Do You Need Accounting Software For Your Small Business?

If you’re anything like me then you dislike with a vengeance doing your accounts and taxes.

So how can you make this process easier, less painful and cut your accountancy fees?

Well purchaseing an accounting software package is one way.

First of all you need to decide whether you are going to keep your accounting records manually, that is using pen and paper, or whether you are going to computerize the process.

If you decide that computerizing the process is the way to go then you need to decide whether to purchase an accounting software package, for example Sage or Quicken, or whether a spreadsheet, such as Microsoft Excel will suit your needs better.

As a general rule if you are a cash business that just needs to record income and expenditure then you are better off using a spreadsheet.

So, should you choose an accounting software package? Yes if:

· You have customers to whom you extend credit and you purchase goods in the same way

· You process in excess of 50 transactions per month

· Your business is an Incorporated Company (Limited Company in the UK)

and

· You are computer literate or are willing to learn!

Before choosing the accounting software, speak to your accountants – they will be familiar with the various accounting software packages on the market and will be able to advise you. Most accountants use software in their office to process the bookkeeping for their clients and will have a working knowledge of the accounting software package they use. It may be cheaper for you to use the same one they do, because they can advise you how to get it up and running and will be on hand to answer questions, plus at your financial year end when your accounts need preparing it will be less expensive, believe me to have a compatible program.

I also recommend doing some research yourself, you may be able to obtain a demonstration disk or download of the most popular accounting software packages and this will give you an idea of how they work and if they are user-friendly.

The cost may also be an issue, so you need to decide on your budget. But consider how your business is likely to expand - you may outgrow that budget accounting software quickly and end up purchaseing the more expensive one anyway.

Accounting software providers may also try and up-sell you a maintenance contract. Save your money! In my experience the established software providers will not have bugs in their systems. They will also try and upgrade you to the next version on a regular basis, but if the software is doing everything you need then there is no need to upgrade.

Of course, you could also pay someone to do your accounts for you, either your accountant or a bookkeeper – the payoff being you don’t have to do it yourself and it frees you up to actually run your business!

Accounting is the Hot New Major

There was a time when accounting was the boring college major that many people regretted signing up for. A constant barrage of numbers, statistics and spreadsheets was none too interesting.

Boy, have times changed! Thanks to recent accounting scandals by companies like Enron, there is a high demand for accountants and auditors.

According to the Job Outlook 2005 survey, accounting comes out on top as the most in-demand major on college campuses. Forget dot com start ups. Cleaning up a company’s accounting books is what’s in.

But can accounting be sexy?

“All the focus on accounting created a perception to students that accounting matters and is perhaps even sexy,” says Ira Solomon, head of the department of accountancy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Colleges are scrambling to find more accounting teachers and professors to replace those retiring. Not an easy task, since there are twice as many accounting faculty openings than applicants to fill them.

Here are the top 10 most in-demand college majors as surveyed by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE):
1) Accounting
2) Electrical Engineering
3) Mechanical Engineering
4) Business Administration/Management
5) Economics/Finance
6) Computer Science
7) Computer Engineering
8) Marketing/Marketing Management
9) Chemical Engineering
10) Information Sciences and Systems

If you’re good with numbers and a stickler for details, you might want to consider accounting as a good career choice. However, you’ll probably have to take a number and wait in line behind all those other future accountant hopefuls.

Avoid Crafty Traps in Essay Writing

Hidden pitfalls are on watch for your paper success in every paragraph of the essay you write. They are notorious misprints, insidious misspellings and numerous stylistic, syntax and format errors. Indeed they are your restless essay writing enemies, which are always on the alert, putting obstacles on your way to excellent grades for your writing assignments.

The drastic truth is that even slight mistakes make you freak out and lose the train of your thoughts. They evoke a fear of losing the main thread, give rise to uncertainty in your strengths and potential, dissipate your motivation to write and give the way to other distractions. Ultimately, make it challenging for you to complete your task at hand.

These minutiae seem to be minor for the inexperienced writer, but in fact they obscure an overall picture of your essay and occur to be crucial for the estimation of your work by professors, reflecting on your poor grades. Hence, essay writing pitfalls must be eradicated by all possible means.
Take these helpful hints to avoid crafty writing traps and forget about poor grades for your writing assignments once and all the time.

# Say No to poor thesis statement

Everything you write should develop around a clear central thesis statement. Good thesis statement zeroes in one main idea and states it clearly, avoiding ambiguous and vague phrases.
It should be specific, analytic and has to evaluate the significant insights of your essay. Strong thesis statement usually introduces the original approach to the traditional view on the problem.

# Avoid weak introduction and open-ended conclusion

Focus on one primary function of the introduction - to introduce your thesis statement clearly and precisely so that to grab the attention of the audience. The success strategy of writing your introduction is to start with the broad statement of your main idea and to close it with the actual thesis of your essay.
Don’t leave the unfinished and open-ended feeling at the end of your essay. Always remember that your paper must make its point clear right from the beginning and up to the logical ending.
Make your conclusion coherent and smooth and be sure to stress the significance of your work in the concluding part of your essay, pointing the ways in which your invaluable contributions can be applied.


# Beware of undeveloped essay

This problem is particularly common and results from not understanding clearly the essence of the chosen topic. Selecting your essay topic make sure to familiar with it completely and to ask yourself what you really feel passionate about and don’t forget to research it preliminary very thoroughly.
Your paper won’t produce an undeveloped impression if you provide your work with a solid argumentative ground, explaining clearly your view on the researched topic and elucidate the past attempts of the solution of this problem. So that to show the professor that you’ve got the core of the chosen topic at your finger tips.

# Never use slang language

Bear in mind that slang language and curse words are absolutely inappropriate in your work. Always remember that your targeted audience is educated professors. More over that college writing commonly implies the utilization of the formal style, which has definite frameworks.

# Don’t just recollect the events in your paper

Simple recollecting of the events is boring and unrecognizable to the reader and can become an absolute failure to the writer. “A good essay is one with imaginary appealing to the five senses.” Try to harness this strategy in your essay writing. Make your audience feel, taste, smell and hear everything you are narrating about.
Hope that these useful hints will help you gain the upper hand over your restless essay writing enemies, strengthen your writing skills and ultimately help you get excellent grades for your writing assignments.

Quick Strategies For Writing Your Essay Under Pressure

Hidden pitfalls are on watch for your paper success in every paragraph of the essay you write. They are notorious misprints, insidious misspellings and numerous stylistic, syntax and format errors. Indeed they are your restless essay writing enemies, which are always on the alert, putting obstacles on your way to excellent grades for your writing assignments.
The drastic truth is that even slight mistakes make you freak out and lose the train of your thoughts. They evoke a fear of losing the main thread, give rise to uncertainty in your strengths and potential, dissipate your motivation to write and give the way to other distractions. Ultimately, make it challenging for you to complete your task at hand.

These minutiae seem to be minor for the inexperienced writer, but in fact they obscure an overall picture of your essay and occur to be crucial for the estimation of your work by professors, reflecting on your poor grades. Hence, essay writing pitfalls must be eradicated by all possible means.
Take these helpful hints to avoid crafty writing traps and forget about poor grades for your writing assignments once and all the time.

# Say No to poor thesis statement
Everything you write should develop around a clear central thesis statement. Good thesis statement zeroes in one main idea and states it clearly, avoiding ambiguous and vague phrases.
It should be specific, analytic and has to evaluate the significant insights of your essay. Strong thesis statement usually introduces the original approach to the traditional view on the problem.

# Avoid weak introduction and open-ended conclusion

Focus on one primary function of the introduction - to introduce your thesis statement clearly and precisely so that to grab the attention of the audience. The success strategy of writing your introduction is to start with the broad statement of your main idea and to close it with the actual thesis of your essay.
Don’t leave the unfinished and open-ended feeling at the end of your essay. Always remember that your paper must make its point clear right from the beginning and up to the logical ending.

Make your conclusion coherent and smooth and be sure to stress the significance of your work in the concluding part of your essay, pointing the ways in which your invaluable contributions can be applied.

# Beware of undeveloped essay

This problem is particularly common and results from not understanding clearly the essence of the chosen topic. Selecting your essay topic make sure to familiar with it completely and to ask yourself what you really feel passionate about and don’t forget to research it preliminary very thoroughly.
Your paper won’t produce an undeveloped impression if you provide your work with a solid argumentative ground, explaining clearly your view on the researched topic and elucidate the past attempts of the solution of this problem. So that to show the professor that you’ve got the core of the chosen topic at your finger tips.

# Never use slang language

Bear in mind that slang language and curse words are absolutely inappropriate in your work. Always remember that your targeted audience is educated professors. More over that college writing commonly implies the utilization of the formal style, which has definite frameworks.

# Don’t just recollect the events in your paper

Simple recollecting of the events is boring and unrecognizable to the reader and can become an absolute failure to the writer. “A good essay is one with imaginary appealing to the five senses.” Try to harness this strategy in your essay writing. Make your audience feel, taste, smell and hear everything you are narrating about.
Hope that these useful hints will help you gain the upper hand over your restless essay writing enemies, strengthen your writing skills and ultimately help you get excellent grades for your writing assignments.

Expository & Descriptive Essay

The purpose of an expository essay is to represent objectively the opinions of other individuals or describe some event or situation. More widely, exposition is a systematic written interpretation or explanation of a specific topic. The writer of an expository essay should demonstrate systematic analysis of the studied topic and explain the essential points using illustrative examples and drawing appropriate analogies. The process of exposition should include an in-depth analysis of available materials, including the identification of primary ideas, theses and facts. Exposition also includes the expanded interpretation of the studied material, including consideration of other materials within the selected field. The writer should state the selected information clearly and professionally, taking into account the specificity of the addressed auditorium. Information should be sufficient and irrefragable.


An expository essay requires a fundamental analysis of available information and formulation of the clear and specific thesis statement. An introductory paragraph should be followed by the supporting paragraphs that reinforce and expound the thesis statement logically and distinctly. A concluding paragraph should restate the thesis statement in an original way and contain no new factual material. The writer should use transitional sentences between all paragraphs to make the essay solid.

Descriptive Essay

A descriptive essay is aimed at describing an object, phenomenon or event. A description process may be conducted through the introduction of examples, utilization of expressive language, comparison with some other objects, description of the personal sensations about the described object or any other technique that discloses peculiarities of a described object, phenomenon or event in a vivid and comprehensible way.

While writing a descriptive essay, it is necessary to remember that virtually every object, phenomenon, or event can be viewed from different angles by different individuals. To this reason, it is necessary to start with obvious features of a described object, and afterwards disclose as many of its peculiar features as possible. It is ultimately important to keep the reader of a descriptive essay interested in the discussed object by introduction of the most interesting features in a lively manner and by emphasizing the object?s remarkable features. The writer should display his own opinion about the subject and thus form the reader?s impression.
Introductory paragraph should include brief description of an object, starting with general features, continued with peculiar ones and finalized by the thesis statement. Body paragraphs should include more detailed description of the stated features, and the conclusion should summarize the stated information or restate the previously formulated thesis with consideration of peculiarities stated within the body paragraphs.