Notary Accounting
How To Make It Easier
I don’t know many people who love the idea of accounting. Unless, of course, it's your choice of career! No matter how unpopular the topic of accounting is, as business owners, it's a key part of our business. Now, if you have the ability to pay a bookkeeper, then perhaps you don’t have to fuss with the business of accounting, but for most of us, in our day-to-day lives, business accounting is part of our responsibility. And it's an important responsibility. Staying on top of your books can make or break your business when it comes to tax season. It's the brutal but honest truth: if you don’t have your finances together and aren’t ready to submit to your tax accountant at the beginning of the new year, your business will suffer, or you will be conversing with the IRS.
We don’t want that. I don’t want that, and I certainly don’t want that for you. So what to do? Luckily for us, here in the Notary world, we have innovative peers who have found solutions to some of our most demanding problems. Before I share the solution, let’s first discover what small business accounting is.
Small business accounting refers to the process of recording, summarizing, analyzing, and interpreting financial transactions of a small business. The primary goal of small business accounting is to provide accurate and up-to-date financial information that enables business owners, managers, investors, and other stakeholders to make informed decisions about the company's financial health and performance.
Some of the key components of small business accounting include:
1. Bookkeeping: Bookkeeping involves the systematic recording of financial transactions, including sales, purchases, expenses, and payments. It lays the foundation for the entire accounting process by maintaining accurate and organized records.
2. Financial Statements:
Small businesses typically generate three main financial statements:
Income Statement (Profit and Loss Statement): Summarizes revenues, expenses, and profits or losses over a specific period.
Balance Sheet: Provides a snapshot of the company's financial position, including assets, liabilities, and equity, at a specific point in time.
Cash Flow Statement: Tracks the inflow and outflow of cash over a specific period, providing insights into liquidity and operating activities.
3. Accounts Payable and Receivable:
Managing accounts payable involves tracking and paying bills, while accounts receivable involves invoicing customers and collecting payments. Small businesses need to monitor these accounts to maintain healthy cash flow.
4. Budgeting and Forecasting:
Small business accounting often includes the creation and management of budgets and financial forecasts. This helps businesses plan for future expenses, set financial goals, and allocate resources effectively.
5. Tax Compliance: Small businesses must comply with tax regulations, and accounting plays a crucial role in preparing accurate tax returns. This includes tracking deductible expenses, calculating tax liabilities, and ensuring timely filing.
6. Payroll Processing:
For small businesses with employees, payroll processing involves calculating and disbursing wages, handling payroll taxes, and maintaining accurate payroll records.
7. Financial Analysis:
Small business owners use accounting data for financial analysis, such as calculating key performance indicators (KPIs), assessing profitability, and identifying areas for cost reduction or revenue improvement.
8. Record Keeping:
Keeping organized and detailed financial records is essential for small business accounting. This includes receipts, invoices, bank statements, and other financial documents.
9. Audit Preparation:
In the event of an audit, having well-maintained financial records facilitates the process. Audits may be conducted by external parties, such as government agencies or potential investors.
10. Software and Technology:
Many small businesses use accounting software to streamline and automate accounting processes. These tools can help with bookkeeping, invoicing, financial reporting, and overall financial management.
Effective small-business accounting is critical for financial transparency, regulatory compliance, and strategic decision-making. It provides a solid foundation for the business to thrive and grow while ensuring financial stability and accountability. Doesn’t that sound like fun??? No, it doesn’t, but fun or not, if you choose to be a notary, you are, in fact, a small business owner. As a business owner, this is an important part of your role.
So, what is the amazing and innovative tool I want to share with you? Well, it's accounting software for Notaries built by notaries. Notary Assist. As far as I know, there are only two notary-specific software systems, and my favorite is NotaryAssist.
This product is a game changer created by Sue Hope and her husband. Say goodbye to shoe boxes filled with receipts. Using NotaryAssit for your notary accounting and bookkeeping tasks really takes the difficulty out of the equation. As long as you stay on top of inputting information, when it comes to tax season- you just print out a couple of reports for your tax professionals.
P&L Report ( Profit and Loss)
Mileage Report ( in CA, it gives you the most bang for your buck)
Tax Report
Tax Summary
Thats it.
Let's talk about some of the awesome features NotaryAssit has to help make your bookkeeping easy.
Complete and total invoicing set up.
When you put in your notary appointment, it has all the information you need to keep track of your clients but also breaks down your appointment for tax benefit purposes.
Track notary fees separately from travel. Notary fees ( your state-mandated fee for each signature you notarize) are exempt from self-employment taxes. So, having the number separate from other income is important. NotaryAssit gives you the opportunity to simply break down the appointment from the number of pages to the number of notarizations; it will pull that from your total fee for tax time.
Invoice email feature
Track invoices that were sent and that were paid.
Appointment Import feature. Suppose you are discussing appointments or getting appointments via email. In that case, you simply use NotaryAssist's forwarding address from your registered email. NotaryAssist will pull the information from that email, giving you a significant head start in creating your invoice.
You can evaluate your business with a simple report. Choose a report to show you how much business you have done in every different area of your business. This report will break up appointments by type. Loan signing, Estate Signings, Fingerprinting, or anything you have set up. You simply set up your different services and track them when creating invoices. Notaryassist will do the rest.
You can see quickly who has and hasn’t paid by using the unpaid report.
These are just some of the features you will get with NotaryAssist. This one platform has so much to offer, and the price of all of this will make your jaw drop. $8.99 a month. Let me repeat that: $8.99 a month!!!!!!! How much did you pay for your starbucks this morning? Right? And remember, this small monthly fee is a business expense!!!!!
So, as promised, there is your avenue to making your business accounting much easier to manage. Having to handle the bookkeeping and accounting of our business isn’t the most glamorous task we have to handle, but it's one of the absolute necessities.
In addition to your daily bookkeeping tasks that need to be done, there is also the issue of end-of-year taxes. Whether you are a sole proprietor or an LLC, I highly recommend finding a tax accountant to handle your quarterly or annual tax reporting. Before starting my business, I handled our personal tax filings every year, but I knew I didn’t want to mess with filing my business taxes. So, before I started my business, I got on Facebook. I asked my friends and family for suggestions of good, not overly priced, tax accountants for small business referrals, and they did not disappoint. That's how I found Charis. Her office helped me set up my accounting software ( before I used Notary Assist) and walked me through everything I needed to consider when starting my business. I see her every February, and we get taxes down right there at her desk in that annual appointment. It costs me about $200 a year, and she handles my business taxes and our personal taxes.
She has also been an amazing resource for me, getting me in the door with certain escrow offices and making me her go-to- notary. It has been a mutually beneficial relationship, and I couldn’t shout any louder about how important that relationship is to the success of my business. It's important for your business as well.
We are beginning the new year, and getting your finances and accounting in order couldn't be more important. Also, reach out to tax accounting professionals ASAP. They are starting to work on people's taxes as soon as January 30th passes. Don’t wait on this.
In addition to this blog, I have a YouTube interview with Sue Hope of Notary Assist that you can see here.
If you would like to get set up with NotaryAssist, you can check that out here.
Until next week, my friends, get those books ready and set yourself up for success.
Jennifer Cooper, JKC Mobile Notary
