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Is Accounts Receivables Financing a Smart Funding Solution?

It’s a paradox that countless business owners encounter: You need money to make money. If you’re starting a business, you’ll need to purchase goods and services to get your operations up and running. If your business allows customers to pay after their product has been delivered or their service has been performed, however, accounts receivables financing may offer an effective way to fund your new business.

What Is Accounts Receivables Financing?

Accounts receivables financing is a commercial funding solution that involves borrowing money from a lender while using your business’s accounts receivables as collateral for the loan. To better understand accounts receivables financing, you should first look at accounts receivables.

Basically, accounts receivables are invoices for money owed to your business by your customers. If you’ve sold a product or service to a customer and are awaiting his or her payment, you can use that invoice as collateral for a secured loan. If you don’t pay back the loan, the lender can claim ownership of the invoices and, therefore, seek collection from the respective customer or customers.

Accounts Receivables Financing Pros

Accounts receivables financing can ease the burden of securing capital to fund your business. Lenders are particularly cautious regarding the businesses to which they lend money, especially if that money is in the form of an unsecured loan. With unsecured loans, the lender is essentially hoping that the business doesn’t fail. If the business fails, the lender may not recoup the loaned money.

Accounts receivables financing, however, is a form of secured lending, so it’s easier to acquire than other, unsecured loans. When you apply for accounts receivables financing, you provide the lender with rights to your business’s outstanding invoices in the event you don’t follow through repayment.

You’ll also find that accounts receivable financing offers low interest rates. In many cases, the interest rate for an accounts receivables loan is less than 5%.

Accounts Receivables Financing Cons

On the other hand, accounts receivables financing isn’t viable for all businesses. If your business demands payment from customers upon delivery or completion of the purchased goods or services, you may not have any outstanding invoices, in which case you won’t be able to use accounts receivables financing.

But if your business collects outstanding invoices, accounts receivables financing could be a smart decision. As revealed here, it’s easy to obtain and offers low interest rates.

What do you think of accounts receivables financing? Let us know in the comments section below!

5 Things to Consider When Applying for a Business Loan

Do you need money to fund your small business? If so, you might be thinking about applying for a loan. A business loan is undoubtedly an effective way to cover the expenses associated with starting and running a business. But not all business loans are the same. When applying for a business loan, you should consider the following to ensure you choose the right type of loan.

#1) SBA or Non-SBA

There are both Small Business Administration (SBA) business loans and non-SBA loans. SBA business loans are backed by the SBA, so they typically have lower interest rates and are easier to obtain than non-SBA loans. Therefore, you should inquire about an SBA business loan when contacting banks. You can still check out non-SBA business loans, but you’ll probably get a better deal with an SBA business loan.

#2) Secured or Unsecured

You’ll also find that business loans are either secured or unsecured. Secured business loans require the use of collateral, whereas unsecured business loans do not require collateral. With a secured business loan, in other words, you must provide the bank with one or more assets to be used as collateral, such as real property. If you don’t pay back your business loan, the bank can claim ownership of the collateral.

#3) Interest Rate

Whether you choose an SBA or non-SBA business loan, pay attention to the interest rate. If you’re looking to acquire an SBA business loan, you can expect an interest rate of about 8% to 10%. For a non-SBA business loan, interest rates can range from 10% to 20% — sometimes even higher.

#4) Personal Guarantee

You may discover that some banks require you to make a personal guarantee when applying for a business loan. With a personal guarantee, you are essentially guaranteeing that you will personally pay back the loan, even if your business goes under. Banks are more likely to give you a business loan if you offer a personal guarantee, but it could expose your personal assets, including your cash savings, to your business’s liabilities.

#5) Term

Finally, consider the term when shopping for a business loan. Of course, “term” refers to the length of the loan. While terms can vary, most business loans have an average term of three to 20 years. Generally speaking, the longer the term of a business loan, the lower the payments will be. But the downside to choosing a business loan with a long term is that you’ll have to pay it back over a longer period of time.

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How to Lower Your Small Business’s Overhead Expenses

It’s a disheartening statistic to say the least, but the Bureau of Labor Statistic (BLS) reports that over half of all small businesses are forced to close their doors after just five years. While a small business can fail for dozens of reasons, high overhead expenses is often a contributing factor. Thankfully, though, there are ways to lower your small business’s overhead expenses and, therefore, increase its chance of long-term success.

Use Paperless Documents

How much money does your small business spend on paper documents. A report published by The Paperless Project suggests U.S. businesses spend over $120 billion on paper documents and forms each year. Regardless of what type of small business you operate, you’ll probably use paper documents and forms in your operations. Depending on the nature of these documents and forms, however, you may be able to switch to a digital format instead. Tax forms and pay stubs, for example, can often be sent to employees digitally, eliminating the need for paper.

Compare Rental or Leasing Prices

Not surprisingly, one of the biggest overhead expenses encountered by small business owners is renting or leasing a store or building. While you can’t eliminate this overhead expense, you can often lower it by shopping around. Explore several prospective locations for your small business, and when you contact the owner or landlord, inquire about the rental or leasing cost. With a little work, you may discover a better location for your small business that costs less than your current location.

Choose Highly Effective Advertising Tactics

Advertising is also considered an overhead expense, so you should choose your advertising tactics carefully. Avoid using mass-volume advertising tactics that expose your small business to a large, generalized audience. Instead, choose targeted advertised tactics that allow you to reach your small business’s key demographic of potential customers. Not only will you spend less money on targeted advertising; you’ll generate more revenue from it.

Cancel Nonessential Services

Go through your small business’s bank statements and credit card statements to identify any nonessential services. Maybe you’re paying for a landline that you rarely use, or perhaps you have two internet services when you only need one. Either way, you should consider canceling nonessential services to save money on your small business’s overhead expenses.

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How to Adjust the Quantity of an Inventory Item in Quickbooks

If you operate a business that sells a physical product, you may need to adjust the quantity of your products in your Quickbooks account. Keeping track of inventory quantity is important because it’s a measurement of your business’s assets. The more inventory your business owns, the greater the value of its assets. As your gain or lose inventory, though, you must record these changes in your Quickbooks account to ensure it’s accurate.

Steps to Adjusting Inventory Quantity

To adjust the quantity of an inventory item in Quickbooks, click “Inventory,” followed by “Adjust Quantity/Value on Hand.” Next, click the menu for “Adjustment Type” and select “Quantity.” You can then enter the date on which are you making the adjustment.

Now you’ll need to find the specific inventory item that you want to adjust. You should see an “Item” column displayed on your screen. From here, click “Find & Select Items” to choose the inventory items. Depending on how many inventory items you have, scrolling through each one could prove tedious. An easier way to find a specific inventory item is to simply enter the name of the item in the search field. After locating the item, place a check mark next to it, indicating that you want to adjust its quantity. When finished, click the box titled “Add Selected Items.”

Assuming you’ve followed the aforementioned steps, you should now be able to enter the adjustment for the selected inventory item. Under the column titled “Qty Difference,” enter the quantity difference between the inventory item’s actual quantity — the number of units your business currently has — and the inventory item’s recorded quantity — the number currently represented in Quickbooks. If your business currently owns 10 units but only five units are represented in Quickbooks, enter +5. If your business currently owns five units but 10 are represented in Quickbooks, enter -5.

You’ll also have the option to enter additional notes in the “Memo” field. While you can make adjustments to the quantity of an inventory item without using the “Memo” field, doing so can help you remember essential information about the change.

When you are finished making the adjustment, you can save the changes to complete the process. Just remember to go back and repeat these steps anytime the quantity of an inventory item changes. You can even change the quantity of multiple inventory items at once by selecting all the inventory items.

Did this tutorial work for you? Let us know in the comments section below!

How to Use Undeposited Funds in Quickbooks

It’s not uncommon for businesses to hold money paid by customers for a short period of time before depositing that money into their bank account. If this sounds familiar, you’ll be glad to hear that Quickbooks offers a feature specifically for this purpose. Known as Undeposited Funds, it’s designed to hold revenue generated by your business — money paid by customers or clients — until you are ready to deposit it into your business’s bank account. To learn more about Undeposited Funds in Quickbooks and how to use it, keep reading.

Overview of Undeposited Funds

In Quickbooks Desktop, Undeposited Funds is an asset account that holds money paid to your business for a temporary period. When a customer purchases a product or service from your business, you can place his or her payment in an Undeposited Funds account. And when you are ready, you can then move that payment to your business’s bank account.

All Payments Are Placed in Undeposited Funds Account By Default

It’s important to note that all payments are automatically placed in an Undeposited Funds by default. Unless you modify your settings in Quickbooks, all payments made to your business will go into an Undeposited Funds account. The good news is that you can change this by performing a few simple steps (see below).

How to Enable or Disable Undeposited Funds

Of course, you can toggle on and off the Undeposited Funds feature in your Quickbooks account. This is done by logging into Quickbooks and choosing Edit > Preferences > Payments > Company Preferences. From here, you should see an option titled “Use Undeposited Funds as a default deposit to account.” To enable Undeposited Funds as the default deposit to account, click the box next to this option so that it places a check mark in it. To disable Undeposited Funds as the default deposit to account, remove the check mark from this box.

Keep in mind that if you disable Undeposited Funds as the default deposit to account in Quickbooks, you’ll have to choose a deposit to account whenever your business receives a payment or whenever you enter sales receipts. You’ll have the option to specify your deposit to account in both situations. However, it’s important that you choose the right bank or financial account in which to deposit funds. Without an Undeposited Funds account, payments will go directly into your specified bank or financial account.

Did this tutorial work for you? Let us know in the comments section below!

5 Mistakes to Avoid When Starting a Small Business

Are you planning on launching a small business? According to the Small Business Administration (SBA), there are over 28 million small businesses operating throughout the United States. Unfortunately, though, statistics show that one in two small businesses fail within five years. It’s frustrating when you invest your time, money and energy into starting a small business, only for it to flounder. While there’s no foolproof way to ensure your small business is successful, you should take action to avoid making the following mistakes.

#1) Not Creating a Business Plan

Just because you’re starting a small business and not a medium- or large-sized business, you still need a business plan. A business plan offers a detailed roadmap your small business’s plan for success. Furthermore, many banks and lenders will request your business plan when seeking a loan or funding.

#2) Overlooking Goals and Objectives

Don’t forget to set goals and objectives for your small business. Without goals and objectives, how will you know if your small business succeeds? Far too many entrepreneurs dive headfirst into a new venture without taking the time to set goals and objectives. As a result, they place themselves at a disadvantage to their competitors.

#3) Using the Wrong Business Structure

Another mistake that entrepreneurs are guilty of making is using the wrong business structure. As you may know, there are several tax-based business structures from which to choose, some of which include sole proprietorship, LLC, corporation and partnership. Generally speaking, a sole proprietorship is the worst structure because it offers zero protection of your personal assets — home, car, personal savings, etc. — from your small business’s liabilities.

#4) Hiring the Wrong Employees

If you’re going to hire employees for your small business, you need to hire the right employees. Some small businesses hire the first candidates who submit an application. It’s only until later when they realize their mistake. Failure to selectively choose the most skilled and qualified employees will only hinder your small business’s ability to grow and generate sales.

#5) Taking on Too Much Debt

Your small business may incur debt during its initial launch stage — and that’s okay. However, you should be conscious of how much debt your small business incurs and take appropriate measures to minimize it. For example, consider using equity-based funding, such as venture capital or private equity, instead of debt-based funding like a bank loan.

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The Beginner’s Guide to Reconciliations in Quickbooks

It’s paramount that you enter the correct amount when recording your business’s transactions. If you enter the wrong amount for a revenue or expense, it will throw off your business’s books while potentially causing other problems like incorrect tax pay payments. The good news is that Quickbooks offers a reconciliation tool that allows you to easily find erroneous transactions. To learn more about the recompilation tool and how to use it, keep reading.

What Is the Reconciliation Tool?

The reconciliation tool is a feature in Quickbooks that allows you to cross-reference the transactions recorded in your business’s Quickbooks account with those listed in your business’s credit card or bank statements. Using the reconciliation tool will help you create clean, accurate records of your business’s financial transactions.

Steps to Using the Reconciliation Tool

There are a few things you’ll need to do before using the reconciliation tool. First and foremost, create a backup of your company file. It’s always a good idea to back up your company file before making any major change to your business’s transaction records, and reconciliation is no exception. To create a backup, click File > Backup Company > Create Local Backup. You will then have the opportunity to specify a save location for the backup, such as a USB flash drive or hard drive.

After creating a backup of your company file, you can proceed to use the reconciliation tool. Assuming you are using Quickbooks Desktop — not the cloud-based Quickbooks Online — go to the main home screen and click the “Banking” menu, followed by “Reconcile.”

You will then notice a new window titled “Begin Reconciliation” with about a dozen or so fields. For the “Account” field, choose the financial account that you’d like to reconcile. To reconcile a credit card account, for example, click the drop-down arrow in the “Account” field and select the credit card from the list. Go through and complete the “Account” field as well as the other fields presented here, after which you can click “Continue.”

Assuming you followed these steps correctly, Quickbooks will then check cross-reference your recorded transactions with those listed in your bank or credit card.

This is just a rough overview of the reconciliation tool. You can also use it to perform other tasks, such as enter adjustments if you discover a discrepancy. Regardless, you should get into the habit of reconciling all your business’s bank and credit card accounts on a regular basis to ensure they are accurate.

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Equity vs Debt Financing: What You Should Know

If you’re in the early stages of launching a new business, you’ll need to raise capital to cover expenses like payroll, inventory, insurance, equipment and more. There’s an old saying that it takes money to make money. Regardless of what type of business you intend to run, you’ll need to purchase products and services to get it off the ground. With that said, there are different financing options available for new businesses, including equity and debt financing.

What Is Debt Financing?

Debt financing refers to borrowing money from a lender under the agreement that you’ll repay it according to the lender’s terms. It’s called “debt financing” because it requires businesses to take on debt. The lender loans you money to use for your business, but you’ll have to pay it back — along with interest in most cases — to comply with the terms and conditions created by the lender.

Not all debt financing is the same. Granted, your business will take on debt when using debt financing, but some forms are easier to obtain than others. Secured debt financing, for example, requires the use of assets with a monetary value as collateral. You essentially “secure” this form of financing using collateral. As a result, banks and lenders have more lenient requirements for secured debt financing as opposed to unsecured debt financing, the latter of which doesn’t use or otherwise require collateral.

What Is Equity Financing?

An alternative to debt financing is equity financing. Equity financing can provide you with money to launch your new business as well, but it’s a completely different form of funding. With equity financing, neither you nor your business will take on debt. Instead, it allows you to sell some of your business’s shares to a financial institution or investment firm.

It’s called “equity financing” because it involves the sale of a company’s equity. Therefore, you won’t own 100% of your business if you use this method to raise capital. But the good news is that you won’t take on debt from equity financing, either.

So, should you use debt financing or equity financing to raise capital for your new business? It really depends on the type of business you operate as well as your own goals and objectives. Some businesses prefer the simplicity of debt financing, whereas others prefer equity financing. Assess your business and goals and objectives to determine which financing vehicle is right for you.

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