The Beatles sang about them. Ben Franklin talked about their certainty alongside death.

Regardless about how you feel about taxes, their legality, purpose or place in our culture, you do have to pay them. Make no mistake about it, you WILL pay them.

By the way, did you pay your 2020 taxes yet?

Just because you got an extension to file doesn’t mean you got an extension to pay them. They are still due. The original extension from April 17, 2021 to May 17, 2021, is still in place and you should have paid the 2020 tax years taxes that were due on April 17 by now.

Oops.

Extensions do not apply to quarterly estimated payments.  Those are still due on the dates provided on the payment forms.

As for how to pay:

• Cash (using PayNearMe)
• Check or money order
• Direct Pay
• Debit or credit card
• Wire
• Direct pay (through their EFTPS system)

And if you are due a refund it goes without saying you should be filing as soon as possible.  It is your money, after all.

But don’t forget that the taxes you owe is now their money.  Best to pay on time or expect a penalty.

For more on how to keep up with your taxes and other things related to your company’s accounting and bookkeeping, call or write to us.  TFO Solutions is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs and business owners with their financial strategy from the back office to the boardroom.

**photos courtesy of Unsplash (Jon Tyson and Sharon McCutcheon, photographers)

There are milestones in every life and relationship—first meeting, marriage, births, graduation day.  And with each milestone comes a change.  Sometimes they are difficult partings, others joyful.

The same goes for business relationships. As a fractional CFO and controller, I have seen many companies of various sizes and values grow right in front of me.  Some start out with little financial strategy or processes and grow into companies of substance, size and scale.  In the case of the Big Dot of Happiness, the owners decided to sell the business.  Through the acquisition, I worked with their team, assisting with purchase price allocation accounting, processes and implemented accrual accounting practices.

When I first met Big Dot, a year ago, my assignment with them was to help establish financial processes and to act as their fractional controller.  Recently, the time came to “graduate” them to the next level.  They had grown significantly, production was higher, and they needed additional resources to help them grow.

My work here was done.

While it was sad to not be continuing as their day-to-day financial expert, it was gratifying to know that I had an impact on their growth and future.

Some of the things we put in place to make the financial aspect of their business come into focus:

• Established uniform accounting practices; that is, put an accounting system in place.
• Created and implemented a system for following accrual accounting.
• Established a financial reporting package.
• Assisted with creating a better way to look at inventory system and cost-of-goods sold infrastructure.
• Attended to daily cash flow management and monthly close procedures.
• Built balance sheet reconciliations and more.

It was a fun ride and I thoroughly enjoyed working with them.  I got to implement some needed financial strategies and along the way met and worked with some talented, smart and gracious people. This was living proof that sometimes the best thing you can do is help someone to the next phase of their business.  As the Tim McGraw song says, “when you get where you’re going, turn around and help the next one in line…”

Glad I could do my part and help in the transition to their new full-time controller at their Wisconsin headquarters.

Tina

For more on how to transition your business to the next level, call or write to us.  TFO Solutions is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs and business owners with their financial strategy from the back office to the boardroom.

*photos courtesy of Unsplash (Good Free Photos) and Tina O’Banion

In small business, many times employees have to wear many hats and do multiple jobs.  Sometimes things that weren’t in their original job descriptions.

Oh, the old “and-other-duties-as-assigned” schtick.  I see.

What happens, however, when you ask your administrative assistant to answer the phones, do payroll and accounting AND human resources is that something gets dropped in all that juggling. Usually a professional who has been trained in those disciplines follows a process they’ve been taught and is universal.

Process, you say?

You know, the steps that outline how things get done in your company? A company implements processes (or controls or procedures) to ensure that work gets done consistently by your employees regardless of who does the work.  The areas in a company that can benefit from having processes in place:

• Finance
• Human Resources
• Operations
• Sales and marketing

Hmmm…that just about describes the organization of most, if not all, businesses.  Must make sense, then, to most business owners. It might make the difference between getting paid and not getting paid if, say, you can’t find an invoice that is overdue.  So, let’s start with finance and accounting.  Here are some of the basic processes that could make your life better from a finance perspective:

• Budgets
• Payroll
• Accounts receivable (AR)
• Accounts payable (AP)
• Taxes

Recently, we encountered a small company that had assigned accounting and collections to the boss’ administrative assistant.  Collections became difficult when she couldn’t find purchase order numbers associated with invoices.  A simple process and communication between sales and accounting would have made it easier for her to make those calls and successfully et the payment.

For more on how to organize your business processes, call or write to us.  TFO Solutions is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs and business owners with their financial strategy from the back office to the boardroom.

**photos courtesy of Unsplash (Joshua Coleman and Henny Stander, photographers)