Small Business Financial Spring Cleaning Tips

small business accounting

With the cold winter giving way to the brighter and warmer spring, now is the time for your small or medium-sized business to revisit your books, especially with the tax season ending in April.

Of course, through our corporate tax preparation services, you’re ready for the taxman. Just as a reminder, here are just some of the corporate tax issues we help with:

  • T1 Filing
  • T2 Filing
  • GST/HST Returns
  • Non-Resident Tax Issues
  • Tax Audit Representation
  • Tax Planning
  • Business Advisory
  • GST/HST Housing Rebate

Financial Spring Cleaning

Recovering revenue, updating your business plan, setting new goals, reviewing expenditures, arranging receipts, and organizing business and personal finances are just some of the steps you can take to clean up your financials this spring.

Now is also a good time to meet an excellent certified business accountant to help you enhance your workflow even further, but more on that later.

1. Recover Revenue

With the tax season behind you, spring is the ideal time to convert unpaid invoices into revenue. Connect with late-paying customers with polite reminders on email or phone to get paid. Here are some tips to help you improve your accounts receivable turnover ratio:

  • Use concise and clear contracts
  • Send invoices on time with the assistance of software
  • Ensure that invoices are correct to avoid payment-delaying issues
  • Incentivize timely payments with late-payment fees written into the contract
  • Incentivize timely payments with early-payment bonuses into the contract
  • Ensure that your invoice goes to the correct department

Always maintain a polite yet professional tone when speaking with a late-paying client for the best results.

2. Update Your Business Plan:

Like any business owner, you probably wrote a formal business plan to help with decisions and development. Your plan may have even helped you secure funding. But you probably haven’t updated your business plan since then.

If you’ve changed your products and services, targeted a new market, or reorganized your business, you need to update your business plan. Not only can an updated business plan help minimize risks, but it may enable you to qualify for new long-term funding.  

At Tangs Accounting, we can offer professional help in this area too. We work with you to establish a short-term and long-term business plan. Having a business plan helps new businesses set tangible goals that they can reach and build on.

Our business consultants work with you to establish and implement your business plan. We help you identify and act on the actions needed to establish and maintain successful operations.

3. Set New Goals

Credit: Ivan Samkov Via Pexels

After reviewing your original business plan, you may note with pride how far you’ve come. Now’s the time to set new goals. For example, if you want to expand your small business to a medium-sized company, you need to set the wheels in motion.

Likewise, you may need to modify your goals in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. From lockdown protocols to a shifting market, businesses have been forced to revise their objectives and methodology.

At Tangs Accounting, we have also adapted to this new normal. For example, our comprehensive online business accounting services help your business while keeping you safe. Our accounting services are ideal for supporting both new companies, and existing enterprises strategize at this time. Through our online accounting services, we provide business accounting while prioritizing the safety of individuals.

Our notice-to-reader financial statement preparation services are just one part of our business accounting services to you. These services can help your investors and shareholders understand unaudited financial information. The notice includes a balance sheet and statements of income and is fully aligned with Accounting Standards for Private Enterprise (ASPE).

You can use our notice-to-reader services to achieve the following goals:

Bank Financing: Your notice-to-reader statement can help a bank determine if your company meets their metrics.

Investment Opportunities: Whether your company is interested in venture capitalist funding, or angel investment, you will need a notice-to-reader statement to share your business financials with them.

Sales Opportunities: If you’re shopping for a buyer for your company or involved in a merger, you can use a notice-to-reader to outline your business financials to an interested party.

Record Keeping: It’s critical to get a notice-to-reader report to maintain your yearly records, even if you don’t need one for official financial purposes.

4. Review Expenditures

Now is an excellent time to analyze your expenditures and look for efficiencies. At Tangs Accounting, we can organize financial statements, balance your books, and more. We can help you keep track of your earnings, expenses, and other financials as they relate to your daily operations. Our bookkeepers offer monthly, quarterly, and annual bookkeeping services to manage your operations and its finances.

Now is also an excellent time to examine your payroll to ensure everything is in order. Our experienced and certified professionals can ensure that both you and your employees are paid on time and account for invoices and other fees and expenses. Through our payroll services, we help businesses with payroll, T4&T4 summaries, WSIB, and more.

5. Organize Receipts

You might have had a challenging period with your taxes if your receipts were disorganized. You can start with a new way to do things in spring. Take an hour every week to organize your receipts to manage your cash flow and capitalize on tax breaks more efficiently.

Remember, our experienced professionals provide taxation services to help businesses sort out their taxes and other financial obligations. We help you with business tax returns, tax audits, future tax planning, and more. Feel free to get in touch with us at any time for our professional and compassionate assistance.

6. Organize Business and Personal Finances

It’s easy to mix business and personal finances in the moment, with the intention to sort it out later. Sometimes, it’s even necessary. But if you’ve ever felt stressed during tax time, then separate your business and personal finances now to avoid confusion later. Start with a business credit card and a business chequebook to draw a line between you and your company. When you need to pay for a business expense with personal funds, document it immediately to keep track.

These are six tips that can help you wrap up from the tax season and reorganize your books. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to our team for professional help. You can call us on 416-792-3158 or send us an email at hello@tangsaccounting.com or contact@tangsaccounting.com with any questions or feedback.