Category Archives: Accounting

Tax Lot Accounting Basics

When it comes to securities holdings, often times showing a loss isnt a bad thing. This happens when there are benefits to recognizing losses on securities, such as deferring capital gains (and their associated taxes) to a later time. This is where tax lot accounting software becomes a crucial weapon that every broker should have at their disposal.

This piece of software automatically tracks important information for each piece of security that is a part of a brokers portfolio, including dates of purchase and sale, cost basis reporting and transaction size. By doing so, brokers can more easily identify ways to minimize the current value of investment by minimizing the capital gains released, making it easier to lessen the one-time tax burden placed by a range of investments.

One excellent financial services software tool that helps provide assistance in this area is the Active Trader Tax Lot Accounting System (ATTLAS) provided by Davidsohn Global Technologies. Along with providing detailed tax lot accounting even at high transactional volumes, ATTLAS helps companies come into global regulatory compliance with laws both abroad and at home such as the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. ATTLAS provides reconciliation reporting which ensures that tax lot accounting information matches with the core records along with identification and basis adjustments on wash sales.

Msc Accounting And Finance At The University Of Southampton

If you are thinking about applying to enrol on the MSc Accounting and Finance masters degree at the Management School at the University of Southampton, then here is a quick overview of the course.

The Accounting and Finance MSc course is designed to meet the needs of students who have some knowledge of accounting and finance and who wish to extend their knowledge to an advanced level.

Students who have studied very little accounting or finance and have little relevant work experience are likely to find the programme very challenging indeed.

This MSc Accounting and Finance masters degree course consists of a core covering the main areas of accounting and corporate finance, and a research methods course that supports the dissertation.

Options available on this programme of study allow students to study particular aspects of accounting or taxation in more depth.

For example, there is a pathway within the programme that allows students to concentrate on research-oriented training and more advanced aspects of accounting and finance.

Your understanding of the subjects covered and your ability to use the knowledge and skills gained will be enhanced through a variety of methods and strategies on the MSc Accounting and Finance masters degree.

If you wish to apply to study this MSc in Accounting and Finance you should complete a University of Southampton application form and return it to the Academic Registrar.

Your application to study MSc Accounting and Finance will be carefully considered by a specialist member of the academic staff who will weigh up many factors; not only your academic achievements, interests and aptitudes, but also your motivation and your referee’s confidential report.

At the Management School we make our decisions in most cases on the application form and supporting documents alone. However, candidates who require special consideration, e.g. on grounds of age, disability or non-standard entry qualifications may be interviewed.

From Bookkeepers To Cfo’s Small Business Progression & Growth

Eventually a small business owner must face the fact that they can no longer handle every aspect of their business. This inevitability means that they will have to begin hiring employees and building up teams that can help them maintain and grow their business. This point in time usually arrives quickly for business owners who handle all of their business accounting themselves. Unlike some other teams however, an accounting team should be made up of only the very best and most qualified professionals. Business owners need to ensure they hire only the highest quality people for their accounting team because an accounting team can make or break a business.

With a good team of accounting professionals in place a business owner can make good and informed decisions that will help them maximize profitability, handle cash flow, and provide competitive benchmarks. Most small business owners initially want to hire an accountant or accounting team simply because they no longer want to deal with things like payroll or don’t want to keep track of the ever growing and larger numbers within the company. Once a team has been put together however business owners quickly realize how much they were missing, didn’t know about, didn’t understand, and werent doing.

Not every small business operates on the same budget so it only makes sense that different companies will need to hire different types of accounting professionals. The smallest and newest companies will most likely want to start with a bookkeeper. A bookkeeper will help keep good financial records, handle all transactions, and produce financial statements. An experienced bookkeeper should be able to keep all financial aspect of a business in order for a long time, long enough for a business to hire an accountant.

When a business reaches the point where it becomes necessary to hire employees, it’s time to hire an accountant. An accountant handles much more than simple bookkeeping and can help with things like complicated payroll issues, the changing of a business’ structure/ownership, bank loans, and complex billing issues. Unfortunately successful businesses will eventually outgrow the need for an accountant and will then need to hire a controller.

Once a small business becomes a mid or large sized business, business owners must seriously consider hiring a CFO to handle and oversee all financial aspects of a business. Fortunately many CFO’s can be hired on a per project basis and on a part time basis in addition to full time making their services more affordable and accessible to all businesses. A CFO will be needed when a company begins to consider expansion as they can provide specific strategies for making a complex business stage a success.

Whatever a small business might need in terms of financial assistance, it’s important to remember that at some point all businesses will need it. Some businesses will hire an all in one type of bookkeeper or accountant while others will assemble a team. It’s important to remember however that in order for a small business to succeed and grow their owners must eventually hire someone to handle their finances.

Self Employed Accounting Software Review And Importance

The best choice is often dependent upon the size of the business and the employment of full time accountants, accounting staff, bookkeepers or management of the accounting records by the proprietor. Every business needs to choose the most appropriate accounts package according to both the requirements of the business and the capabilities of the person or people who will operate the accounting solution.

Many small businesses do not benefit from sophisticated accounting software if the technical requirements of that software exceed the abilities of the users to produce efficient financial records and use the full capabilities of the accounting software to maintain a high level of financial control.

Alternatively a simple bookkeeping package may not offer the degree of financial control over such financial matters as debtors and credit control, creditors and cash flow liquidity that may be required. Financial control and cash flow is of supreme significance and importance when credit is tight.

Every business needs to maintain a set of books and accounts to satisfy the legal obligations to calculate the net taxable profit which has to be both declared to the taxation authority and provide sufficient financial records to support that calculation.

Up until the mid twentieth century it was common practise to produce accounts handwritten on paper, Typing being reserved for the final set of accounts for publication as required. Handwritten accounting records are largely obsolete for medium and larger businesses although still used by many small business organisations.

With the advent of computers accounting software has become the norm and there are many simple bookkeeping packages that can be easy to understand and offer sufficient levels of financial control for even the smallest business.

In essence each small business has a choice between preparing a handwritten set of accounts, using a simple bookkeeping package which could be based upon spreadsheets or a more sophisticated accounting software package that almost invariably use a data entry system into a database which can then be queried to produce the required financial control.

Choosing handwritten accounts would only be applicable to the smallest business where the proprietor had no employees, limited numbers of transactions and had full financial control without the need for written information. Such handwritten accounts would not be suitable for any business that required control over debtors and creditors or that needed to produce a balance sheet.

For those businesses that could suffice with handwritten accounts there are better options available such as using computer spreadsheets. Minimal knowledge would be required and the benefits substantial compared with being handwritten.

An accounting package based upon computer spreadsheets is suitable for most small business as it can be no more difficult than maintaining handwritten accounts but in an organised format. The sophistication of the format would be according to the ability of the designer of the accounting solution or the bookkeeping knowledge of the person preparing the accounts.

Accounting software written on computer spreadsheets have advantages in that they can save time in data entry, improve accuracy, can be changed to correct errors, highly visible and provide all the basic bookkeeping needs of a small business. Accounting solutions written on spreadsheets are normally limited in relation to financial control and medium sized businesses that require additional control over debtors and creditors may be more suited to a database accounting software system.

Generally if a business is large enough to employ a full time bookkeeper or accountant then that business potentially has the accounting knowledge and skills within the accounting function to use a database accounting system and achieve the additional financial control elements which become available.

Accounting software that uses a database has the facility to produce regular financial and tax reports, debtors reports and statements, creditors reports and statements, cash flow statements and a set of monthly and final accounting reports such as profit and loss accounts and balance sheets.

The disadvantage of such accounting solutions is that to get the most and best out of the system you also need to understand how the package works and how technically to obtain from it the benefits of increased financial control that are available.

The main priority in choosing any accounting package is to first determine the final requirements you need from that administrative system. If detailed financial control, particularly over individual supplier or client accounts is essential and the business is large enough to employ office based staff including an accountant or full time bookkeeper then a database system may be the appropriate choice.

If the business is smaller and requires detailed accounting records to support the year end financial statements while financial control is already sufficient to be in the hands of the business owner then accounting software based upon spreadsheets would probably be adequate. The degree of adequacy being dependent upon the level of expertise contained and automated within the accounts program.

Handwritten books would be the lowest choice. Adequate for some small businesses but only suitable if a computer based option was impossible.

Sage 100 Authorized Training Center In St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis, Missouri Accounting Business Solutions by JCS (www.jcscomputer.com), the nations premier provider of Sage 100 technical support and training for SAGE software, today announced the expansion of its training center in St. Louis, Missouri, to include Sage 100. A drastic increase in demand for the companys training and services necessitated the move to a new, larger, state-of-the-art training facility; more than double the size of the companys previous office.

Accounting Business Solutions by JCS always strives to provide highest quality training and support to its customers, said Marilyn Longbein, manager, Accounting Business Solutions by JCS. Our current facilities in St. Louis, Missouri have been expanded to offer the latest training technologies to all our clients.

The companys new address is 10920 Schuetz Road Suite 4 Creve Coeur, Missouri 6314. The main phone number has changed to 314.644.4100.

About JCS
Accounting Business Solutions by JCS (www.jcscomputer.com) provides accounting software technical support and training for SAGE Software products including ACT! By Sage, Sage 50, Sage 100, Sage CRM formerly Peachtree, MAS 90, MAS 200, Business Intelligence and Timeslips. In addition, JCS specialized in integration between accounting applications and e-commerce shopping cards, Point of Sale Systems and customer relationship management applications. JCS Computer Resources provides installation, consulting, training online, your site or our training center, technical support online, on-site, or by phone.

JCS Computer Resources has been providing quality support and training since 1988 and is certified as a Sage Authorized Training Center and has held a Master Certification Status for 12 years in a row.

Offices are located serving:
Sage 50 in Southfield, Michigan
Sage 100 in Southfield Michigan
Sage CRM in Southfield Michigan
ACT! By Sage in Southfield Michigan
Timeslips in Southfield Michigan
Sage 50 Business Intelligence
Sage 100 Business Intelligence

Sage 50 in Arlington Heights, Illinois
Sage 100 in Arlington Heights, Illinois
Sage CRM in Arlington Heights, Illinois
ACT! By Sage in Arlington Heights, Illinois
Timeslips in Arlington Heights, Illinois
Sage 50 Business Intelligence in Arlington Heights, Illinois
Sage 100 Business Intelligence in Arlington Heights, Illinois

Sage 50 in Saint Louis, Missouri
Sage 100 in Saint Louis, Missouri
Sage CRM in Saint Louis, Missouri
ACT! By Sage in Saint Louis, Missouri
Timeslips in Saint Louis, Missouri
Sage 50 Business Intelligence in Saint Louis, Missouri
Sage 100 Business Intelligence in Saint Louis, Missouri

Sage 50 in Tampa Florida
Sage 100 in Tampa Florida
Sage CRM in Tampa Florida
ACT! By Sage in Tampa Florida
Timeslips in Tampa Florida
Sage 50 Business Intelligence in Tampa Florida
Sage 100 Business Intelligence in Tampa Florida

Sage 50 in Dallas, Texas
Sage 100 in Dallas, Texas
Sage CRM in Dallas, Texas
ACT! By Sage in Dallas, Texas
Timeslips in Dallas, Texas
Sage 50 Business Intelligence in Dallas, Texas
Sage 100 Business Intelligence in Dallas, Texas

Sage 50 in Atlanta, Georgia
Sage 100 in Atlanta, Georgia
Sage CRM in Atlanta, Georgia
ACT! By Sage in Atlanta, Georgia
Timeslips in Atlanta, Georgia
Sage 50 Business Intelligence in Atlanta, Georgia
Sage 100 Business Intelligence in Atlanta, Georgia