Is Your Bookkeeper Embezzling?

As a business owner, what are you currently receiving on a daily, weekly and monthly basis from your bookkeeper?  Are you in communication about where you stand financially?  Are your bank accounts reconciled and financial reports processed at the end of every month? 

In watching the news and seeing how many bookkeepers embezzle funds each and every day, it is not surprising that most business owners do not even have a clue where they stand financially.  In fact, The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners estimates that in the U.S. alone, occupational fraud has cost employers $400 billion through larceny of cash, skimming and fraudulent disbursements. 

If you are not receiving timely financials, I hate to inform you that you are at risk for the above scenario.  You may trust your bookkeeper implicitly…in every embezzlement case this was true. 

I recently uncovered embezzlement by a receptionist of a medium-sized firm who was pocketing cash on a daily basis.  Why didn’t the owner or the CPA catch this earlier?  Trust.  The owner stated “I would not in a million years have suspected her.  We had this relationship built over five years.”

As a business owner, you should be reviewing your financials and asking questions, especially in small firms where one person handles everything from managing the office to doing the bookkeeping.  In this situation, we understand the difficulty of maintaining controls as you would in larger organizations. 

OSI Business Services, LLC not only closes your books each and every month, but your CPA/Manager consults with you reviewing your financials, answering your questions and training you in areas you may not be familiar with.

Contact us http://www.OSIBusinessServices.com/contactus.html today for a free, no obligation proposal.  We will be happy to speak with you regarding your needs and concerns.

Outsourcing Makes Sense For Any Business

Take a look at your own personal life and you will see that you outsource many tasks on a daily basis.  Perhaps you have someone clean your house, you pay someone to watch your children while you work, and you have an exterminator spray for insects.  You don’t cut your own hair do you?  How about changing the oil in your car? 

Why is it that you do not handle all of these things on your own?  First of all, if you’re anything like me, who can barely even check my oil much less change it, you’re smart to let the experts handle it.  You pay someone else not only for their expertise, but because you have other obligations such as supporting your family through working.  There are only 24 hours in a day and there is simply not enough time to get everything done and spend quality time with your family and friends. 

As far as your business is concerned, it makes sense to outsource your accounting for several reasons.  If you are spending too much time managing your books and not enough time growing or running your business, your profits go down.  Your quality of life goes down as well when you are constantly working.  You end up making unnecessary mistakes with your accounting when you do not have the time to dedicate to it.  You might not even understand how to read your financial statements but you are interested in learning. 

The benefits of outsourcing your accounting with OSI Business Services, LLC are unsurpassable on so many levels.  First off, OSI is entirely U.S. based.  All staff is highly knowledgeable in the practices of accounting and follow very detailed company procedures.   

Each and every client is assigned not only a bookkeeper, but a controller to oversee the account.  This is a daily accounting and bookkeeping service working in real time.  Each client has access to their staff daily by telephone, email and instant messenger. 

We encourage you to visit our webpage, especially the Frequently Asked Questions page http://www.osibusinessservices.com/faq.html to gain more knowledge on why your business would benefit from accounting and bookkeeping outsourcing.  Contact us today for a free quote!

Statistics On Your Company Survival Rate

 A couple of years ago, a client of mine handed me three large boxes in September, and asked that I prepare their books in order to have their CPA prepare their year-end taxes for their personal and business returns.In these boxes were a years’ worth of unopened mail including bank statements, credit card statements, literally thousands of receipts, unopened cards for their children with cash inside (yes, indeed) and a variety of other documents unrelated to their accounting.

Simply opening each and every piece of mail and organizing everything by date took me over three entire days to complete.  At the end of this project which took me months to input into accounting software, I was still missing numerous bank and credit card statements.

Statistics show that both the frequency of your accounting and the quality of the records you keep can dramatically affect your company’s survival rate. How frequently you do your accounting can affect your company’s survival rate. How well your records are kept can also affect your company’s survival rate.  (Source: The Small Business Book; Robert Hamilton and John English)

Frequency	Survival Rate
At Least Monthly	79.7%
Quarterly	71.5%
Half-yearly	49.9%
Annually	36%

Accounting Records	Survival Rate
Excellent/Good	63%
Average	49.8%
Inadequate	20.1%
Poor/Non-existent	2.5%

As a business owner, you should be taking an active role in the finances of your company.  Perhaps you are a small business owner who handles your own finances and the scenario above is not too far off from your situation.  You need help and you know it.

To learn more about how OSI Business Services, LLC can help you improve your financial situation, please visit our website at http://www.OSIBusinessServices.com.  You may call or email us to discuss your needs or fill out the Contact Form on our website.

The True Cost Of A Bookkeeper

Bookkeepers are not as inexpensive as one might think.  When you think about hiring someone to handle one of the most critical aspects of your business - your money, you want someone who is not only honest and reliable but someone who actually knows what they’re doing.

Unfortunately, we know first-hand what an inexperienced bookkeeper can do to a business because companies hire us all the time to clean up their accounting.  Let’s start out by looking at what your bookkeeper is really costing your business.

The median hourly rate for a bookkeeper with 5-9 years experience is around $15 at 40 hours per week.  Health insurance for the employee with no dependents we’ll estimate at $350 per month.  Add on two weeks of vacation per year, ten paid holidays and for some companies, sick leave, and you’re looking at an additional $2,000 - $2,500.  Other expenses include payroll taxes, workers’ compensation and retirement plan/401K match. 

Now, let’s take a look at what you probably never really have taken into consideration.  How many hours do you spend when you’re first hiring a bookkeeper placing advertisements, doing interviews, calling references, etc.?  How many hours a week do you spend initially training your bookkeeper and then how many hours on a weekly basis afterwards?

Typically, most companies both large and small have a CPA (wise idea).  Perhaps you hire your CPA to close out each month or quarter or you simply have that person prepare your year-end tax returns.  If you are lucky enough to have a bookkeeper who actually knows how to prepare financial statements (most don’t) then this may not be an issue. However, we’ve found that companies spend an exorbitant amount of money on CPA’s to clean up mistakes bookkeepers have made.  This is simply unnecessary.

So in summary, if you add up all the costs, you are looking at well over $4,000 per month in comparison to the initial assumption that you’re paying a flat $15 per hour or $2,600 per month.  If you would like to calculate costs based on what your company is currently paying for your bookkeeper, visit our website using this link and plug in the numbers: http://www.osibusinessservices.com/calculate_cost.php

Our concern is the success of your business and we are here to answer any questions you may have with regard to your accounting.  Please feel free to send us an email or give us a call.  We look forward to hearing from you.