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3 Bookkeeping Mistakes To Avoid

When we start our own business, we do most things ourselves because of the new likeness and excitement which urges us to handle things on our own, even the things we don’t like, including the bookkeeping, and is not a task that comes easy. This is because you would not only have to deal with getting someone who can perform the tasks that you need to be done like keeping your accounting books well-maintained in an accurate manner because you think you have a grasp of the basics of businesses.

Here are 3 most common bookkeeping mistakes small and new businesses often make, along with our handy suggestions about how to avoid them for long-term business growth. 

Putting off Bookkeeping Process:

Sounds fun, but it’s not! If you’ve decided to handle those looming and deadlines tasks, then better be prepared for the consequences. Sooner or later, there will be an overwhelming sort of tasks which you need to update. The things can go even worse when you won’t have a clear idea of what’s happening in your business. And soon HST and tax deadlines are looming, and you aren’t ready. 

Do’s:

The best thing you can do is put some effort to update your financial information in your dairy and check that you understand what your figures are actually telling you without doing minimum fuss and duplication.

Mixing both business & personal spending:

Thinking of mixing both business & personal spending is actually not a good idea to consider. It’s easy to lose track of what you have done so far as it creates a mess and confusion towards you, and soon you can find yourself out of nowhere. 

In just a few days you will begin to struggle to remember all your relevant bank or credit card statements which were necessary for your business, and wasting a lot of time is another task which will frustrate you from inside. 

Do’s:

Our recommendation is to go for a separate business credit or debit card so that you will always have a clear view, record and track of your business-related spending. Another benefit which you will get is it helps to avoid tax return mistakes.

Intricate Cash Flow:

Not collecting your receipts and purchase invoices might lose you a clear view of tracking your business cash flow. Not correctly coding all your income and expenditure creates unuseful reports for you and your business which will devastate business in the long run.

Do’s:

Well, it is advised to always keep an extensive record for your business receipts from the biggest to even the smallest expenses as it will help to reduce your HST and tax bills. But it may come handy during scrutiny as HMRC could ask to scan your receipts reports. 

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Tax Returns Documents (Tax Slips)

Dear Clients:

We hope you are in good health.

For business proprietors and partners and their spouses we do have some time before filing their returns.

For others we are running short of time; deadline to file this year is June 1st.

For many of such clients, we have already filed the returns.  But some clients have yet to provide us their documents (tax slips).  We do have your T4s and T5s if we prepared these slips for you.  But you need to provide us other slips you may have.

Tax Planning takes time but can save a lot of taxes, many times hundreds of dollars and sometimes thousands.  If you bring your documents close to the deadline, we will not have enough time to do proper planning.

To save you maximum taxes we request that you provide us your documents soon.  Send these electronically or drop these through our office door slot at any time of your convenience.  Alternatively send these in the mail.  These days we do not meet our client’s in-person for reasons known to you.

Teji Singh, Manager

H&T Accounting Service

T: 905-858-0775

F: 905-858-8645

Website: www.hAndT.ca

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Understanding CERB and CEWS

Dear Clients:

A large Employer subsidy program CEWS has just started. It will give you 75% of the wages that you pay your employees.

People who have taken CERB will not qualify for CEWS.  You may like to pull yourself out of CERB and go on CEWS. Those who got CERB without being eligible, should also do so.

There are many Assistance Programs to help businesses cope up with Covid-19 damages.  Only some of the programs may apply to your business.  We are helping our clients to maximize their benefits.  We do so by matching program eligibility criteria with your business situation.

A key parameter in matching is your Current Operation (CO) Level.  For example, your CO level may be about 80% of the Regular Operation (RO) level. This represents an almost fully open business.  At 20% level you will be almost fully closed.  A partly open situation may be at 50% CO level. We would like to know your approximate CO level.

We would also like to know your Revenue in January, February, March and April.  We have now prepared the attached Form to get your answers.

Please complete the Form and send it back soon.

Teji Singh, Manager

H&T Accounting Service

T: 905-858-0775

F: 905-858-8645

Site www.hAndT.ca

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New Procedure to Exchange Information or Documents (IODs)

Dear Clients:

Due to COVID-19 we have not been meeting client’s in-person since last week of March. But we have managed well using emails and phone call to exchange Information or Documents (IODs).

Even if some restrictions are being reduced by government, Social Distancing is expected to remain for a while. We are afraid we have to continue these procedures to exchange IODs.

Some clients had to provide us packages containing hundreds of documents. At our request they dropped off such packages through the slot in our office door. We want all clients to know of this procedure.

Anybody including the couriers can drop off document packages at our office in a bin placed on the office stairs. You can do that any time in office hours. The other drop off alternative is through our office door slot; this can be done at any time.

For providing us information on a few pages, you can use E-mail and that on many pages; use a service like Google Drive or Dropbox or OneDrive.

Teji Singh
TEL: 905.858.0775
FAX: 905.858.8645

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Coronavirus – COVID -19

We are all going through tough times brought upon us by COVID-19.  We hope you and your family are all well.

Health departments and professionals are helping you by informing on health matters; and Finance departments and professionals, on economic matters.  We as accountants want to help you in ways we can.

Most of you own small businesses. So, we undertook to help you with 3 major economic programs set up by our governments recently.

For the employees who have lost their jobs, the usual route of Employment Insurance (EI) is already there; a new route Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) is being setup.

This will give $2,000 monthly to self-employed owners and contractors.

To help employers pay wages, a program called Temporary Wage Subsidy (TWS) is being setup.  Employer can get up to 75% of their wage expenses paid by government.

To ease cashflow of businesses, Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) program is being setup. This will give your business an interest free loan of $40,000 and $10,000 of this amount may not be even repayable.

Eligibility Criteria and Application Forms for these programs should be ready within a week.  We are watching the developments closely and continuously.  Let us know if you need our help in applying for EI, CERB, TWS or CEBA.

We also want to let you know that we have extended our restriction on in-person meetings to April 13th. But we are open for business using email and phone during regular office hours.

Stay safe and stay well!

Teji Singh, Manager

H&T Accounting Services, Mississauga, ON

Email: handt@handt.ca

Tel: 905-858-0775

Fax: 905-858-8645

Web: www.hAndT.ca

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4 Best Bookkeeping Practices for Successful Businesses

Bookkeeping Practices

There are no limits on who can become a great entrepreneur; everyone can start their beautiful and challenging journey on their own. And for that, a bunch of money in the bank or even business experience is needed to start something that could become the next major success in future. However, you do need a strong plan and the drive to see it through what going on behind.

There are lots of things you have to do to run and manage your business and it is not like a one-person involved. However you can, but chances are that you may need someone who can keep a sort of records like harmonized sales taxes, workplace safety insurance payroll, prepare journals, ledgers, and compliance reports and schedules to make your business run smoothly without hiccups.

Now everything is set up quite perfectly to run your business, but many a time bookkeeping – which is one of the fundamental origins that keep track and monitors the business aspects, often ends up at the bottom of the list.

Business owner and entrepreneur like to think forward, plan to implement change in real-time and having a bookkeeper is a one step ahead and a game changer. Look, whatever business you want to run or already running, without bookkeeping don’t think that things will move into the right direction. If you having that kind of mindset, better evaluate and be aware because after that, things will be in chaos and revert is quite impossible.

We compiled 4 best bookkeeping practices for you which in today’ world necessary to keep your business run in a flow

Separate business:

Now for instance, if you, or your employees, are buying things for personal use with business funds, do you think that it is a good idea to implement as it will quickly cause cash flow issues, and tax filing and auditing complications? And it is better not to ever make a mistake of incorporating business with your expenses. If done, then in the long-term, it will make bookkeeping much harder and creates chaos.

Make review habit:

Being busy in handling business is a good thing, but not having a glance on where your money is going or went each week can put you in confusion or in a dilemma state. If not controlled, in no time can quickly cause cash flow issues.

To ease and help you mitigate financial stress down the road, bookkeeper recommends weekly expense review using Quick-books which is only not smarter in making a simple transparent report to review your expenses but also keep track of what income came in that week and how it process.

Time for paperless:

21st century is all about technology and it is not a smart step to implement paper books in keeping records these days as it acts as a pile that puts loads on managing and updating stuff. Without implementing a solid core foundation of accounting systems like Quick-books or cloud-based expense technologies, daily bookkeeping tasks will put a major strain on your ass and time. And professional bookkeeper often recommends using it as it saves time and efforts and can give you a portal glance of your financial histories.

Consult Bookkeeper Regularly:

Keep a list of your second thoughts or back-office questions on a regular basis with a professional bookkeeper and it is not a good idea to consult only just at tax time to get relevant answers and advice because maybe, later on, this also puts you at risk if you are ever audited by the IRS and having a hectic moment, not every businessperson wishes for. So, keeping an eye on your bookkeeper ensures you are always tax-ready and will also help you avoid major money pitfalls that may create a burden on your shoulder.

Last but not least, the reason why bookkeeping is important because it allows the business owners to know exactly what is happening in their business with full transparency tracking reports. To make your business progresses in an exceptional way, you must know how to play the numbers well like in the revenue and expenses and you cannot afford to miss out on.

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This New Year Get Your Business Done with Bookkeeping Professionals

Expert Bookkeepers

Are you planning to start a new business this New Year and looking for a bookkeeper, who is equally responsible for his work, effort and reputation to manage all the official task of the business, then understand its tactics, before you hire one?

Bookkeeping is the systematic and consistent recording, organizing and maintaining of financial transactions in a company or a business. It doesn’t matter what kind of business you are having, Starting and maintaining solid, professional accounting practices for bookkeeping is honestly essential for the overall growth of the business.

In general, accounting should be performed daily on financial transactions and information related to a company. The reason why we are so concerned is whenever there is a situation when we want to verify the task like the sales, tax or something which is related to the benefit of the company, it ensures that records of the individual financial transactions are correct, up-to-date and comprehensive.

Make sure you are ordering in work with accuracy and consistency is therefore vital to the process. Basically, accounting means recording and keeping track of the financial numbers which is vitally involved in the financial aspect for both individuals and non-profit organizations.

It is obvious because detailed and thorough accounting is crucial for companies of all sizes as it controls the business which is a never-ending process coupled up with increasing to-do lists. Later on, if we didn’t aware of keeping a track, accounting quickly becomes more complex with several taxes, assets, loans and investments responsibilities. So, the bookkeeper is equally responsible for its reputation and comprehensive work.

Now, the main and truest purpose of a business is the tracking and maintaining company’s financial assets that allows bookkeeper to responsibly keep an up-to-date record of current incoming, outgoing and outdated amounts. This is what we talked about earlier.

The bookkeeper responsible for bookkeeping a business would record all transactions that are related to business, but not limited to:

  • Basic Accounting Records
  • Handling the Vendors and Customers Invoices
  • Cheque books and Reconciling Bank Statement
  • Payroll Records and Payroll Files
  • Receivable Accounts
  • Sales Tax Reports
  • Relevant Ledger Entries and so on

Bookkeeping and accounting are often heard being used interchangeably and sometimes confuses a person which one to consider, however, accounting is the overall practice of managing and tracking finances of a business or individual, while bookkeeping usually refers to more specifically to the tasks and practices involved in recording the financial activities.

This however looks same but is somehow different depending upon the task and services which business are offering.

Now you know the difference between the two, so find which one suits for you. Well in our case, both are necessary and vital for handling the reputation of your business

At H&T Accounting Services, we can prepare for you any documents you need to present to various government departments on income tax, harmonized sales tax, occupational safety insurance and payroll. All the documents we prepare are highly confidential and tax-efficient. We also carry out all the necessary records and accounts to support the information used in the archived documents so that next time it can come in use. With our accounting services, we can help improve the administration and profits of your business. For more information on how we can help you regarding your business, consult our professionals.

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Having a Business, why don’t you hire a Bookkeeper?

Bookkeeping

Every company or business has a mission and once it is sorted out or vision are tweaked, then big tycoons faced with the issue of implementing the new plan and sometimes that requires extensive help from accountants or bookkeepers.

For the purposes of controlling business, the following will serve as why having a bookkeeping services is vital organ for your business.

According to us, Bookkeepers are a rare breed of individuals, and are used by every organization’s – known for their skills for the recording and managing of financial transactions, and is basically the part of the process of accounting in business. But if they do not possess superior skills, they can drop a corporation in a very quick order and guess what things are messed.

Therefore, this person is vitally important to any organization and if you are wishing to have a more than one, then this is overall good just for the bright future in the world of business.

Now, what duties they actually offer us to surf the business with ease, let’s find out:

  • Maintenance of Basic Accounting Records
  • Handling the Invoices of Vendors and Customers
  • Balancing the Cheque books and Reconciling Bank Statement
  • Maintenance of Payroll Records and Payroll Files
  • Maintenance of Receivable Accounts
  • Making Relevant Ledger Entries
  • Preparation of Sales Tax Reports
  • Prints Preserved Financial Reports and Statements

Well, there are a lot more and it surely depends upon what kind of business you are having. If you are having a small business, still there is a chance that you require bookkeeping and it’s better to hire one for your business.

If you want us to do bookkeeping for your new or existing business, H&T Accounting services offer premium bookkeeping and accounting services in Mississauga, Toronto.

No matter what your business says or what kinds of services you are serving we have everything to provide you with every record where our professional’s accountants use standard working techniques to prepare journals, ledgers, and compliance reports and schedules and a much more for you.

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Ask yourself why you need to hire Bookkeeping Experts for Business Accounting Management?

Starting a business sincerely require extraordinary enthusiasm, passion and pursuance, and after you’ve legally registered your business, you’ll need someone professional accountants who can lean on when making day to day Accounting and Financial Management decisions in Mississauga. It is something like you have to learn from it or hire a professional accountant when you are running a business.

For business people, Accounting Services is seriously a crucial part of any successful business, as it increasingly requires managing all the decisions that are highly relevant to both business and owners for Business Startups.

The records are all your accounting documents and these documents must be organized differently to simplify things over time with us.

However, controlling business is a never-ending process as it is coupled up with increasing to-do lists.

Your Bookkeeping services can be simple or complex depending on the nature of business. But when you choose to hire someone, you still need to be well organized.

Ask yourself whether you need bookkeeper or not

Strong foundation:

Bookkeeping practices are no doubt the strong foundation of every successful business startups, and surely, accounting should be your preferred responsibility if you want to build a strong financial foundation for your business. It could save you time, money and frustration in all aspects simultaneously.

Manage your financials accounting status with us to ensures that your records are perpetually up-to-date whether it is for tax preparation, loan reviews or other business needs.

Track performance:

Poor bookkeeping is apparently disastrous as we know if it is not done properly or in an efficient manner, but having professional accountants can save you from all of them, as it helps you make the right decision in an attempt to avoid improperly keeping financial records.

Be organized:

Staying organized is the most critical step to be efficient and accurate in accounting since it organizes your business accounting records when determining what to preserve and how to quickly find information when you need it. The business generates paperwork and that quite obvious, but it becomes overwhelming when it is not under control.

With us, you can keep track of accurate sales, tax and expenses into our records as they occur.

Be on time with CRA:

One of the reasons why it is necessary to carry out the accounting of your business is for compliance with the CRA. Whatever records we are creating or managing regarding any business, they are the real authority to examine you.

For this reason, hiring the bookkeeping experts makes sense so that they can help you avoid fines and penalties for late payments.

Take advantage of upcoming future opportunities and be updated on sales and income tax with our and also on the cash your business will demand throughout the month, quarter and year.

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4 Tips for Improving Your Small Business Bookkeeping

Are you in one of those business owners who love putting records all in one place just for audit purpose? Maybe some people do, but as a small business owner, you know that your finances are a top priority and therefore you need a bookkeeping expert to maintain records of financial transactions by establishing accounts, posting transactions, ensure legal requirements compliance and payroll.

It hardly matter what you believe about bookkeeping services as it is one of those big responsibilities no business can ever avoid or neglect in today’s world or coming future.

Yes, your business’s books are records of track and path how well you and your business is doing, and therefore a bookkeeper professional is required for maintaining bookkeeping processes to keep everything in stable state.

Are you looking for bookkeepers in Mississauga to keep your company’s financial accounts management in healthy shape? If you’re wondering where you’ll find them, H&T Accounting Experts will help you throughout the process, but before that stare at some 4 tips to make bookkeeping easier for the small business owner:

Separate business and personal finances.

Believe it or not, this is one of the biggest reasons why many people tend to go for hiring bookkeeper in Mississauga, Milton, Oakville and Brampton. It is about protecting your private data and your wealth from the threat of financial liabilities that can sometimes create a serious risk to you and your company, keeping work and personal finances separate.

Conduct Financial Checkups.

Putting off either or neglecting your bookkeeping for your business might end up with bouncing of checks and overdue for long run if delayed. Go and check over your books weekly to make sure everything is in good shape as neglecting your bookkeeping, create more problems. More delay more VAT and tax deadlines continue to threaten your business.

Avoid Tax Pay Deadlines.

No one wants to get caught and rubbed their ass by tax auditors. To avoid yourself getting caught and want to get away from this spot, plan and keep your money aside for a while and be safe for any foreseen tax bills. Paying on time allow you to be reputed so that you don’t have to face a huge amount of fines. With the bookkeeping process, never miss a deadline as it keeps track of payment before it is ready for due.

Review it Monthly or Quarterly.

When each month ends, take a deep look at your bookkeeping and accounting reports just to assure are they not losing the track. It’s really easy to lose track of what you have done, and you can find yourself in nowhere situation. Taking some sort of help and advice from a pro accountant might help you gaze at your business with safe eyes so that you can better be prepared for future expenses for your business.

Grab some help from us.

Ignoring the rosters give us pain and burn and is one of the costliest mistakes we ever make when our business is running in the initial stage. H&T Accounting Services in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) can help you with all aspects of small business bookkeeping and accounting and even recommend how you can expand your business in the long run. Engage the assistance of a great bookkeeper and if you have don’t, go ahead and find one.

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