As a small business owner, you know the importance of cash flow management. You’re familiar with all the different factors that affect cash flow such as demand, seasonality, and expenses. If you find yourself feeling overwhelmed or confused with all of the numbers, it may be time to consider a tool to help with your accounting and cash flow management.

In this blog post, we’ll discuss FINSYNC’S all-in-one solution and how it’s helped various small businesses across the U.S. centralize control of cash flow while getting all their finances in sync.

Scale as You Grow

FINSYNC offers plans for all business stages. If you’re just starting your business, you can start by learning how FINSYNC is revolutionizing payments. It only takes 24 hours or less to get up and running. With this plan, you’ll be able to set up business payments via ACH, credit card, and be able to issue checks remotely, and receive them through your own lockbox.

As your business continues to grow and other needs arise, you’re able to add more features such as payroll, accounting, or cash flow management. These features are available individually or as a Complete Solution for only $95 a month plus processing fees.

Save Time & Money

Managing your back-office without software means spending hours on tedious tasks such as time tracking, bank reconciliations, and scheduling. Automating these tasks with FINSYNC allows you to save time, work more efficiently, and focus on growing your business. In addition, understanding your current and future cash flow allows you to make better decisions that benefit your business.

Here are a few of our customer’s favorite features:

• • Ability to manage your invoices and customer receipts in the same interface as your bill pay and vendor payments.
  • Access to a full calendar view of all payments coming in and out of your accounts
  • View all your bank accounts in one place. No more having to import data from multiple sources.

Ongoing Customer Support

Our customer support team is ready to help you from the moment you sign up for a free trial. Once you’ve signed up, a dedicated team member will contact you to provide assistance and walk you through the setup process. Rest assured that your questions are always answered by real humans. Say goodbye to long wait times or unanswered messages. Our team is available via chat, email, or phone.

Other Features Available

In addition to our payments, payroll, accounting, and cash flow management offerings, we’ve partnered with several service providers.

• • Get matched with certified professional accountants and bookkeepers. Services start for as low as $20 an hour.
  • Find capital for your business. Applying for financing has never been easier. Our application takes less than 5 minutes to complete. Apply once and get the best financing options to grow your business.

Are you ready to see how FINSYNC can transform your business? We’re happy to offer all customers a 7-day free trial of any of our plans. No credit card is required to sign up.

View our testimonials and learn FINSYNC has revolutionized thousands of small businesses.

Whether you are a small business owner or a large conglomerate, properly managing your finances is a must for any healthy business. Having full control of your finances prepares your business to stay afloat during bad times and propel it forward during the good times.

You should familiarize yourself with the following proven financial tips for small business owners that can help you to be more successful in your business.

Set a Budget

Budgeting allows you to stay goal-focused. It lets you know how much you can spend, your exact spending, and on what items. Setting a realistic budget allows you to cut down on unnecessary expenses and estimate what your profit will be at the end of each period.

Before setting your budget, it’s important to familiarize yourself with certain financials from your business such as:

• • Estimated revenue from your business
  • Fixed & variable costs
  • Cash flow projections
  • Profit

Keep Personal and Business Finances Separate

As a rule of thumb, never mix your personal finances with business funds. Mingling the two can mean you may not be able to differentiate the business assets from personal ones and find it harder to reconcile the financial records.

You’ll also lose the liability protection afforded by an LLC if you commingle business and personal transactions.

Always have a separate bank account for your business. If you don’t know where to get started with selecting a bank, we’ve created a round-up of all the factors you should consider when picking the best bank for your business needs.

Analyze Your Cash Flow

Always keep track of how much money is going in and out of your business at all times. This allows you to plan in advance. By planning in advance, you’ll be able to create a better budget for things such as new raw materials, employee wages, or to build a cash reserve for a rainy day.

Most business owners claim that their business struggles with cash flow. In most cases, the root of cash flow management issues begins with not properly forecasting or projecting the cash going in and out of your business. If you find yourself struggling to manage your cash flow month after month, it may be time to consider accounting software so you are able to:

• • Connect all bank accounts and credit card accounts in one place
  • Have all payments in and out on the same platform
  • View a calendar view of every payment coming in or going out

Don’t Be Afraid to Seek Professional Help

Often, small business owners struggle to keep up with accounting and bookkeeper requirements. They either end up spending more than needed or neglecting it due to time constraints. If you find yourself feeling overwhelmed, it may be time to consider hiring a qualified professional to do the heavy-lifting for you.

Remember to revisit these financial tips to take your business to the next level.

Using FINSYNC’s state-of-the-art accounting software will help you stay on top of your finances.

Diversity in the workplace contributes immensely to not only the success of the organization but also the overall national economy. As the world continues to become more ethnically diverse, there is growing pressure on companies worldwide to reflect that diversity through their hiring practices.

Assembling the right mix of employees on your team can be quite rewarding and challenging at the same time. In this blog post, we have rounded up some crucial tips for managing diversity in your workplace and building a positive environment.

Increased Exposure to Different Perspectives

Diverse cultural backgrounds mean willingness and openness to different learning styles, opinions, and different means of problem-solving. New perspectives help your organization to appeal to a broader customer base, solve different types of problems and open up possibilities in other ways.

Choose Inclusion

As you inch closer towards becoming a more diverse organization, do a deep dive into your existing workforce practices. An effective diversity management process requires amending system-wide existing policies and creating new ones for recruitment, performance evaluations, and promotions.

Prioritize Sensitivity Training

Instead of resorting to damage control in times of crisis, consider investing in sensitivity training to prevent a problematic situation from arising. There may be some resistance from older employees. However, sensitivity training for managers and employees can add more value to your organization. For example, awareness among managers and employees helps create a workplace that is free of discrimination and harassment.

Invest in More Than Just Hiring Practices

While weaving inclusion into the fundamentals of your recruitment process can be very impactful, don’t simply stop here. Confirming that all your personnel policies represent the company’s commitment to diversity will give employees a sense of connectedness to the company.

Building a diverse organization involves an undying commitment. The companies who succeed will find themselves ahead of the curve and reap the benefits in the long run.

Small businesses have become more prevalent than ever. With more and more people starting their own business, a common question that arises is whether health insurance should be provided by your company.

Is Your Small Business Required to Provide Health Insurance?

Under The Affordable Care Act (ACA), small businesses with less than 50 employees are not required to provide health insurance to their employees. This means that your company will not face a tax penalty for not providing insurance.

However, if you decide to offer your employees health insurance, you may qualify for a “Small Business Health Care Tax Credit.” There are a few requirements in order to receive this credit, such as:

• • The company should have less than 25 full-time employees
  • The average salary of workers should be lower than $50,600 per year
  • The company should pay at least 50% of the cost of an employee’s health insurance premium

We recommend reviewing the IRS website for the most up-to-date information regarding the Small Business Health Care Tax Credit as it may change from time to time.

Why You Should Consider Offering Health Insurance

Improved Hiring and Retention

A major benefit of being employed is the health insurance that comes with it. Without health insurance, the out-of-pocket expenses for an individual can get very hefty in no time. In fact, many employees would choose health benefits over retirement benefits if only one were offered. Without a doubt, offering health insurance improves employee retention rates.

There are several different health plan options to choose from depending on desired coverage and cost. A great starting point to research health insurance providers. You can also access a huge network by visiting healthcare.gov.

Lower Payroll Taxes

The financial advantage of providing health insurance through your small business is the tax benefits. Typically, pre-tax dollars pay for health insurance. This means your taxable income decreases. A lower taxable income results in lower business payroll taxes and lower income taxes for employees.

Healthier Employees

A healthier workforce results in increased productivity. In fact, striving for a healthy workforce proves to your employees that you care about their mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing. When your employees know that they are covered, they have less mental fatigue and can live their life without worries.

Many health insurance companies offer additional well-being programs to employees at no additional charge. These programs are designed to promote health and fitness. The programs reward your employees by offering discounts or even cash rewards for participating in health challenges and similar programs.

Deciding on health insurance options is a big decision for any company. The most important step is to research which coverage is best for your company and employees.

Stay up-to-date with the latest trends and other tips and tricks FINSYNC brings to small businesses.

Selecting a bank for your small business takes more insight and deliberation than selecting a personal banking account. Since your commercial banking needs are different from your personal banking needs, taking some time to identify the correct business account and other services is an important initial step towards business success.

Do you require a savings account? Is having an account you and a business partner can both access necessary for your business? These are the types of questions you should ask yourself in the research phase.

Here are some factors you need to consider when choosing the right bank for your organization.

Location of the Bank

Make your decision according to how often you will need to visit the bank. If you need to physically visit more often, you might want something closer to you. Similarly, if you are in other cities frequently, you may want a bank with a wide geographical spread.

Credit

Smaller community banks tend to be more lenient with new business owners and have more flexible credit standards for opening accounts. This is important to know since it can be difficult to acquire financing from a big financial institution if your company has a bad credit score or has recently launched (has not developed business credit yet).

Technology Integration

Manually logging transactions is a tedious and time-consuming task. Choosing a modern bank that interfaces with your current technology platforms or with applications that you aim to implement in the future are your best bet.

At FINSYNC, we know first-hand that syncing bank accounts to back-office software make business life much more manageable. Bridget Chun of Chunogly Productions says, “Having my Chase accounts connected to FINSYNC makes my life significantly easier! It is especially convenient for my accountants when they do my deductibles or while figuring out how much we spend and what we spend it on.”

Added Fees

Fees are typically charged by banks for a variety of services, such as low deposits, overdraft fees, inactivity penalties, wire transfers, and other service charges. These charges can add up quite fast if you don’t pay attention to them and adhere to the bank’s policies. If you think maintaining the minimum balance, for example, would be challenging, consider switching banks.

Incentives

Incentives are a great reward for your affiliation with the bank. One of the most common types of incentives is cashback. The main thing to look for is what kind of benefits come with keeping a certain balance in the account for the said amount of time. It’s all about developing and maintaining the practice of routinely holding a certain cash level in the account.

You may also pick up additional incentives on other offerings from the bank. Add a credit card and it likely has a rewards program of its own.

One important thing to keep in mind is that as your business grows, new or additional banking services may be needed. We recommend conducting a review of your accounts at least every one to two years to make sure your bank accounts still meet your business needs.

FINSYNC has a growing network of lenders who rely on its technology to make quick or automated decisions based on your past, present, and projected cash flow.

Small businesses are extremely important. They provide employment to boost the local economy, which creates tremendous value. In order for businesses to reach optimal growth, they must monitor their financial transactions carefully which is why having a bookkeeper can set a business up for success.

Bookkeeping activity can help businesses by overseeing their daily financial transactions while they are recorded into the general ledger. Consistent bookkeeping helps in financial tracking and in the preparation of accounting statements.

However, most small businesses struggle with bookkeeping due to time and resource constraints. Without proper or professional guidance, many small businesses commit bookkeeping mistakes that turn out to be costly. Next, we’ll identify some of these common mistakes and learn tips to avoid them.

Failure to Keep Receipts

Many bookkeepers fail to classify and file relevant receipts associated with transactions. This happens mainly in the case of small value transactions, for example, food receipts. A proper record of them is necessary for proof of expenses. Especially, in the case of an audit, having receipts is crucial.

To avoid this, it is advisable to keep a special folder for filing these receipts. Also, make sure to train your bookkeeping staff about the importance of recording every transaction for long-term use.

Wrong Category Entries

Bookkeeping involves the categorization of every transaction in a suitable account within your financial statements. These accounts are typically numbered. This categorization will be a great help for your accountant in analysis while preparing financial documents.

If your organization doesn’t have a proper chart of accounts, it can confuse the bookkeeper. For example, common mistakes include using the wrong expense account. The primary solution to this mistake is to have a solid chart of accounts based on your organization’s business activity prepared for you and train on it.

When you come across a transaction that you don’t know how to categorize, put it in a special account for review. “Ask My Accountant” or sometimes this account is referred to as a suspense account. Inquiring from the proper channels will prevent guesswork.

Lack of Data Backup

Today we live in a digital world. It is always good to digitize your bookkeeping activities using accounting software.

It’s recommended to make sure to have a backup option in the form of paper printouts or a second cloud storage device where copies can be stored. A lack of such backup might cause you trouble in the case of any technical failure or data loss. For example, the practice of taking daily transaction printouts from your software will be helpful in case your online backup collapses.

Reconciliation with Bank Statements

Human data entry errors are inevitable during bookkeeping. Errors such as entry reversal (credit/debit), wrong transaction value, typos, etc. are very common. The only way to rectify this is by cross-checking entries with your bank accounts. For example, an income of $300.00 wrongly entered as $30000 can adversely affect your entire understanding of your business’s health. Make it a habit to reconcile your accounts as soon as new bank statements become available.

Bookkeeping activity is crucial for navigating your business successfully. Give it the priority it deserves, and don’t forget to provide adequate training for your personnel.

Ready to alleviate the burden of bookkeeping? FINSYNC has an extensive network of bookkeepers and accountants. We will match the right person based on your budget, industry, experience, and more.