DIY Accounting Cabsmart Taxi Driver Accounts Software Questions And Answers

Do I have to enter mileage and vehicle running expenses in my taxi accounts. Entering the mileage covered by the taxi is optional as the cabsmart package automatically chooses the most expensive cost which produces the lowest tax liability for cab and taxi drivers. The cabsmart taxi driver accounts package can be used by either entering your vehicle running costs or the vehicle business mileage. Alternatively the cab driver can enter both taxi running costs and the taxi mileage in which case the cab smart formulae within the taxi accounts... Read more »

DIY Accounting Software Installation Questions And Answers

Client asked for user name and authorisation code or password when attempting to download accounting software. The client is probably attempting to login to the paypal site or has found another area on the website where a user name and password are required such as the DIY Accounting affiliate member area. The client has made an erroneous assumption of how to access the accounting or payroll software. The correct solution if the client was not returned by paypal directly to the download page is to click the URL sent in the confirmation email which was sent following the accounting software purchase. After... Read more »

DIY Accounting Payroll Software Questions And Answers

HMRC will advise the new tax code change from 543 to 603 which was announced in May 2008 and the date the new tax code to be applied which is expected to be September 2008. The amended tax code is entered as a new tax code on the employee details tax amendments section of the payroll file and the tax reduction is then automated at the date the new tax code is applied. The income tax deduction calculated by the DIY Accounting payroll package is different to the inland revenue CD Rom. Small differences can occur because the DIY Accounting payroll system has in the past used the revenue manual tax tables whereas... Read more »

How To Set A Financial Goal to Reduce Personal Debt

Firstly, what do I mean by a financial goal? For most of us, that would generally be a goal to either increase income or reduce consumer debt. Of course there may be times in our lives where we want to increase consumer debt to acquire goods and services sooner or to reduce our income as a trade off to have more time but in this article, let’s set those situations aside. In particular, let’s look at the scenario of reducing consumer debt by 50% in six months. My standard formula for goal setting is to select a coach, have the required resources in place and to have a plan-A and a plan-B in place so let’s see how a financial... Read more »

Got to love that accounting equation

A company’s financial position indicates the amount of resources that they have, and also the claims against those precious resources at any time. Claims can also be referred as equities. So, a company can be known as a combination of economic resources and equities. Economic Resource=Equities. No mater what type of business your in, every type of company has two different types of equities. They are creditor’s equity and owner’s equity. In another way Economic Resources= Creditors Equities +Owners Equity. When using accounting language, the economic resources a company has at a particular time is called their assets?... Read more »

DIY Accounting Small Business Accounting Software Questions And Answers

A number of questions are asked by clients either before purchasing or after downloading the accounting software. Many of these questions and the answers are the same the most typical of which are produced here. Why is the monthly profit and loss account not updating from the sales and purchases entered. Updating the profit and loss account in the financial accounts file is automated. If the financial accounts file is not updating automatically the links from the sales accounting spreadsheet and or the purchase accounting spreadsheet are not working. This may be because the file names have been changed which breaks the links between the... Read more »

Small Business Accounting Software Selection And Priorities

The best choice is often dependent upon the size of the business and the employment of full time accountants, accounting staff, bookkeepers or management of the accounting records by the proprietor. Every business needs to choose the most appropriate accounts package according to both the requirements of the business and the capabilities of the person or people who will operate the accounting solution. Many small businesses do not benefit from sophisticated accounting software if the technical requirements of that software exceed the abilities of the users to produce efficient financial records and use the full capabilities of the accounting software to maintain a high level of financial control. Alternatively a simple bookkeeping package may not offer the degree of financial... Read more »

Sunk Costs: Assets With Little Or No Market Value

The text book definition of “sunk costs” reads something like this: Sunk Costs: Costs that were incurred in the past that cannot be recovered and thus are irrelevant for decision making. Well most costs are incurred in the past so that part of the definition is not all that helpful. More central is the idea of recoverability. But the key underlying idea, which is not spelled out in the definition, is that sunk costs are assets. Huh? How can costs be assets? Well keep in mind that costs involve the expenditure of resources (usually money). But expenditures come in two flavors: those that have only short term benefit and those that have long term benefit. Costs (expenditures)... Read more »

How Business Bookkeeping Can Make Budgeting Easy

Small business owners generally fall into two categories. There are the business owners that let their accounting tasks, invoicing, and payables pile up on their desk - or even in a shoe box, until they’re forced to face the music. Usually this happens around tax time. The other sides of the coin are the business owner that are amazingly organized and know where every penny of their money is going. What do these business owners have that the rest of us don’t? More time? A PhD in accounting? Nope, chances are they have a system. To put it more simply, they’re organized. If you’re in the crowd of business owners that let it all pile up, there are a few things we can learn from the more organized folks. If we take just a... Read more »

Can Your Accounting Staff Take You to the Next Level?

When your company is just beginning, you’re not necessarily thinking about the talents and skills your employees are going to need in the years to come. At first, you just focus on surviving, and that sometimes means that you’re willing to hire just about anyone who will work at the pay level you can afford. As oftentimes happens, a business owner hires someone they already know and trust, such as a neighbor or sister, to do the bookkeeping for them. Now, it’s true that this person might not even have experience in bookkeeping, but they just are more skilled at it than the owner. Are You Ready to Bolster Your Accounting Staff? As the business grows, the needs and requirements of the business exceed... Read more »