new year. But to do it properly, you need the right tools. Some people decide to hire a bookkeeper or accountant to manage their books, but if you want to do it yourself, a tool like QuickBooks Online is invaluable and can help set you up for success in 2022!

Why QuickBooks Online?

Though there are many different kinds of accounting software out there, we at The Number Works prefer QuickBooks Online. Our preference comes from working with many small businesses over the years and helping manage their finances.

Simply put, QBO offers the best mix of financial management tools at an affordable price. It’s not endlessly complicated, so anyone can learn to use it effectively. And most importantly, it offers increased functionality depending on your needs. In other words, QBO’s features can grow with your business.

QuickBooks Online Packages

For a small business just starting out, we would recommend the EasyStart package. It includes everything you need to run the basics of your business’ finances. With EasyStart, you can begin to keep track of everything you need to maintain the health of your books!

If you’re a more established small business, then the Essentials package might be a better fit for you. It includes everything in the EasyStart package but also allows for billing and payment management, multi-currency support, time tracking, and multiple users.

Finally, if your small business is rapidly growing and you need more complex features, the Plus package can help. It includes project profitability—a significant benefit if you’re working on a few new projects—and inventory tracking, which is super helpful if you run any kind of online or brick-and-mortar store.

How to Set Up QBO for Your Business

After a very busy December, the last thing you might want is to spend time getting a brand-new QuickBooks Online account set up. But believe it or not, it’s incredibly straightforward.

All you need to do is import your business’s financial information into QBO. That should include your bank accounts, credit cards, regular customers, etc. Once that information is in there, all of these accounts will automatically update, meaning that you’ll never need to manually input data again. That’s a major timesaver!

But What About Once You’ve Set It Up?

When we speak with our clients about using QBO, it isn’t the setup that worries them, it’s the multitude of features that they might not know how to use. Fortunately, we’re here to help!

Teaching small business owners how to use QBO and customize it for their business is part of what we do here at The Number Works. Of course, as a small business owner, you might only use a few of the many features that QBO offers. But there are big benefits for those who invest time into learning the ins and outs of the program.

With our small business experience, we know exactly where you can get the best bang for your buck out of QuickBooks Online, and can show you where you should put your attention. As accountants, we can’t tell you how much easier our job is when all of the financial information for a company is kept in one place. When stored in QuickBooks Online, it’s in the Cloud. That means there’s never any danger of losing information in the event of a hard drive failure or accident. So long as you have your login information, you can get access to your finances on any device, whether that be a desktop, phone, or tablet!

To learn more about how The Number Works can teach you how to set up QuickBooks Online this year, please feel free to contact us today! Together, we can prepare your business so your 2022 is much more organized than your 2021, setting you up for success in the new year!

Getting Started with Quickbooks Online for Your Small Business

Getting Started with Quickbooks Online for Your Small Business

Does the daily management of your small business’s finances ever give you a stress headache?

The reality of being a small business owner is that everything is on your shoulders. You don’t have a boss; you ARE the boss! While that can be incredibly gratifying, it can also be very stressful. There’s no one else to blame if things go wrong. If there are any mistakes when it comes to managing your finances, it’s entirely on you.

As a small business owner, the smart thing to do is put a comprehensive system into place to monitor and maintain your business’s financial health. For some small business owners, that can involve hiring a bookkeeper or accountant. However, many new small businesses don’t yet have the resources necessary to bring on such professionals. In this case, they need to have an easy way to make sure that their financial data is at their fingertips at all times. Enter QuickBooks Online!

Why Go for QBO?

While there are many online accounting programs out there, QuickBooks Online is our favourite here at The Number Works. Not only does QBO offer an impressive suite of financial management features at an affordable price, but it can also be learned by just about anyone!

As a service, QBO can grow with your business. When your business is just starting out, your financial management needs might be simple, but after a year or two of growth, you’ll need something a little more comprehensive. That’s one of the strengths of QBO—you can delve into its more complex features as needed, while also maintaining the brilliant simplicity of the overall system.

Your First Steps with QBO

The first step to using QBO is determining which package is best for your current business needs.

If you have a small business, you likely won’t need QBO’s most comprehensive services right off the bat. Your options include EasyStart, which provides for all of the basics; Essentials, which allows for multiple users, bill and payment management, multi-currency support, and time tracking; and Plus, which adds project profitability and inventory tracking.

Once you’ve picked your ideal package, you can start setting up QBO for your business. Importing your business’s bank accounts, credit cards, and other financial information into the system should be your next step. Once added, they’ll automatically update, importing up-to-date information regularly. This will save you a ton of time manually inputting financial data.

After this, it’s time to start setting up how you want QBO to organize your information. You can create accounts within the program for different line items in your financial statements. For example, QBO automatically gives you “Expenses” and “Revenue” accounts. That’s fantastic if your expenses and revenue are only coming from single sources, but if you have multiple sources of income, you might want to create some personalized accounts to make it easier to keep track.

Delving Into More Complex Features

QuickBooks Online setup can be a relatively easy, though somewhat time-consuming task. The real trick is learning the more complex parts of the program.

There have been many small business owners who, once they start with QBO, only use a small portion of its features. This is often the case even for business owners who could tremendously benefit from deeper integrations of the software into their business. It’s understandable, but unfortunately, it means that there are many additional benefits of QBO that they’re missing out on!

The best solution to this problem is to hire someone who can teach you all of the details of QuickBooks Online and show you how it can specifically benefit your business. At The Number Works, we can teach you all of the ins and outs of QBO. Our experience with this program and small business owners means that we know exactly the places where you can get the best bang for your buck!

Learning how to use QuickBooks Online is an investment into yourself and your small business. Once you understand how the software works, you can do your own bookkeeping to stay on top of your business’s financial health at all times!

Being a small business owner can be stressful, but the financial management side is always much more manageable when all your financial data and records are in one place that you can readily access. QuickBooks Online will keep things organized and give you an excellent view of how your business is operating. Even better, if you decide to hire a financial professional to take care of your taxes, everything will be ready to send to them, making tax season so much easier!

If you want to learn all about QuickBooks Online, The Number Works is prepared to help! Contact us today, and we can get you and your small business set up for success!

Money-Saving Hacks for Small Businesses

Money-Saving Hacks for Small Businesses

Do you ever look up life hacks on the internet?

There are countless websites out there, all offering life hacks that are guaranteed to change the way you do things. We’re sure that you’ve seen tips like these before:

  • Pour cola into your toilet to make it spotlessly clean
  • Put pancake mix into an empty ketchup bottle for a perfect batter pour
  • Use your car’s seat warmer to keep your pizza box hot on the way home

But when you’re running a small business, you don’t need life hacks; you need money-saving hacks. Unfortunately, these are usually less fun than life hacks. But if you implement these simple hacks at your small business, you could see some significant changes to your bottom line!

Revamp Your Advertising

If you’re a small business (especially a newer one), most traditional advertising and marketing methods simply won’t work for you.

Reaching out with big newspaper ads or TV spots casts too wide a net, not to mention that both marketing methods are costly. If you’re a small business, we encourage you to think about targeted advertising, so you are reaching out to the exact audience you want to capture.

This method is often much cheaper as well, as you can use digital marketing strategies to massively narrow the focus of your campaign. For example, Facebook Ads allow you to specifically pick the audience you want to target, in terms of both demographics and locations. You can also choose your exact budget, guaranteeing that you won’t go over budget.

You can also utilize free marketing platforms like YouTube. By creating a few fun YouTube videos advertising your business, you will have content that you can share on all of your social media profiles!

In other words, when it comes to your marketing, don’t think “big.” Instead, think “targeted.”

Utilize Remote Work

Remote work has become more common than ever. But have you ever considered how powerful it could be to hire remote workers for your business?

We’re not necessarily talking about full-time employees here. If you have repetitive tasks that take up a ton of your time every week, you might want to look at hiring a virtual assistant to help you out part-time. You usually only need to pay them for the time they spend on a task, making them extremely cost-effective for targeted work.

Other reasons to hire remote workers like virtual assistants are that you often don’t need to spend money or time to train them and you don’t need to pay them benefits. If you’re a small business that needs some extra hands, but you can’t afford to bring on new employees, then remote workers might be the way to go!

Review All Your Expenses

Okay, this might not sound like a hack. But you would be surprised at the number of small businesses out there that never look closely at their books to see where they can cut back on expenses.

Monitoring your expenses has become even more critical as we move into a post-pandemic world. Small expenses, like paper supplies, can be a significant drain over the life of your business. It might be time to think about creating a paperless office, especially if you are now working from home!

And if you’ve already transitioned your small business into a home office environment, maybe you should consider staying that way. Not only will it save you big bucks in office rent, but you could also likely write off a part of your mortgage or home rent. We can help you find those savings!

It can also be a challenge to identify these savings if your books are not well-organized. If you have excellent bookkeeping, then finding these expenses should be a piece of cake. In fact, one of the best ways to make sure all of your finances are organized (besides hiring a professional bookkeeper) is our next hack!

Learn to Use QuickBooks Online

Here at The Number Works, we are huge fans of QuickBooks Online. This cloud-based accounting software has entirely changed the game for countless small businesses, including many that we have worked with directly.

In many cases, we take the lead on the management of your finances, but what if you want to do it yourself? Then you need to learn all the ins and outs of QBO! It may sound easy, but it can be trickier than you think. While it’s simple enough to learn the basics, things can get complicated when you get into many of its more advanced financial management features.

That’s why we think one of the best money-saving hacks you can try is getting QuickBooks Online training. It’s one of the reasons why we offer this service to small business owners. It can save you money on hiring an accountant, and it will also deeply immerse you in the financial health of your business. You’ll know exactly what is going on in your business at all times!

Save on Office Supplies

Remember what we said about saving on paper? What if you need paper at work? Well, it might be time to look at your office supplies supplier and see if someone else can offer you a better deal.

You might want to look for savings in places where you would typically pay a premium. For example, how much do you spend on “genuine” ink for your printer? If you use toner, it can cost you hundreds of dollars a year. You can always look into third-party ink or toner cartridges. Just make sure to do your research first, ensuring that they are guaranteed not to damage your printer or copier. But using off-brand products like these can save you a massive amount of money!

Life and small business hacks are fantastic, but nothing beats solid financial management strategies when it comes to saving money. If you want to set yourself up for success in managing your business finances by learning QuickBooks Online, contact us today to ensure that your small business’ finances are always well taken care of!

Hooks

What the Pandemic Has Taught Us About Business

Is it safe to say that the last year has been a bit… challenging?

We’re not even referring to the pandemic itself. We mean all of the changes that our society has gone through BECAUSE of the pandemic.

Before the pandemic hit, the stock market was doing fine, employment was up, everything was going great. And then March came, and within just a few weeks, everyone was knocked off their feet, unsure how to move forward. Fortunately, everyone moved quickly to figure out how to adjust. Many businesses rapidly put technological innovations and new remote work procedures into place that allowed them to stay open, even during the lockdown. Remarkably enough, some of these changes were actually very positive steps forward!

While COVID-19 is still a problem, staying in business is now much easier than it was at the beginning of the year. Here are just a few of the things that the pandemic taught us about running a business in 2020.

Be Flexible

While we certainly don’t expect anything of the magnitude of COVID-19 to happen in 2021—at least, we hope not—the disruptions caused by the pandemic taught us a valuable lesson about flexibility.

If you came up with a business plan back in January 2020, chances are that you needed to throw it out the window by the end of April. “Business as usual” just wasn’t possible anymore. Almost instantly, we saw a divide between businesses trying to rigidly stick to their original plans versus those that rapidly adapted to the “new normal”, changing their plans to best position themselves for success.

Those that tried to stick with a brick-and-mortar-only business model suffered, while those that shifted their business almost entirely online thrived. These businesses translated their product offerings to the digital space, allowing them to stay open throughout the lockdown.

Data Access is Essential

Dependency on the Cloud also grew throughout the pandemic. Locally-stored files were no longer an option, as people simply weren’t in the office. Accessing one’s data from anywhere became a necessity, leading many businesses to start exploring Cloud-storage options.

If you haven’t moved to the Cloud yet, it might be time to make the leap! This will give your business an additional level of flexibility to allow your employees to work from home. Speaking of which…

Communication Tools Are Key

Did you even know what Zoom was ten months ago?

Thanks to the pandemic, keeping in contact with your employees and clients became a nightmare of logistics. Sure, regular phone calls helped, but many people depend on non-verbal communication to truly connect. Enter Zoom.

Zoom rapidly took the lead in video conferencing, almost instantly beating out many of its more established competitors like Skype and Facebook. Why? Ease of entry; anyone could get on a Zoom call. They didn’t need to create an account or worry about hosting. Zoom facilitated easy communication between people—though the technology wasn’t always perfect. There were some significant security and privacy concerns, especially early on in 2020. But those problems have since been patched, and now Zoom is back on top.

Our advice for 2021 would be to keep an eye on the video conferencing space to see how companies innovate. Zoom won’t be on top forever, so by staying aware of new developments you’ll be able to keep your business on the cutting edge of communication—because even once we’re back in the office, video conferencing won’t be going anywhere!

Every Dollar Counts

While programs like CERB helped individuals financially survive during the worst of the pandemic, many small businesses were scrambling. Suddenly, their bottom line was flat, and their expenses were ballooning. Something needed to be done.

One strategy was to ask a financial professional to look at their books to find places where they could trim some fat. Businesses needed to become leaner to make sure that every dollar counted. Throughout 2020, we have gone through the books of many of our clients, helping them find a few places they could tighten their belts. Even freeing up a few extra dollars every month can make a huge difference during a time of crisis!

Even though vaccines are on their way, it’s going to be a long time before things can get back to the way they were. It’s not too late for your business to pivot and make some changes that will not only help you thrive during the pandemic, but long after. One of these ways is to shift your finances over to professionals.

At The Number Works, we’ve been working throughout the pandemic to keep small businesses in a strong financial shape. From handling taxes to finding a few extra dollars in your budget, we strive to make a real difference in your bottom line. Contact us today, and we can help your business survive and thrive in 2021 using all of the lessons we learned in 2020!