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Most common mistakes Accountants can avoid in 2022
We like to think that accountants are financial experts trained not to make mistakes. However, for whatever reasons, just like others, they are humans who err too. The good news is businesses can avoid these mistakes if handled the right way. In addition, small business owners who manage their own bookkeeping can learn a lot from them as well. In this article, we discuss the most common mistakes accountants make and how to avoid them. So, let’s dive right in!1. Lack of attention to detail Attention to detail and organizational skills lie at the core of efficient accounting. The more experienced an accountant is, the more organized he/she tends to be. The challenge is how to apply one’s personal organizational techniques to various business operations?Think of each business as a living organism. Each has its own distinct personality and tempo. Some are more organized and thus thrive on unforgiving deadlines, while others seem all over the place but perform best with tighter due dates. Whenever we talk about accounting, most people automatically think about keeping track of receipts, small (frequently overlooked) transactions, and diligent record-keeping. Indeed, these are essential steps in the accounting process. Failing to account for these details accurately can significantly impact your estimates of actual costs and worse, inaccurate financial reports. How to avoid itFlexibility is key. You need to consider various capturing and backup systems to implement. You also have to be ready to adjust deadlines and meeting sessions. At the very least, you need to sit the people down and take the time to walk them through the systems you are planning to enforce. Meanwhile, business owners who work on their own bookkeeping should feel free to experiment between various schedules, routines, and platforms. Take note of the systems that work for you and adjust those that don’t.2. Not prioritizing items for budgeting strategicallyBookkeeping requires going through every little detail. It can be a very tedious routine. Thus, one needs to understand that while all items need to be recorded, not every expense has strategic importance. Instead, try to prioritize big-ticket items during your budget review meetings. These are the ones that will require immediate attention anyway. On the flip side, don’t ignore the small transactions as well. It can be as insignificant as that box of pens you’ve picked up on your way to the office. Regardless, it still needs to be recorded with its receipt kept. You’ll be thankful you did so in the event of a tax audit.How to avoid itTake note of the high-value expenditures you want to prioritize before your budget review meeting. You can also inform the delegates about these points before the review to better prepare for it and provide more insights during the session.3. Treating accounting separate from the businessIt is typical for accountants or the Finance Department to be out of touch with the other business happenings in the company. It is also usual for operational staff to view them as "gatekeepers" rather than "strategic leaders." This gives accountants a one-sided perspective of the business.It's easy to talk to the department heads, for instance, and set ideal financial milestones. Additionally, you must also consider taking the time out to see, staff-wise, if these are achievable targets. Business owners and managers with poor financial literacy are even more prone to making such lapses of judgment.How to avoid itEncourage your Finance teams to get to know the operational staff better. Break those established barriers and them also see how each department works. More importantly, business owners, department heads, and budget handlers should be more accessible and open to criticism. These steps can fix non-numbers-related issues that impact the company's finances in the long run and even prevent business bankruptcy.4. Not using Accounting Software efficientlyWith the further digitization of finances comes the expected advancement of financial technology. As a result, accounting software is becoming more and more powerful. The best ones can perform complex operations such as data management, creating financial projections, and producing detailed reports. The problem is a lot of its users simply don’t know how to take advantage of such features.How to avoid itThe best accounting softwares out there offer free training, video demos, and other educational tools not just for the business owner but for his employees too. So take advantage of such references. It would also help to check out customer reviews and user-generated content for more tips and hacks. Don’t limit yourself to just using a single platform. There are those specifically designed for record-keeping, while some programs are great for managing taxes. Some software even allow integration with other apps. In this way, you’ll have the opportunity to access everything from a single dashboard.5. Failing to backup dataIn relation to the previous tip, failing to use the available technologies to protect and back up your data is one of the most damaging (yet sadly common) accounting errors. We all want to believe that our business’ financial information is safe until it's not. Just suppose that the storage device you’re using for your business got damaged, lost, or worse, hacked into, and you don’t have a backup of it anywhere. The repercussions could be severe.How to avoid itFortunately, there are a lot of cloud backup and storage solutions available that are specifically designed for financial information. We recommend getting one with convenient import and export options, strong cybersecurity features, and various levels of accessibility.6. Entrusting your financial data a little too openlyTrusting your employees is very important. However, it shouldn’t be up to the extent of giving them full access to your financial transactions. This is probably the only strength of being both the business owner and your own bookkeeper.How to avoid itEven if you’re going to require the assistance of an accountant, you should still review your financial statements thoroughly. Request the images of canceled checks if you need to. We also advise against making your bookkeeper the same person who makes your deposits. Lastly, avoid signing legal authority for your employees to access and make changes in your business bank accounts.While not completely, these practices can significantly reduce the risk of fraud.7. Failing to reconcile accounts in timeFinally, once you have completed your monthly accounting sessions, then it’s time to go back to check and counter-check all your statements and make sure that your records reflect the same numbers in your bank accounts.If there’s even a small error, it will require your immediate attention. This will prevent it from rippling into a bigger issue in the future.How to avoid itMake some time to review your business bank accounts against your records regularly. This will not only help you catch erroneous entries and inaccurate records faster, but it will also prevent fraudulent activity from going undetected.The impact of Accounting errors on your businessIt doesn’t matter whether your accounting error is as simple as forgetting to record the thank-you gift you sent your client last month or whether it’s as significant as getting your hard drive wiped out. Regardless, their future consequences can put your business at risk. Utilizing accounting software and other digital tools can help in data management, analysis, and report creation. Finally, well-placed safety and precautionary measures will minimize the loss of data and fraud. By keeping the tips we have shared with you in mind, we are confident that you’ll be able to avoid even the most common accounting errors with ease. Good luck!
More detailsPublished - Mon, 31 Oct 2022
Democratic Decision Making
Financing Democracy4 out of 5 citizens around the world think that the system is not working in their interests, according to the 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer. A key reason for this is the perception that when it comes to politics, money talks.Finance is a necessary component of democratic processes. Money enables the expression of political support and competition in elections. However, it may be a means for powerful narrow interests to exercise undue influence. For example, newly elected officials may be pressured to "return the favor" to corporations that funded their campaigns.This can lead to policy capture, where public decisions over policies are directed away from the public interest towards a specific interest.Policy capture risksThe possible existence of a link between campaign spending and performance in elections should be enough to put us on our guard, even if there is not yet a consensus on whether donations directly influence election outcomes.Evidence suggests that policy capture has consequences on business competition in some countries, regions, or sectors. In some countries, swings in market shares of companies can reflect the changing preferences of the political leadership for well-connected businesses.Financial contributions by lobbyists in the political process also threaten fair and democratic decision-making.Developing a policy frameworkThe Framework presented in this report maps a wide range of risk areas and provides policy tools to adequately regulate the financing of political parties and electoral campaigns.The framework ensures transparency and promotes a level playing field on:public funding to parties and candidates;private funding, spending limits, disclosure, and scrutiny on funding;compliance through independent and efficient oversight, sanctions, and monitoringThe Framework also focuses on the need to foster a wider culture of integrity in the public and private sectors, with codes of conduct, conflicts of interest rules, and a framework for lobbying and asset disclosure among others.
More detailsPublished - Mon, 31 Oct 2022
What is Leadership?
Leadership is the ability of a company's management to set and achieve challenging goals, take swift and decisive action, outperform the competition, and inspire others to perform well. It is tough to place a value on leadership or other qualitative aspects of a company, compared to quantitative metrics that are commonly tracked and much easier to compare between companies. Individuals with strong leadership skills in the business world often rise to executive positions such as CEO, COO, CFO, president and chairman.What are the Top 4 Qualities That Make A Great Leader ?HonestyDelegateConfidenceCommunicationSee https://themtdeu.tk/home/courses?category=human-resources1- Honesty Honesty may be seen as transparency and openness- your willingness to communicate what you’re thinking or feeling, even when it is uncomfortable or unpopular. Honesty may be seen as a willingness to listen and discuss issues before the data is completely thought through, when available alternatives are not fully crystallized, and when decisions are not yet final. It may also be seen as keeping your word, following through on promises, and delivering on time.2- Delegate Finessing your brand vision is essential to creating an organized and efficient business, but if you don’t learn to trust your team with that vision, you might never progress to the next stage. Its important to remember that trusting your team with your idea is a sign of strength, not weakness. Delegating tasks to the appropriate departments is one of the most important skills you can develop as your business grows. The emails and tasks will begin to pile up, and the more you stretch yourself thin, the lower the quality of your work will become, and the less you will produce.The key to delegation is identifying the strengths of your team, and capitalizing on them. Find out what each team member enjoys doing most. Chances are if they find that task more enjoyable, they will likely put more thought and effort behind it. This will not only prove to your team that you trust and believe in them, but will also free up your time to focus on the higher level tasks, that should not be delegated. It’s a fine balance, but one that will have a huge impact on the productivity of your business.3- Confidence Confidence is the cornerstone of leadership. You can teach a leader to be an effective problem solver; more decisive; a better communicator; how to coach, mentor and hold team members accountable; and many other fundamentals of leadership. Yet, without that leader first believing in himself or herself, true leadership will exist only in title. A leader that is technically qualified for the position, but lacks confidence, will find it difficult to lead others. As Francisco Dao says, “Self-confidence is the fundamental basis from which leadership grows. Trying to teach leadership without first building confidence is like building a house on a foundation of sand. It may have a nice coat of paint, but it is ultimately shaky at best.”Some people may think that leaders who are overly aggressive in their communication and/or leadership style have strong confidence. When taken to an extreme, leaders who are overly aggressive are even referred to as bullies. Interestingly enough, people with strong confidence do not have a need to be overly aggressive to get their goals accomplished. Being overly aggressive is actually a sign of a lack of confidence, not having strong confidence.4- Communication Good Leaders, Good Communicators There’s no mystery here. Regardless of whether you’re talking about business, politics, sports or the military, the best leaders are first-rate communicators. Their values are clear and solid, and what they say promotes those values. Their teams admire them and follow their lead. Likewise, if you want your company to reach new benchmarks of achievement, you must master the art of clear communication. So, how do you do it?First, you must realize and accept that clear communication is always a two-way process. It’s not enough to speak clearly; you have to make sure you’re being heard and understood. To facilitate this, use the following two-way communication primer:Prepare how you’ll communicate Deliver the message Receive the messageEvaluate the effectiveness of the communication afterwardsTake corrective action as necessarySeePrimers, of course, aren’t enough. You must go deeper and determine why internal communications are poor or ineffective, considering any potential barriers. Once the barriers have been identified, you’ll see where to improve.Additionally, you’ll inevitably realize the stakes are high when it comes to communicating — if you fail to do this properly, you can poison the atmosphere between you and a colleague, as well as your company’s morale.So the next time you’re drafting a letter, e-mail or policy statement, before you send it, stop and consider these common barriers to clear communication:Lack of respect by either party for the other.Poorly defined purpose for the communication.Failure to establish the best medium for the communication (e-mail and cell phones are NOT the best ways to communicate serious material).Assumption that the listener receives the message.Ignored emotions or sensitivities.Failure to get on the listener’s level of understanding.Intimidation by either party.
More detailsPublished - Mon, 31 Oct 2022
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