Mesa CPA and Accounting Services

Name: Mesa Arizona Accounting
Rating: 5

As an Arizona small business owner keeping books for your business can seem overwhelming, even with good software. When you take into account paying your taxes, bookkeeping, and business planning these tasks can not only take up a lot of time but can cause sleepless nights for business owners wondering if they have done these correctly.

If you are a small business, The Alt Key’s accountants in Mesa AZ can help with these services and more. We know business accounting and tax planning.

Whether you are just starting your business or you have been in business for some time now, accounting can prove to be your success or demise in business. It’s not too late to reach out for help.

Here’s where you can start … know the basic terms for bookkeeping and accounting. Not all of us were able to take accounting in college, regardless, a business owner should be familiar with the lingo of accounting, bookkeeping, and taxes. We can help you with this if needed. There is absolutely no need to be embarrassed about not knowing these, we all start at the beginning, but don’t wait, this step is critical to your success as a business owner.

Here are some terms you will want to research and be familiar with.

Asset
Liability
Expense
Revenue
Income
Accounts Receivable
Accounts Payable

In addition to these terms, you will also want to be familiar with the basic documents associated with accounting, bookkeeping and tax preparation. These documents will be the foundation of your financial planning and reporting for your business. They also will help you answer questions about how financially healthy your business is and tell a story about what is happening in your business. Here are three of the most common documents we will provide you with when we do the accounting for your small business in Mesa, AZ.

#1: Balance Sheet

This document shows the assets and liabilities of the business. This breaks down the two biggest parts of your business, what you own vs. what you owe. Remember assets are what your company owns, and liabilities are what your company owes. Knowing the difference between these two can help you understand if your business is growing or shrinking.

#2: Profit & Loss Statement

This is a statement we will provide that shows your profits and losses at a glance for the time period you are looking at. This is usually on a quarterly basis and shows your revenue minus expenses.

#3: Cash Flow Statement

This statement is provided to help you understand where your business cash is being spent. The three categories are:

1) Investing – Are the assets you have acquired paying off?
2) Operating – what is your business making day-to-day?
3) Financing – What have you invested in your business? While we believe you should operate your business as “debt-free” as possible, it’s understood businesses sometimes have to borrow to help them grow. We help you understand how your business is working with these debt payments.

If you have not created these accounting documents before, no worries, our professional CPA Accounting Mesa staff create these for you and walk you through these step-by-step so they are not complicated and help you understand your business’s profitability.

Mesa AZ Accounting Best Practices

Business vs. Personal Expenses

One of the most difficult things to do when you own your own business is keeping your business and personal expenses separate. This blurry line is often difficult to navigate, however, our Mesa AZ CPAs help you draw that line by helping you establish a separate bank account for your business right at the beginning.

Business Expense Tracking

Because you have a separate business account its important to track all your business expenses by using a dedicated bank card and keeping track of receipts. We have some simple ways for Mesa small business owners to help keep track of this so your profits can be monitored, and your taxes can be prepared properly.

Manage your records for Bookkeeping in Mesa AZ

Here is a list of documents we feel are important for maintaining taxes, payroll, inventory management, and Mesa AZ tax preparation. If you are wondering if you should keep a document … keep it, our Mesa AZ Accountants can sort it out later.

Sales Receipts
Check Deposit Slips
Previous Business Tax Returns
Business Bank Statements
Business Credit Card Statements
Customer Invoices
Bills for your business
1099 Forms
Customer Payments
Canceled Checks
Receipts from purchases
All Payroll Documentation
Etc…

Our Accountants and CPAs can help you with great ways to digitize and categorize these to keep track of these items on a daily basis. This will allow you to keep up with this necessary and important part of your business. Check out our accounting and bookkeeping Mesa, AZ services.

We Keep Your Accounting Statements Up-to-Date

Accurate cash flow statements are important because there is a subtle but important difference between things like sending out an invoice and cash in the bank. The Accountants in Mesa, AZ help keep your statements up to date so you clearly understand your accounts receivable so you always know if you will have the funds available when your business expenses are due.

Keeping an Emergency Fund

This is an important thing for Mesa AZ business owners should consider when running their business. There are times when a customer is late in paying their invoice and a vendor needs to be paid or another type of bill or expense needs to be paid. Having a business emergency fund can really help bridge this gap. It’s a way you can become your own bank and borrow from yourself for a short time to help the business keep its operations flowing.

Business Planning with Major Expenses

Arizona Businesses need to make investments as they grow and expand. By knowing when these investments into additional employees, equipment, processes, or even acquiring other businesses are going to occur, our CPA’s in Mesa AZ can help you plan and prepare for these types of expenses. That way these happen according to your business plan and you are prepared for this growth.

Use the Right Accounting Method

Many small business owners in Arizona wonder what this means. Essentially, the methods and rules a business uses to conduct business and run their companies determine how they document and keep track of expenses, revenue, and tax records. This affects everything they do as a business and is critical so they can generate documents like their profit and loss statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements that show the health of your business.

There are two common methods to consider:

Accrual Accounting:

This type of accounting is typically used with companies that deal with inventory and manufacturing. A company’s revenue is matched with expenses whether they have actually collected the revenue or not. This is also helpful for businesses that have a long business cycle where collecting from a customer may require a long period of time. Our Mesa CPA and Accounting services can help you navigate this method of accounting if you are unsure if this is the proper accounting method for your taxes.

Cash Basis Accounting:

This is the simplest method of accounting and is used by most businesses. This is when expenses are recorded after a bill is paid, or income is only recorded after you receive the cash. This is simply because our accountants in Mesa AZ can quickly give you a real-time view of your cash flow when using this accounting method.

This is typically the choice for most Arizona small businesses. However, if you have any questions about this, please reach out to our team of accountants to see which is right for your business.

Preparing your Business and Personal Taxes

This is what Arizona small business owners lose the most sleep. They often worry if it is done properly. If not, it can catch up with them and become a major economic impact on their business later on when it’s least expected.

This is truly a detailed and critical process that requires experience, expertise, and finesse. This is why you want the small business accountants here at The Alt Key to help you prepare both your business and personal taxes so that you can pay the least amount of taxes required by law.

Your business structure, accounting methods, and many other factors all come into play here and determines how much of your hard-earned money you can keep.

Consider hiring The Alt Key Small Business Accountants in Mesa AZ

With the world revolving around the Internet and largely becoming electronic and paperless, you will need an accounting team that understands technology. While technology is wonderful when used properly, if it is improperly used, it can work against you. You need an experienced set of eyes on your work to reduce error and risk. Suppose someone enters your revenue incorrectly, or an expense was entered as revenue accidentally. These types of errors can happen and really make a mess of your books. Especially if it goes unnoticed for a period of time.

Many business owners think the “support” they receive for the software they use for accounting will help keep this risk down. This could not be further from the truth. The software support is only there to make sure their software is functioning properly. They are not looking out for your small business in Mesa Arizona!

The Alt Key offers a solution-based support process that allows our Mesa AZ CPA team to help you not only troubleshoot software issues but also real-world accounting and bookkeeping issues to ensure your books are accurate at all times. Reach out to our mesa CPA and Accounting services team to learn more.

This is why working with The Alt Key can be the difference between success and failure in Arizona’s small businesses.

We provide CPAs / Accountants, Bookkeepers, Tax Professionals, and Business planners to help you be as successful as possible with your business.

We would love to talk to you today about your Mesa AZ Accounting, Bookkeeping, and tax needs.

Let our experienced team of professionals work to free up your time to work on your business, and not on your books!

Call us today at (480) 558-4400