Too many business owners use accounting to essentially stay out of jail, or at least out of trouble with the IRS. They close their books once a year so they can file their taxes, then move on, having learned little of value about the business' financial health in the process. Everything they learn by this accounting process is late, by months and months, usually far too late to do act on. Other business owners might be better, closing their books every quarter, or even monthly, but the problem remains -- they are always looking in the rear view mirror while trying to steer the ship forward.

Mitchell and Scott outline what an effective, useful accounting system looks like. It gives a business owner close to real-time information about the health of the business -- not just the cash flow and the operating income, but things like customer acquisition, number of proposals compared to closed deals, advertising effectiveness, and so on. A good accounting system is like the instruments on an airplane, and the business owner is the piliot. The accounting system is the business "console," with all the critical information for the business owner to steer things in a profitable direction. It also offers deeper insight into the business model. You can learn which levers move the needle on sales, and what actions you can take to grow when sales begin to slow. You can learn which activities are the most profitable, and which ones need to be discontinued. All of these things emerge from an effective accounting system.

That said, most business owners are experts in their field, not in accounting. An excellent bookkeeper can take all of this off your plate and give you the real-time insight you need, while saving you tons of time in the process! Visit Better Bookkeeping for the ultimate solution for small business owners:

https://www.betterbookkeeping.com

Get in touch with the show!

Email: show@stupidtaxpod.com

Mitchell Baldridge

Twitter: @baldridgecpa

https://baldridgecpa.ck.page

https://baldridgefinancial.com

Scott Hambrick

Twitter: @hambrickscott

IG: @ogscotthambrick

https://onlinegreatbooks.com

https://scotthambrick.com