AccuraBooks

My client, Katie, current owns and operates a small home remodeling business.

Each month, her client sends to her a $60k check payment as an upfront payment for materials & labor costs. Then Katie proceeds to purchase the necessary materials and labor to continue the project for her client.

As Katie’s bookkeeper, I do see this $60k deposit into her bank account (each month) and I always book this as “Deferred Income” which is a liability account. This liability account always has an ongoing and fluctuating balance as moneys are received and spent accordingly.

However, one has to know exactly how much moneys to deduct from this liability account in the books and when. This is because this liability account is only reflected on the balance sheet and NOT on the profit and loss; Katie needs to know her profitability each month for this job so she can ascertain whether or not she is spending too much on materials and labor costs. Note: there are other factors that assist in determining this; however for the purposes of this article, I will not delve into these other factors here.

So, in order to move a portion of this “deferred income” amount off of the balance sheet and on to the profit & loss area (hence the name “deferred income”) each month, I simply calculate how much of this $60k payment for the month was spent on project costs. Once I have this total, then I proceed to make a journal entry: Debit to the Deferred Income liability account and a Credit to an Income account (that will be reflected on the Profit & Loss statement). Some important notes here:

·      The ongoing expenses will be seen in Katie’s bank account as she spends the money and I book these accordingly that will affect the expenses area of the Profit & Loss statement.

·      The expenses, as Katie spends the money, and the income account, as referenced above, will offset each other.

·      For Katie, the only profit she is making on this project is her separately billed administration fee of $12k each month.

Note: AccuraBooks is a bookkeeping firm only, so please consult with your Certified Public Accountant for clarification about the contents of this article.

My client, Elizabeth, has multiple payroll bookkeeping issues.

I always advise clients to never fall into payroll issues and never let them fester and go ignored as these usually can have a direct effect on a payroll tax form or even a payroll tax payment.

Elizabeth’s payroll bookkeeping issues were:

1.     Using two different bank accounts to pay employees with.

a.     She would process the entire company’s payroll, within her payroll module, using one bank account, but writing paychecks using multiple bank accounts.

b.     Unfortunately, Elizabeth’s payroll software does not allow the bookkeeper to change/match bank accounts, per employee handwritten paycheck.

c.     This increased the difficulty of bank cash reconciliations later on; so to resolve this issue, the bookkeeper (me) would have to make a manual journal entry to decrease the amount of funds in the bank account where paychecks were actually being cashed/cleared from, and increase the bank account where the original payroll was processed from but NOT being used to actually write the paycheck from.

2.     Not filing her most recent quarterly payroll tax forms and payments on time.

a.     The first step I had to undertake was catching up on all bank reconciliations up to date to verify the absence of payroll tax payments, both to the IRS and Texas Workforce Commission.

b.     The next steps were to submit e-payments to the IRS for all payroll taxes due, both for the 941 and 940 (FUTA) forms, then turn around and process the quarterly 941 for Elizabeth to sign and mail in.

c.     My next step was to actually login to Elizabeth’s company Texas Workforce Commission account online to ascertain the exact filings and payment amounts due, then proceed to e-file from the payroll software (as this is easier) then, after two business days, log back into the TWC account online to pay all back taxes and late fees due, which was higher than what her payroll software was telling her due to the late fees plus the inaccurate tax rates previously entered into the payroll software as the state payroll tax rates usually renew/adjust each year.

Note: AccuraBooks is a bookkeeping firm only, so please consult with your Certified Public Accountant for verification and clarification about the contents of this article.

My client, Tammy, has multiple companies (each company does\r\nhave its own EIN) and thus is always transferring cash between companies:

I have recommended to Tammy not to abuse this practice due\r\nto tax reasons, especially if she were to ever create business structures that\r\nwould require, amongst other things, these transfers to be treated as taxable\r\ngains.

However for Tammy, her business structures are the types\r\nthat require more of a simpler approach to the balance sheet bookkeeping.

Examples:

1.    \r\nOne way to handle transfers for Tammy (between her\r\ncompanies and NOT from Personal accounts) is to create basic investment equity\r\naccounts:

o  \r\nCompany A wants to transfer funds to Company B,\r\nthus Company A would create an “investment into Company B” equity account,\r\nwhile Company A would create an “investment from Company A” equity account.

2.    \r\nAnother way to handle transfers for Tammy\r\n(between her companies and NOT from Personal accounts) is to create “Due\r\nTo/From” asset/liability accounts:

o  \r\nCompany A wants to transfer funds to Company B,\r\nthus Company A would create a “Due To/From Company B” asset account, while\r\nCompany B would create a “Due To/From Company A” liability account.

The first option above should require at least a periodic\r\nreconciliation between the two company’s corresponding equity accounts as the\r\ninvestment “to” from the first company should equal the investment “from” from\r\nthe second company.

The second option above should be treated as a loan with a\r\nloan contract between both companies, thus the company receiving the funds\r\nshould have to pay back the company that disbursed the funds, complete with\r\ninterest as well.

Note: AccuraBooks is a bookkeeping firm only, so please consult\r\nwith your Certified Public Accountant for verification and clarification about\r\nthe contents of this article.