During the initial consultation, we will determine whether or not a bank reconciliation is necessary. The bank statement reconciliation is not included in the plans for two reasons. First, doing a bank reconciliation is different for each business. Some are very difficult and some are relatively simple. Secondly, not all businesses require a formal bank reconciliation. If you are a cash basis business, and you don’t write a lot of checks, then a formal bank reconciliation is not necessary. When we record all of your transactions the book balance of your cash account will match the balance of your bank account. If they do not match, then we will determine the cause and make the necessary corrections so that they do balance at no additional cost. See Accrual Basis vs. Cash Basis for more information.

This depends on your type of business, software used to accept payments, and how much data do you want to track from those payments. Each day your credit card processor will deposit a lump sum from all the payments collected the previous day in your bank account. This will be one line item on your bank statement and will be considered one transaction. If you need details about the customers that made purchases, then you can use the data stored in the software collecting those payments. If you want those details to reside in your books, then we will have to record one transaction for each purchase. This can drastically increase your transaction count. During our initial consultation, we will discuss this issue and advise you the best solution possible.

Yes, you will be charged one transaction per line item on your credit card statement. Your credit card will be treated much the same as your bank account. The reason is that each item purchased on your credit card statement must be recorded to a different account. It is possible to lump together all purchases to the same account and only make one entry per account. Whether or not this can be done depends on your business. This will be discussed at our initial consultation.

Cash basis and accrual basis are two types of accounting methods used to keep track of a business’s income and expenses. The cash basis method records income and expenses when cash is received and paid. The accrual basis method records income and expenses when earned or incurred. This method records income and expenses before cash is actually received or paid. Most small businesses use the cash method. If your business uses the accrual basis, then additional journal entries and transactions will need to be recorded. This will increase your transaction account and incur additional charges for adjustments. This issue will be discussed during the initial consultation.