Common Small Business Accounting Problems

August 5, 2022

Keeping your company books in order can be a challenge. Consider these common accounting problems often seen when preparing business tax returns to ensure they do not happen to your business:

1. Mixing in personal expenses. Having non-business costs included in your business accounts creates several problems. First, your financial statements will not accurately portray your business performance. Second, personal expenses are a drag on your available cash. Third, the IRS is quick to deny legitimate business expenses as tax deductions if it perceives that personal expenses are blended with business expenses. Common sources of non-business expenses to watch for are charges you make on credit cards and expense reimbursements to owners.
2. Not keeping your books current. Waiting too long to record information in your accounting system actually requires more time to get back on track. Complex entries get even more complicated as your ability to recall transaction details diminishes over time. Set a goal to have all transactions entered every week at a minimum.
3. Entering capital assets as expenses. Because capital assets provide long-term value, they are entered on the balance sheet and depreciated over multiple years. Misclassifying a capital asset as an expense will torpedo your net income for that period and potentially create an audit problem. To avoid this, review large purchases and comb expense accounts likely to be hiding capital assets during your month-end review.
4. Not performing timely bank reconciliations. When you receive your bank statements, ensure they are reconciled to your books within a week or two. Bank reconciliations almost always identify errors. Delaying bank reconciliations will add unneeded complexity and decrease your chances of correcting an error in a timely manner.
5. Mishandling sales tax. Many businesses incorrectly record sales tax they receive as revenue. Sales tax you receive should be entered as a liability until you remit it to the proper tax authority, ultimately avoiding your income statement altogether. This is because it is not your money. You are holding that money in trust for each respective state. On the other hand, sales tax you pay on purchases should be booked as an expense.
6. Lacking proper documentation. Most business owners know that you need to save invoices and receipts for sales and purchases, but what about documentation for adjustments and journal entries? Proving these is just as important. Contracts, time sheets and shipping documents are some examples of substantiation required to support your journal entries.
7. Devoting too much of your time. Most entrepreneurs start their business for reasons other than spending hours working on their books. Don’t get bogged down worrying about the inner-workings of accounting rules and tax laws. Partnering with an expert to handle your accounting needs can free you up to use your expertise where it’s needed the most — running and growing your business.