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Individuals Services
(View Our
Current Bookkeeping Offers)
To Individuals, we provide the following
services:
Upon request, we will
provide you with the following services (starred services are provided
monthly or quarterly with our Bookkeeping services at no extra charge):
(if required, Clients Agreement available):
Balance Sheet:
A balance sheet is
a snapshot of a your financial condition at a specific moment in time. A balance sheet comprises assets, liabilities,
and owners’ or stockholders’ equity. At any given time, assets must equal liabilities
plus owners’ equity. An asset is anything a business owns that has monetary value.
Liabilities are the claims of creditors against the assets of the business.
A balance sheet helps to quickly recognize your financial strength
and capabilities.
A balance sheet can identify and analyze trends,
particularly in the area of receivables and payables.
Balance sheets, along with income statements, are the most basic elements in providing
financial reporting to potential lenders such as banks, investors, and vendors who
are considering how much credit to grant the business.
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Bank Reconciliation:
Bank reconciliation is performed monthly when the business receives the bank statement.
It plays a very important part in a business' cash control procedures. It verifies
the amount of cash in your checking account.
The cash balance in the your checking account will never agree with the balance shown
on the bank statement because of the delay in checks and deposits clearing the bank,
automatic bank charges and credits that have not been recorded, and errors that
might have been made in the books.
Let us prepare your bank reconciliation so that you can be comfortable that the
account balance shown on your books is up-to-date.
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Bookkeeping:
Accurate financial records will help you answer some very important questions. Are
you making money, or losing it? How much? A sound bookkeeping system is the foundation
on which all of this valuable financial information can be built.
As a financial individual, you have more important things to do than to keep your own books. We take
care of your books for you, so you can concentrate your time and efforts into doing what you prefer.
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Budgeting:
Budgeting is a tool
to help you to reach your financial goals. It is intended to be an organized way
to compare income and expenditures over a relatively short time frame (a week, month,
or a year). It should allow you to forecast your income and expenses, monitor your
progress, and make changes as needed to achieve your goals.
Income budgeting: when setting up your budget,
you should not look only at the cash outflow (the payments you
make), but we strongly advise you to closely monitor the personal
income as part of the budget-creation process.
Budgeting for expenses: although many small
business owners would agree that scrutinizing personal expenditures is a necessary
part of a personal budget, setting up and maintaining control over expenditures
is often what you'll find most difficult and tedious.
Budgeting tools: finally, you can match your income
with your expenses and see what needs cutting back, or where you need to make increases.
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Business Registration:
An important
step in forming a new business is to determine the type of business structure you
will use. There are several business entities to choose from including sole proprietorship,
partnership, corporation, limited liability company, and limited partnership. Each
has advantages and disadvantages as well as tax consequences of which you should
be aware.
You have to decide which of these entities best suits your business objectives and
needs. For help in making this decision, contact
Pascarella & Pyrch-Bowlan Accounting Group, LLC.
- Sole Proprietorship
A sole proprietorship is owned and
operated by one individual (the sole proprietor). Income earned by a sole proprietorship
is reported on the sole proprietor’s individual income tax return. Because sole
proprietors are not employees of their businesses and income taxes are not withheld
from their income, estimated income tax payments may be required.
A sole proprietor is someone who owns an unincorporated business by himself or herself.
However, if you are the sole member of a domestic limited liability company (LLC),
you are not a sole proprietor if you elect to treat the LLC as a corporation.
- Partnership
A partnership is the formal relationship
between two or more persons who join together to carry on a trade or business. The
terms of the partnership are generally spelled out in a formal partnership agreement.
Partnerships are not subject to an entity-level tax and their items of income and
deductions pass through to their partners.
A partnership is the relationship existing between two or more persons who join
to carry on a trade or business. Each person contributes money, property, labor
or skill, and expects to share in the profits and losses of the business. A partnership
must file an annual information return to report the income, deductions, gains,
losses, etc., from its operations, but it does not pay income tax. Instead, it "passes
through" any profits or losses to its partners. Each partner includes his or her
share of the partnership's income or loss on his or her tax return.
Partners are not employees and should not be issued a Form W-2. The partnership
must furnish copies of Schedule K-1 (Form 1065) to the partners by the date Form
1065 is required to be filed, including extensions.
- Corporation
A corporation is an entity created
under state law with a legal existence separate and apart from its shareholders.
In forming a corporation, prospective shareholders exchange money, property, or
both, for the corporation's capital stock. A corporation generally takes the same
deductions as a sole proprietorship to figure its taxable income. A corporation
can also take special deductions. For federal income tax purposes, a C corporation
is recognized as a separate taxpaying entity. A corporation conducts business, realizes
net income or loss, pays taxes and distributes profits to shareholders.
The profit of a corporation is taxed to the corporation when earned, and then is
taxed to the shareholders when distributed as dividends. This creates a double tax.
The corporation does not get a tax deduction when it distributes dividends to shareholders.
Shareholders cannot deduct any loss of the corporation.
S Corporation: An eligible domestic corporation can avoid double taxation
(once to the shareholders and again to the corporation) by electing to be treated
as an S corporation. Generally, an S corporation is exempt from federal income tax
other than tax on certain capital gains and passive income. On their tax returns,
the S corporation's shareholders include their share of the corporation's separately
stated items of income, deduction, loss, and credit, and their share of nonseparately
stated income or loss.
- Limited Liability Company
(LLC)
A Limited Liability Company (LLC)
is a relatively new business structure allowed by state statute.
LLCs are popular because, similar to a corporation, owners have limited personal
liability for the debts and actions of the LLC. Other features of LLCs are more
like a partnership, providing management flexibility and the benefit of pass-through
taxation.
Owners of an LLC are called members. Since most states do not restrict ownership,
members may include individuals, corporations, other LLCs and foreign entities.
There is no maximum number of members. Most states also permit “single member” LLCs,
those having only one owner.
A few types of businesses generally cannot be LLCs, such as banks and insurance
companies. Check your state’s requirements and the federal tax regulations for further
information. There are special rules for foreign LLCs.
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Cash Flow Analysis
Cash flow analysis is the study of the cycle of your cash inflows and outflows, with the
purpose of maintaining an adequate cash flow and to provide the
basis for cash flow management.
Cash flow analysis involves examining the components that affect
cash flow, such as accounts receivable, inventory, accounts payable, and credit
terms. By performing a cash flow analysis on these separate components, A. P. Accounting
& Bookkeeping Services will identify cash flow problems and suggest ways to
improve your cash flow.
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Cash Flow Statements:
A cash flow statement reports the movement of cash in and out
in a given period. Cash includes currency, checks on hand, and deposits in banks.
Cash Flow Statements are broken down into three sections:
- Operating activities
- Investing activities
- Financing activities
Operating activities (all transactions
and events that normally enter into the determination of operating income) include
cash receipts from selling goods or providing services, as well as income from items
such as interest and dividends. Operating activities also include your cash payments
such as inventory, payroll, taxes, interest, utilities, and rent. The net amount
of cash provided (or used) by operating activities is the key figure on a statement
of cash flows.
Investing activities include transactions and events involving the purchase and
sale of securities (excluding cash equivalents), land, buildings, equipment, and
other assets not generally held for resale. It also covers the making and collecting
of loans. Investing activities are not classified as operating activities because
they have an indirect relationship to the central, ongoing operation of your business
(usually the sale of goods or services).
All financing activities deal with the flow of cash to or from
the business owners (equity financing) and creditors (debt financing). For example,
cash proceeds from issuing capital stock or bonds would be classified under financing
activities. Likewise, payments to repurchase stock (treasury stock) or to retire
bonds and the payment of dividends are financing activities as well.
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Credit Card Reconciliation:
Reconciling revolving credit card debt can be a challenge.
Entering the charges as the credit card is used will eliminate the need to do it
when the statement comes each month, plus recording the transactions throughout
the month will result in more accurate interim financial information. In many situations,
for a variety of reasons, this is not practical.
There are other alternatives. You could:
- Enter
one charge for the month for the total amount purchased using the credit card and
manually reconcile the receipts to the statement. The detail lines can be entered
as splits so the general ledger remains accurate.
- Enter
one charge for the month for the total amount purchased and code it to a credit
card clearing account that will be reclassified based on the receipts. This method
can be more cumbersome.
- Enter
the detail transactions individually when the statement arrives and any transactions
without a receipt are noted as such in the memo field (so a report can be generated
and cleared as receipts are obtained) or coded to a credit card clearing account
pending reconciliation with the receipts.
The methods mentioned above requires
you to spend your time and resources in tasks that take time away
from the things
you like the most.
Let Pascarella & Pyrch-Bowlan Accounting Group take care of all
your needs, so, you can concentrate on spending your time in more pleasant ways.
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Financial Planning:
Our mission is to provide high quality and affordable financial planning guidance
to individuals who are just starting out or to individuals that want to learn
how to manage their financial affairs. Help these individuals articulate their lifetime
financial goals and create a plan to achieve them.
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Financial Statements Analysis
"The objective of financial
statements is to provide information about the financial position, performance and
changes in financial position of an enterprise that is useful to a wide range of
users in making economic decisions."
Financial statements should be understandable, relevant, reliable and comparable.
Reported assets, liabilities and equity are directly related to an organization's
financial position. Reported income and expenses are directly related to an organization's
financial performance.
Financial statements are intended to be understandable by readers who have "a reasonable
knowledge of business and economic activities and accounting and who are willing
to study the information diligently."
- Owners and managers require financial
statements to make important business decisions that affect its continued operations.
Financial analysis are then performed on these statements to provide management
with a more detailed understanding of the figures. These statements are also used
as part of management's annual report to the stockholders.
- Employees also need these reports
in making collective bargaining agreements (CBA) with the management, in the case
of labor unions or for individuals in discussing their compensation, promotion and
rankings.
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External Users: are potential
investors, banks, government agencies and other parties who are outside the business
but need financial information about the business for a diverse number of reasons.
- Prospective investors make use
of financial statements to assess the viability of investing in a business. Financial
analyses are often used by investors and is prepared by professionals (financial
analysts), thus providing them with the basis in making investment decisions.
- Financial institutions (banks
and other lending companies) use them to decide whether to grant a company with
fresh working capital or extend debt securities (such as a long-term bank loan or
debentures) to finance expansion and other significant expenditures.
- Government entities (tax authorities)
need financial statements to ascertain the propriety and accuracy of taxes and other
duties declared and paid by a company.
- Media and the general public are
also interested in financial statements for a variety of reasons.
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Individual Income Taxes
Preparing your own income tax return can be a task
that leaves you with more questions than answers. According to a study released
by the US Government's General Accounting Office last year, most taxpayers (77%
of 71 million taxpayers) believe they benefited from using a professional tax preparer.
Whether we like it or not, today's tax laws are so complicated that filing a relatively
simple return can be confusing. It is just too easy to overlook deductions and credits
to which you are entitled. Even if you use a computer software program there's no
substitute for the assistance of an experienced tax professional.
Here's what your get:
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Your tax return will be checked and rechecked by our computer
software identifying potential problems the IRS may look at more closely and reviewing
the math to limit IRS contacts.
- Your tax return can be filed electronically so you will
get a refund back quicker.
- Our staff will show you how to adjust your payroll withholding
to get more money back each week. Why give the IRS an interest free loan for up
to 16 months.
- We will show you potential deductions to limit your tax
liability for next year. In addition, we will give you a sheet of commonly overlooked
deductions to limit the following year's tax liability.
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Sales and Use Taxes
In Connecticut the state sales and use taxes are generally imposed at the rate
of 6 percent. The Connecticut sales tax is imposed on the retailer (or service
provider) measured by taxable gross receipts. However, the retailer is entitled
to collect reimbursement of the tax from the purchaser. The use tax is based
on the retail sales price for the storage, acceptance, consumption or other use
by a person in Connecticut. The use tax is not imposed on sales or services that
are subject to the sales tax.
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