Great Reasons To Become A Cpa
So you may be thinking about studying to be a CPA. The CPA exam will not be a simple examination to take, as we probably already know. It requires considerable time and effort to be spent to get the best results and achieve a pass in the CPA Exam. Having said that, you are going to reap the rewards when you are ultimately minted as a CPA.
1. The career paths for CPAs are varied. It is not all about accounting for big corporations. There are a number of different CPA career paths, including Forensic and Information Technology (IT). As the criminal activity becomes more regularly occurring and given the growing variety of company related investigations, Forensic Accountants are currently in much more demand. Certified Public Accountants are able to work for either a big global CPA firm or maybe a modest local accounting practice. Teaching accountancy can also be yet another career path you can think about
2. Your colleagues will have more respect for you after you achieve your CPA License. You can demonstrate that you truly have the ambition, drive and perseverance to progress your career. Employers will see that you are committed to your career and may see you as a hardworking and dedicated individual. You own self esteem should grow as well – envision those feelings of reaching your main goal and becoming a CPA.
3. Accountants with a CPA License are in great demand. According to Reuters there is a shortage of experienced CPAs. Because of the recent corporate scandals the amount of jobs that require a CPA title has increased considerably. As public corporations have to meet stringent accounting guidelines as a result of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley act there exists an increased need for accounting professionals.
4. A CPAs salary is more in comparison to a regular accountants?. Recent research verify that a CPA could make 10% more salary, on average, compared to regular accountants. Without a doubt, more experience will bring a greater salary. Improving your credentials by becoming a CPA will bring you the rewards of a higher salary.
Add in the option to be ready to retire in fifteen years and you will see that deciding to become a CPA could be the best decision you ever made.
Reasons Outsourcing Finance And Accounting Makes Sense – Cutting Edge Business Solutions!
There are many favourable reasons why a company should outsource finance and accounting services. One of the top five reasons why you should consider outsourcing is that it provides cost effective services by reducing employment related expenses and issues. You can save up a great amount on operational costs, recruitment and the cost involved in employing a trained accountant.
Another benefit you can experience in outsourcing these services is gaining access to expertise in multiple fields. These services promise you a high level of accuracy when it comes to generating results. Well experienced, professional staff in BPOs manage accounting and payroll services proficiently with minimum flaws. These professionals can offer appropriate tips and apt guidance related to payroll services as companies develop and processes become more complicated and sophisticated.
Finance and accounting tasks are a time-consuming and a tedious process and outsourcing these tasks saves a lot of time which usually companies tend to lose when engaging in these activities. It could also increase focus on the core business areas in a company and gives more time to engage in productive, value added tasks.
Using outsourced facilities gives you opportunity to gain access to advanced technology. Business is dynamic and changing continuously due to technological advancement. Therefore, companies need to update their systems and methods accordingly and they can gain such progressive technology through systematic outsourced accounting services.
Outsourced online accounting and financial services gives you easy but secured access to your company’s accounting and payroll related information. You can access these information from wherever you are and this will make business decision making expedite and efficient.
Among many other advantages, these are some of the key benefits you can expect by outsourcing your financial and accounting services. There are many top online accounting companies which provide online accounting services, payroll packages and small business financial services for small and medium enterprises around the world. Askews Online Accounting is one such outstanding company which provides outsource accounting services along with bookkeeping services, company secretarial tasks and other professional services. A highly competent and devoted team of Chartered Certified Accountants connected to Askews Online Accounting ensures you low-priced, trouble-free and efficient accounting services that will help your business grow.
[Top]How to Go About Earning Online Accredited Degrees or Online Accounting Degree
Earning online accredited degrees is has become now become a common process unlike before. In fact online learning is the most popular form of distance learning and a most south after form of education for the working class. Millions of people around the world continue to enroll in online degree colleges and universities. Most students of online classes are full-time employees or people who are busy with families and other demanding commitments who have found the comfort in the flexibility of online programs.
For students committed students who are planning to pursue and graduate with accredited online degrees, there are many colleges offering online programs. It is important to check the accreditation status of each college you wish to enroll in.
Other factors to consider before staring an online degree program are your career aspirations. This will guide you in your course selection and searching and identifying colleges that offer a degree of your choice. Different Universities use different forms of online education delivery. Course can be delivered synchronously of asynchronous. Your choice of college may be affected by the form of delivery that is appropriate to you.
College fees and college financing I also a major factor in your college choice. Online degree programs are generally cheaper that the traditional on-campus courses. Though cheaper, some students may also need some kind of financial aid. Some online colleges like on campus colleges provide partial scholarships to students based on some pre-determined conditions. Other college’s offer some kind of assistance to students looking for financial aid. These two factors may affect a student’s choice of college.
You will need to have a working computer with good internet connection to be ready for an online degree course. With the convenience and flexibility offered by online programs, a determined student should find a suitable degree program.
An accounting career is one of the most popular business courses. Accounting degree students find it very easy to grow to managements positions in organizations. This is because of the broad business and analytical skills developed in an accounting class. An online accounting degree can be pursued at any time i.e. as a first career during career change, or as a career enhancing degree course. There is no better way to achieving any of these than to take an online accounting degree.
There are many colleges offering online accounting degrees. Almost all colleges offering online business degree have incorporated an accounting degree in their programs. Without leaving their current Jobs, many students have enhanced their career by taking online accounting degrees.
With the flexibility of an online accounting degree program, your dream of a career in accounting or management can be realized easily.
For more resources about Online Accredited Degrees or about Online Accounting Degree, please review http://www.online-degree-programs-guide.com
[Top]Accrual Accounting vs Cash-Basis Accounting
Managers want to earn a profit. Investors search for companies whose stock prices will increase. Banks seek borrowers who’ll pay their debts. Accounting provides the information these people use for decision making. Accounting can be based on either the
Accrual accounting records the impact of a business transaction as it occurs. When the business performs a service, makes a sale, or incurs an expense, the accountant records the transaction even if it receives or pays no cash.
Cash-basis accounting records only cash transactions cash receipts and cash payments. Cash receipts are treated as revenues, and cash payments are handled as expenses. Generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) require accrual accounting. The business records revenues as the revenues are earned and expenses as the expenses are incurred not necessarily when cash changes hands. Consider a sale on account. Which transaction increases your wealth making an $800 sale on account, or collecting the $800 cash? Making the sale increases your wealth by $300 because you gave up inventory that cost you $500 and you got a receivable worth $800. Collecting cash later merely swaps your $800 receivable for $800 cash no gain on this transaction. Making the sale not collecting the cash increases your wealth.
The basic defect of cash-basis accounting is that the cash basis ignores important information. That makes the financial statements incomplete. The result People using the statements make decisions based on incomplete information, which can lead to mistakes. Suppose your business makes a sale on account. The cash basis does not record the sale because you received no cash. You may be thinking, let’s wait until we collect cash and then record the sale. After all, we pay the bills with cash, so ignore transactions that don’t affect cash. What’s wrong with this argument? There are two defects one on the balance sheet and the other on the income statement.
Balance Sheet Defect If we fail to record a sale on account, the balance sheet reports no account receivable. Why is this so bad? The receivable represents a claim to receive cash in the future, which is a real asset, and it should appear on the balance sheet. Without this information, assets are understated on the balance sheet. Income Statement Defect a sale on account provides revenue that increases the company’s wealth. Ignoring the sale understates revenue and net income on the income statement. The take-away lessons from this discussion are as follows:
Companies that use the cash basis of accounting do not follow GAAP. Their financial statements omit important information. All but the smallest businesses use the accrual basis of accounting.
Accrual accounting is more complex and, in terms of the Conceptual Foundations of Accounting, is a more faithful representation of economic reality than Cash-basis accounting.
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[Top]Microsoft Small Business Accounting Software And Limited Liability Companies
If you operate your small business as a limited liability company, you may already know that setting up Microsoft’s Small Business Accounting software can be sort of confusing. Fortunately, you can use four easy tips to assure that your new accounting software works as it should.
Tip #1: Pretend the LLC Is Something Else (for Accounting)
A limited liability company, for tax return preparation and bookkeeping purposes, always gets treated as something else.
An LLC with a single owner, or member, is treated as a sole proprietorship if the LLC operates an active trade or business, for example. And a limited liability company with multiple owners, or members, is treated as a partnership. (Note: The owners of an LLC corporation technically are labeled “members”.)
Limited liability companies may also elect for tax return preparation purposes to be treated as regular corporations (called C corporations) or as Subchapter S corporations.
The preceding discussion points to a first technique for correctly installing Microsoft’s accounting program for an LLC. When you run the installation wizard, do not tell the software you’re setting up a limited liability company. Instead, tell the installation program that you’re the type of business taxpayer (sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation or whatever) that the LLC will be treated as.
Correctly identifying the sort of taxpayer your LLC is means the accounting software gets setup in a way that works for your tax accounting.
Tip #2: Account for Single-member LLCs Inside the Parent LLC
A common asset protection technique is to have a parent LLC or a parent corporation own child LLCs and then have each child LLC own a chunk of the business. A retail chain with multiple locations, for example, might use a separate LLC for each outlet.
This sort of parent-child LLC structure makes legal sense. But for accounting purposes–and this is the tip–you don’t want to put the different LLCs into separate accounting datafiles. Rather, you want to track each child LLC’s accounts, income and deductions inside its parent’s accounting datafile.
This combination means that for tax accounting purposes, and as is appropriate, the parent and the children combine their income and deductions within a single Microsoft Small Business Accounting data file.
Tip #3: Use the Chart of Accounts to Identify LLC Assets and Debts
One other wrinkle should be mentioned related to combining LLC accounting records, however: Because each limited liability company is a different legal entity, you should use different accounts to track the assets owned by and liabilities owed by the separate limited liability companies.
Each LLC should have its own separate bank account, for example. Each LLC should track its own accounts receivable, furniture and fixtures using specific-to-that-LLC asset accounts. And each LLC should use track its debts with specific-to-that-LLC liability accounts.
Tip #4: Customize Forms for Each LLC as Necessary
As just mentioned, you can and should combine the parent LLC and the child LLC transactions within a single accounting datafile. However, you still want to recognize and visually highlight the separate legal identity of the parent LLC and of any child LLCs.
Within Microsoft Small Business Accounting, the easiest method of maintaining this separate identity is through customized forms for each entity. If an LLC invoices customers or clients, for example, that LLC should have its own customized invoice or statement form that uses that LLC’s name. If an LLC issues purchase orders, that LLC should have its own custom purchase order that (again) uses the LLC’s name. Obviously, if an LLC has its own bank account, that bank account will have its own check forms with the LLC name.
Note: Within the Microsoft accounting software program, the form windows provide options for customizing the form.
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