Essential office & math skills: -Serena Murphy
During the process of assisting my mother with booking in her office I learned many skills that will be extremely useful throughout life; such as business coordination, book-keeping with basic accounting, accounts receivable, accounts payable, chart of accounts, how to do taxes (including knowledge of deadlines and specific information.), how to balance accounts and checkbooks,
and budgeting. Learning skills such as these comes with many advantages and importance.
Each skill is learnt one at a time so that you can retain knowledge in how to use it specifically. I realize that it may be difficult to comprehend exactly what some of the concepts listed above are, without having any background knowledge. My
clear exemplified explanation of each important part on the list will be described in the following sentences.
Also I feel it’s good to know when learning about something; how and why the trade is used, and when to apply the skills. Well, business coordination in itself includes many of the learnt intelligence listed above and it’s used because without it business owners would have a majorly impaired ability to organize needed files, money coming in compared to money going out, income to
debt, employee paychecks; with these skills in the office organization is set up come tax time, bill time, check time.
Business coordination is what makes and keeps any given business healthy financially; without it there would be no way to keep it going. Book-keeping with basic accounting is something that follows suite under business coordination and is just as important. This task and skill may sound vividly difficult; but considering today’s technology learning how to use Quick Books will control most existing tasks when it comes to book-keeping
with basic accounting.
These skills could be applied in literally almost ANY business and it’s always a needed profession. It’s so important to know because a debtless business with a positive cash flow could not survive without it. In learning all this I found it extremely helpful to know certain vocab pertaining to business jargon…
Assets-
what you own.
Liabilities-
what you owe.
Revenue
(income) - what you make.
Expenses-
what you spend.
(Net Worth- total value of assets compared to liabilities. (Liquidation Value)
(Fiscal year (Accounting Year) – Can start anytime with 12 month duration
*Jan. 1st through Dec. 31st coincide with personal tax returns
for small business.)
(Quarterly-
Accounting year split into 3 month intervals to keep current with tax payments for payroll liabilities and self-employment taxes; also for local and sales tax payments when applicable.)
“IRS-
Internal Revenue Service
SSA-
Social Security Administration
EIN-
Employer Identification Number
EFTPS-
Electronic federal tax payment system
UITR-
Unemployment Insurance Tax Rate (* change rate per notice yearly, % raises if
unemployment tax is used on company employee)
Forms
and reports that need to be known:
W-2-
Reports all companies wages paid during a fiscal year (Form sent to employees,
SSA & state.)
W-3-
Summary of W-2’s (sent to SSA.)
W-4-
Employee fills out when hired for wage withholding and reporting (to SSA and
IRS.)
W-9-
Contractor fills out upon hire for income reporting (to IRS and
SSA.)
1099-
Company fills out report payments to independent contractors (non-employee
compensation.)
1096-
Summary of 1099’s (sent to SSA)
(These forms can be downloaded on the IRS website.)
P&L- Reports showing profit and loss for a specific period of ime (monthly, quarterly, yearly)
Balance sheet- Reports showing Net Worth
Reconciliation- Balancing of an account “
(If you put all your information into Quick Books correctly these forms should be easy to complete!)
Now I will explain payroll and reports due dates…
“Annual Reports Due: 940- Federal Unemployment Tax Return (due Jan. 1st of the following year, paid quarterly on the 15th of the following month (Online corporate tax return due March 15th or file extension.)
Quarters:
Quarter- Jan. 1st- March 31st (reports due April 30th)
Quarter- April 1st – June 30th (reports due July 31st)
Quarter- July 1st- September 30th (Reports due Oct.31st)
Quarter- Oct. 1st- Dec. 31st (reports due Jan 31st)
Quarterly reports due:
Federal:
941- Payroll tax report (wage with holdings, Social Security With holdings, Medicare with holdings)
State:
UITR- Unemployment insurance tax return (paid quarterly, mailed in with report)
1094- Colorado with holding report (if wages are over a certain amount would be due monthly)"
Now I will explain what accounts payable and accounts receivable are and how to do them.
Accounts receivable are invoices due from customers that have
been billed to them. This is the step-by-step process…
1. “Receive information to create Estimate/Proposal if applicable
or
2. Create invoice from Estimate or information received
3. Send to customer via mail, e-mail, fax, or hard deliver (keep copy in Accounts Receivable follow-up file, mark send method and date for record.)
4. Follow-up via phone, fax, e-mail or mail for payment (Give customer 30 days from invoice date to pay without nagging)
5. Receive payments- enter into Quick Books as un-deposited funds to keep deposits correct when more than one payment is made
6. Enter deposits and take to bank (keep & file deposit slips)”
Accounts payable are bills due from vendors/customers for goods and services…
1. “Receive bills
2. Enter into Quick Books
3. Put in file to be paid
4. Pay bills
5. Print checks and disperse payments
*Call vendors when payments will be late to avoid disruption of
service
For other expenses not billed…
1. Receive Receipts
2. Enter into Quick Books as general journal entry (Credit bank account- Debit expansion
Or
Write Check-Debit Expense Account”
At www.PersonalFinanceEducation.com for $30.00, you can take a course and test that takes about 1 hour and teaches you
many need to know skills about budgeting your money, percentages that should be taken out monthly, and many more extremely beneficial and knowledgeable skills to learn. I took the course and they give you a certificate at the end and you can always go back or budgeting help if you need to. I highly recommend that nearly everyone should take this course; mostly it’s used for those who are already looking into bankruptcy, but I think it would be more beneficial for people to know these important skills before they have to go bankrupt and when they are just beginning to budget.
Obviously the reasons for learning this information and skill are numerous. But also Book-keepers get paid usually up to $50 an hour; also this is good knowledge for budgeting in life. Knowing these concepts can provide a healthy financial future and a positive cash flow.
Works
Cited:
Murphy, Miranda E. Business Coordination:
Book-Keeping With Basic Accounting. Rifle, CO: Miranda Murphy, 2010. Print.
&
my new found knowledge.
During the process of assisting my mother with booking in her office I learned many skills that will be extremely useful throughout life; such as business coordination, book-keeping with basic accounting, accounts receivable, accounts payable, chart of accounts, how to do taxes (including knowledge of deadlines and specific information.), how to balance accounts and checkbooks,
and budgeting. Learning skills such as these comes with many advantages and importance.
Each skill is learnt one at a time so that you can retain knowledge in how to use it specifically. I realize that it may be difficult to comprehend exactly what some of the concepts listed above are, without having any background knowledge. My
clear exemplified explanation of each important part on the list will be described in the following sentences.
Also I feel it’s good to know when learning about something; how and why the trade is used, and when to apply the skills. Well, business coordination in itself includes many of the learnt intelligence listed above and it’s used because without it business owners would have a majorly impaired ability to organize needed files, money coming in compared to money going out, income to
debt, employee paychecks; with these skills in the office organization is set up come tax time, bill time, check time.
Business coordination is what makes and keeps any given business healthy financially; without it there would be no way to keep it going. Book-keeping with basic accounting is something that follows suite under business coordination and is just as important. This task and skill may sound vividly difficult; but considering today’s technology learning how to use Quick Books will control most existing tasks when it comes to book-keeping
with basic accounting.
These skills could be applied in literally almost ANY business and it’s always a needed profession. It’s so important to know because a debtless business with a positive cash flow could not survive without it. In learning all this I found it extremely helpful to know certain vocab pertaining to business jargon…
Assets-
what you own.
Liabilities-
what you owe.
Revenue
(income) - what you make.
Expenses-
what you spend.
(Net Worth- total value of assets compared to liabilities. (Liquidation Value)
(Fiscal year (Accounting Year) – Can start anytime with 12 month duration
*Jan. 1st through Dec. 31st coincide with personal tax returns
for small business.)
(Quarterly-
Accounting year split into 3 month intervals to keep current with tax payments for payroll liabilities and self-employment taxes; also for local and sales tax payments when applicable.)
“IRS-
Internal Revenue Service
SSA-
Social Security Administration
EIN-
Employer Identification Number
EFTPS-
Electronic federal tax payment system
UITR-
Unemployment Insurance Tax Rate (* change rate per notice yearly, % raises if
unemployment tax is used on company employee)
Forms
and reports that need to be known:
W-2-
Reports all companies wages paid during a fiscal year (Form sent to employees,
SSA & state.)
W-3-
Summary of W-2’s (sent to SSA.)
W-4-
Employee fills out when hired for wage withholding and reporting (to SSA and
IRS.)
W-9-
Contractor fills out upon hire for income reporting (to IRS and
SSA.)
1099-
Company fills out report payments to independent contractors (non-employee
compensation.)
1096-
Summary of 1099’s (sent to SSA)
(These forms can be downloaded on the IRS website.)
P&L- Reports showing profit and loss for a specific period of ime (monthly, quarterly, yearly)
Balance sheet- Reports showing Net Worth
Reconciliation- Balancing of an account “
(If you put all your information into Quick Books correctly these forms should be easy to complete!)
Now I will explain payroll and reports due dates…
“Annual Reports Due: 940- Federal Unemployment Tax Return (due Jan. 1st of the following year, paid quarterly on the 15th of the following month (Online corporate tax return due March 15th or file extension.)
Quarters:
Quarter- Jan. 1st- March 31st (reports due April 30th)
Quarter- April 1st – June 30th (reports due July 31st)
Quarter- July 1st- September 30th (Reports due Oct.31st)
Quarter- Oct. 1st- Dec. 31st (reports due Jan 31st)
Quarterly reports due:
Federal:
941- Payroll tax report (wage with holdings, Social Security With holdings, Medicare with holdings)
State:
UITR- Unemployment insurance tax return (paid quarterly, mailed in with report)
1094- Colorado with holding report (if wages are over a certain amount would be due monthly)"
Now I will explain what accounts payable and accounts receivable are and how to do them.
Accounts receivable are invoices due from customers that have
been billed to them. This is the step-by-step process…
1. “Receive information to create Estimate/Proposal if applicable
or
2. Create invoice from Estimate or information received
3. Send to customer via mail, e-mail, fax, or hard deliver (keep copy in Accounts Receivable follow-up file, mark send method and date for record.)
4. Follow-up via phone, fax, e-mail or mail for payment (Give customer 30 days from invoice date to pay without nagging)
5. Receive payments- enter into Quick Books as un-deposited funds to keep deposits correct when more than one payment is made
6. Enter deposits and take to bank (keep & file deposit slips)”
Accounts payable are bills due from vendors/customers for goods and services…
1. “Receive bills
2. Enter into Quick Books
3. Put in file to be paid
4. Pay bills
5. Print checks and disperse payments
*Call vendors when payments will be late to avoid disruption of
service
For other expenses not billed…
1. Receive Receipts
2. Enter into Quick Books as general journal entry (Credit bank account- Debit expansion
Or
Write Check-Debit Expense Account”
At www.PersonalFinanceEducation.com for $30.00, you can take a course and test that takes about 1 hour and teaches you
many need to know skills about budgeting your money, percentages that should be taken out monthly, and many more extremely beneficial and knowledgeable skills to learn. I took the course and they give you a certificate at the end and you can always go back or budgeting help if you need to. I highly recommend that nearly everyone should take this course; mostly it’s used for those who are already looking into bankruptcy, but I think it would be more beneficial for people to know these important skills before they have to go bankrupt and when they are just beginning to budget.
Obviously the reasons for learning this information and skill are numerous. But also Book-keepers get paid usually up to $50 an hour; also this is good knowledge for budgeting in life. Knowing these concepts can provide a healthy financial future and a positive cash flow.
Works
Cited:
Murphy, Miranda E. Business Coordination:
Book-Keeping With Basic Accounting. Rifle, CO: Miranda Murphy, 2010. Print.
&
my new found knowledge.