Magazine

Most people assume there is a blueprint for the way you do accounting. While math and spreadsheets are almost always involved, sometimes the scope of an accountant’s work goes way beyond that and into identifying relationships, eliminating redundancies, and auditing companies. Solving puzzles like these require accountants to use their thinking caps.

Today is model building day. Accountants use these days to build mathematical models to track inventory, profitability, forecasting, and more. For accountants who love puzzles, formulation, and math, the spreadsheet is a playground. Modeling requires a high level of detail in functionality and design, which is a project most accountants enjoy.

By creating an organized process for collecting on aging invoices, you can maintain your payment schedule and stay professional when dealing with clients who owe you money. Here is a recipe for collecting payment on invoices that will keep you on track and professional when dealing with customers, including directions and tips. Bon Appetit!

So your accountant is talking about “balance sheet reconciliation.” She tells you it means “a balancing of the amount on your balance sheet GL accounts and the details that make up those balances, while ensuring that any differences are adequately and reasonably explained.” Here’s what she really means when she says, “balance sheet reconciliation.”

Communicating complicated analysis in a way that is easy to understand is a skill accountants are constantly working on. Being able to translate their complicated processes and findings to an audience that does not understand accounting is a challenge, especially when these findings contradict the existing beliefs of the clients they are speaking to.

Today is Bookkeeping Day. These are the days accountants record massive amounts of transactions from various bank accounts and credit cards for their clients to map the movement of money within a business. Accountants define every transaction based on what it was for into a variety of categories to show where money came from and where it is going.

By creating a clear policy around employee reimbursement and recording these transactions, you can easily repay employees and have written proof if there is a dispute down the line. Here is a recipe for implementing a process for paying back your employees, including easy to follow directions, tips and tricks, and ingredients you need. Bon Appetit!

Your accountant is collecting all receipts from the year. He says they are a “a written proof of purchase of having received an agreed upon amount of money, goods, services, etc. that can be physical or digital, but should be kept organized because they’re important throughout the year.” Here’s what he really means when he talks about “receipts.”

Trouble shooting numbers and solving mathematical issues is a large part of an accountant’s job that is often overlooked. Sometimes, the problem lies deeper than the math. Sometimes the problem is in the process followed to find the calculation. One accountant’s problem solving revealed a deeper issue with a client’s process: a lack of understanding

Today is Accounts Payable Day. Accountants spend the day gathering bills for their clients for utilities, services, vendors and more. They collect receipts for employee reimbursement. Accounts payable day is monotonous, and mostly consists of an accountant signing in and out of online portals to download invoices and input numbers into Quickbooks.