Wise Budgeting Tips

As an accountant you probably think you’ve got your budget under control.  You know numbers and watch your spending to ensure that you are managing your money well.  But unless you’re applying crucial budgeting strategies, you’re not using this valuable tool to its full advantage.  Here are 5 tips that will help:

1. Ensure your budget aligns with your business strategy.

This may seem obvious, but in the day-to-day tasks required in business management, strategy may be forgotten.  There are fires to put out, emergency expenses to pay, and last-minute purchases to make.  So unless you’re vigilantly monitoring your outflow, your strategy may be nickel and dimed into extinction.

If you don’t yet have a strategy, now is the time to develop one.  Does your business require more aggressive marketing techniques?  Are you attempting to grow your firm by hiring a support staff?  Or do you want to focus on retaining current clients?  Whatever your strategy, you should devise a budget that supports and sustains it.

2. Assess your Chart of Accounts.

As an accountant you are very familiar with the Chart of Accounts.  The Chart of Accounts enables you to set up categories that align with your management strategies.  It also enables you to establish a healthy balance between control and responsibility regarding business spending.

3. Establish accountability.

Anyone responsible for spending within your business needs to be accountable for his/her choices.  You may currently be the only person responsible.  However, it’s important that you acknowledge and assess your spending and then make any necessary changes.  You may determine that your budgetary items are best distributed among control areas like marketing, skills development, client retention, management, etc.  This may provide you with more control over outflow.

4. Regularly review your budget.

Establishing a budget and then ensuring that it aligns with your business strategy is only part of this valuable process.  The true benefit of budgeting comes when you regularly review your budget with key players in your business.  In your review you can compare budgeted expenses with actual expenses and discuss discrepancies.  You can also talk with those responsible for various expenses and see how they might revise some of their spending choices.  This is also a good time to implement necessary changes and assess any changes implemented since your last budgetary review.

5. Revise as necessary.

A budget is not set in stone.  As mentioned in the previous tip, as you assess and review your progress it’s important that you make necessary changes.  In fact, that’s the beauty of budgeting.  As you monitor your income and outflow, you can make changes that will influence the future profitability of your business.

As an accountant you may assume that you’ve been using this tool to its full advantage.  But if you haven’t been applying the above tips, you may be missing out on some of the best benefits of budgeting.

QuickBooks Made Profitable

Budgeting isn’t the only tool you can use to increase your business’s profitability.  Our program, QuickBooks Made Profitable, will teach you just how to use QuickBooks accounting software to attract and retain more clients.

Nearly 80% of small businesses use Intuit’s QuickBooks software.  While other programs may be useful, QuickBooks has definitely captured the small business market.  Mastering QuickBooks will not only enable you to better manage your budget and keep more efficient records, but it will also help you teach your clients how to use the software so that you can get the information you need which makes your job much easier.  This program will teach you how to leverage your time while saving clients money in taxes and helping them increase their profits.  What client wouldn’t be interested in that?  We’ll teach you how to use this valuable software package to generate more income!

Don’t wait to grow your business and experience the success your budget will certainly help you achieve.  There are countless potential clients out there in need of these specific services.  You can be the one to provide them.  Order QuickBooks Made Profitable today!

What It Takes to Start Your Own Accounting Practice

Hutzpah, also spelled “chutzpah,” is a Yiddish word defined by the wiktionary as “nearly arrogant courage; utter audacity, effrontery or impudence.”  While that may sound like a negative term, it is a characteristic that many entrepreneurs share.  In fact, many people utter the term with reference and upmost respect.  Wow, he sure has hutzpah.  Or, I wish I had enough hutzpah to do that.

Starting Your Own Business Takes Hutzpah

You’ve got to believe that you will achieve success when you first start your own business.  Without that “arrogant courage,” you will always be second-guessing your decision.  And doubt in an incredible energy drain; it will preoccupy you and, if left unchecked, will turn into self-fulfilling prophesy.

So if you don’t have hutzpah, you need to get some.

Universal Accounting Center (UAC) Makes It Easy

While UAC doesn’t necessarily hand out hutzpah along with professional certification, our graduates leave our programs with the confidence necessary to start their own businesses.  Read what they’re saying about our Professional Bookkeeper Program:

This course has literally changed my life. When I started I hardly knew the difference between a debit and a credit. Now I have the confidence to tackle almost any type of business and do their books.-A. Moody

Great practical course providing you with the skills and self-confidence to go out and build your own bookkeeping/accounting service.-B. Pace

The subject matter covered in your course has been invaluable. I have worked in the accounting field for the past six years; your course gave me the training and confidence I needed to advance in this area.-G. Morton

This course is definitely NOT just an introductory course, although it is wonderful even for beginners. It is a comprehensive accounting and bookkeeping course that truly taught me everything I would need to know to start my own accounting business, and gain clients with confidence.-J. Young

What makes this program so special?  Taught by seasoned professionals who understand the unique demand for small-business accountants, this self-paced program will train you using a hands-on instructional approach designed to give you the experience necessary to start a business’s books from scratch.  Whether you’ve been working in the accounting profession for years or have little experience at all, this course will help you gain the knowledge and hutzpah necessary to start your own accounting practice.

The Professional Bookkeeper Program

This course is comprised of four modules contained on DVD so you can view them again and again.

• • Module 1-Accounting Made Easy
  • Module 2-Practical Small Business Applications
  • Module 3-Advancing your “Account-Ability”
  • Module 4-Building a Successful Accounting Service

Each one comes with its own manual where you are expected to practice the concepts and skills you learn.  Upon completion, you will take an exam through which you can earn professional certification, demonstrating your expertise to prospective clients.

In addition to all that you will also receive two additional months of follow-up support, your own customize business website, and two additional practice sets.

Offer Complementary Services and Increase Your Bottom Line

If you order now, we will increase the value of this package by adding our newly-released 2008 version of the Professional Bookkeeper’s Guide (PBG) to QuickBooks.  More than 80% of small businesses use this accounting software to manage their finances.  By mastering this software, you can begin offering QuickBooks setup, consultation, and help services.  And when these same clients need a little accounting help, who will they turn to?  YOU, of course!

This newly updated program, written by QuickBooks Pro Advisor Brent Peterson, includes step-by-step instructions that will lead you through the accounting process.  Also included:

• • 16 interactive CDs
  • 4 full-color instructional manuals
  • Training designed for all user-types
  • Over 300 thoroughly-covered topics
  • Hands-on training that will enable you to practice all necessary QuickBooks functions
  • The ability to earn the QuickBooks Specialist designation

This training program beats others on the market, hands down.  And when you purchase this in addition to the Professional Bookkeeper Program you are able to offer a handful of valuable services that will attract even more clients and increase your bottom line.

Get the training necessary to develop a little hutzpah-your new accounting practice depends upon it.  Order today!

Take Our 9-Question Quiz to Find Out

Someday is not a day of the week. -Anonymous

To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing.-Eva Young

Procrastination is opportunity’s assassin.-Victor Kiam

Everyone procrastinates at one point or another in their lives.  But chronic procrastination can hinder your professional success.  Whether you are interested in earning a promotion, starting your own business, or growing a current business, procrastination is generally at the root of most failure.  You can change the course of your future by overcoming procrastination.  But first you must determine whether or not you are a chronic procrastinator and, if so, determine what it may be costing you.

1. Do you make and miss commitments?

Many procrastinators find ways to postpone or avoid commitments they’ve made.  Generally they are enthusiastic about those commitments when they first make them and can envision how they might enhance their lives.  But for whatever reason, by the time aforementioned commitment occurs the chronic procrastinator has found reason to avoid it.

2. Do you talk the talk but not walk the walk?

There are a variety of reasons why individuals procrastinate.  Some are afraid of failure, others are afraid of success and still others may be plagued by a number of reasons even Freud may not comprehend.  Regardless of the reason, individuals rarely procrastinate because they lack the ability and know-how.  Because of this, many procrastinators have oodles of advice that they fail to apply in their own lives.

3. Are you missing out on the life you once imagined?

Regret is often associated with procrastination.  If you find yourself grieving the life you once imagined yourself enjoying, you may have let procrastination get the best of you.  However, don’t despair.  You always have time to turn things around in order to accomplish your greatest dreams.

4. Do you make and keep daily goals?

Truly successful individuals realize that they must continually set and accomplish goals.  They are able to break projects down into management tasks that can be completed on a daily basis.  If you feel overwhelmed by everything on your to-do list and suffer from a lack of direction and accomplishment in your daily life, you may be procrastinating your workday away.

5. Are you currently working towards an improved future?

If you have a dream but are not working to accomplish that dream, then you are procrastinating a grand and glorious future for yourself.  Regardless of what it may take to accomplish your dream, unless you are currently doing something, even if it’s small, to achieve your dream, it will forever reside in your future.

6. Are you often disappointed?

Chronic procrastinators are often depressed and disappointed.  Their lack of success plagues them and often their families.

7. Do you sacrifice long-term happiness for short-term comfort?

Long-term happiness often requires sacrifice and hard work.  Procrastinators often fool themselves into thinking instant gratification is what they really want.  But when you consider that a little hard work and sacrifice can change the course of your future for the better, it may be easier to forgo the short-term comfort.

8. Are you easily distracted?

Procrastinators often find ways to put off doing important tasks.  Whether they become distracted by email, television, housecleaning, or phone calls, they often welcome the interruption.

9. Do you dream often but take action less?

Procrastinators often dream of a bright and glorious future but rarely take action to turn those dreams into realities.

If you answered “yes” to seven or more of the above questions, chances are you are a chronic procrastinator.  And if you do procrastinate, you are probably experiencing continual disappointment and professional dissatisfaction.  But don’t fret; just because you’ve procrastinated in the past doesn’t sentence you to a long and dissatisfying future.  You can take action and overcome your procrastination.  Join us next week when we will discuss tips for eliminating those self-destructive procrastinating tendencies.

Stop Procrastinating, Today!

If you’ve considered enrolling in our Professional Bookkeeper Program but have procrastinated in making a decision, telling yourself you want to learn more first, today is your day!  When you order our video, Introduction to the Professional Bookkeeper Program, you will learn all about this priceless course and will even have access to sample modules, demonstrating the highly effective instructional techniques we use.  For less than $10, you can add this video to your reference library.  Or you can watch it online for free.  Stop procrastinating today.  Order the video now!

In December 2007, Entrepreneur.com published an article entitled “Test Run” which shared ways to perform quick feasibility testing on a business idea. Jake Rockwell, owner of Rockwell Products LLC in Medford, Oregon has his own approach in determining whether or not a business venture will be successful. He takes the following three steps:

1. Check for limited competition. You want to ensure that the market isn’t already saturated with accounting practices. Take a look in your local phone book to see how many accountants are listed. Also consider whether they offer any specialized services, like small-business accounting or financial consulting, that you hope to offer. The more unique and valuable your services, the more feasible your business.

2. Consider the likelihood of returning customers. Accounting services are great because all businesses are required by law to perform various accounting tasks, and the need for this service is long-lasting. Businesses need payroll services performed on a monthly and even semimonthly basis. Most accounting tasks as like this, which means most of your clients will be regular clients.

3. Consider how management-intense the venture will be. You must consider how much of your time will be dedicated to managing the business as opposed to performing billable hours. If the venture requires enough managerial oversight you will have to hire staff to which you must delegate various tasks. Luckily, when first starting an accounting practice, you can work from your home and manage your business without much effort. However, depending on your visions for growth, you may eventually need to expand your efforts to include a rented office space, partners and a support staff.

In addition to Rockwell’s three feasibility steps, Entrepreneur.com recommends that entrepreneurs get feedback from prospective clients. As you ask these individuals what they want from their accountants, whether or not they’re satisfied with their current accountant, and how much they’re willing to pay to get the services they need, you will have a better idea of how sustainable your business idea is and how you might tweak your services in order to achieve your profitability goals.

The Social Enterprise Reporter, in an article entitled “The Quick Feasibility Test,” shares Rolfe Larson and Andy Horsnell’s four criteria used to test for feasibility:

• Strategic alignment-Do you want to do it?
• Operational-Can you do it?
• Marketing-Will customers buy from you?
• Financial-Will you achieve your profitability goals?

They also suggest a graduated series of feasibility tests that take you from self-assessment to a more researched-based, data-driven process of determining whether your business is earmarked for success.

Whether you plan on starting a business from scratch or hope to add new services to a current business, feasibility testing can help you determine whether or not the venture is worth the effort, and if so, how to best approach it.

Financing a Small Business

If, after performing feasibility testing, you feel it’s time to start your own practice but would like to take out a small business loan first, you can order Universal’s valuable manual Financing a Small Business which will walk you through the process of preparing a loan package. This 126-page manual includes clear-cut instructions, valuable resources, and sample loans that provide valuable models which will make the process of applying for your own loan much easier. Order now! This manual will help you start your own business today while enabling you to consult countless clients on the same process in the future.

References

Hendricks, Mark. “Test Run.” Dec. 2007 Entrepreneur.com

Larson, Rolfe and Andy Horsnell. “The Quick Feasibility Test.” 13 Feb. 2005 Social Enterprise Reporter

Larson, Rolfe and Andy Horsnell. “Quick Feasibility Screen.” www.rolfelarson.com

Larson, Rolfe and Andy Horsnell. “RLA Quick Feasibility Test.” www.rolfelarson.com

Just answer a few questions for us:

• Would you like to make more money?
• Are you interested in being your own boss?
• Would you like to enjoy a flexible work schedule?
• Have you considered spending more time with your family?
• Do you want to improve your standard-of-living?

Not many people would answer “no” to any of those questions. Unfortunately, the majority of people do not know how to accomplish them. Luckily for you, Universal Accounting Center is in the business of helping their students see that all of the above do indeed happen.

What Are You Waiting for?

A more prosperous economy? Your ship to sail in? The perfect time?

When you take a passive approach to life, waiting for something good to happen, you’ll find those good things are forever beyond your reach. Truly successful people don’t wait for anything; instead they choose to make good things happen for themselves.

A little work, a small investment, and some elbow grease are all that’s required to start and build your own accounting practice. That and two power programs.

The Professional Bookkeeper (PB) Program

In order for your accounting practice to be more appealing than the competition, you must offer specialized services. Small business accounting is a specialized service. Consider that your prospective clients will need someone trained to do one or more of the following:

• Master accounting for retail and wholesale businesses
• Establish the accounting method that best fits the business
• Set up an efficient system for a “Ma & Pa” manufacturing company
• Track job costs simply and efficiently for a construction company
• Effectively handle flooring for an inventory financed business
• Consult on key business issues with confidence
• Enter data quickly and accurately
• Prepare payroll like a seasoned pro
• Avoid costly IRS penalties
• Spot and avoid dangerous trends before they become tragedies
• Save a company thousands of dollars in auditing costs
• Prepare a loan application package
• Make positive change happen!

The PB Program will teach you how to do all that and more. In less than 60 hours you can receive professional certification that demonstrates your expertise to potential clients. You will be able to do for them what few other accountants could do. The only thing left for you learn would be maketing.

The Universal Practice Builder Program

Marketing strategies, promotional campaigns, advertising techniques. Those are generally things accountants are unfamiliar and even uncomfortable with. Knowing how to appeal to your particular demographic will enable you to create a marketing approach that is successful, lucrative, and productive.

The Universal Practice Builder Program will help you do that by equipping you with 12-proven marketing strategies that will enable you to secure 15 to 25 qualified leads per month. You’ll also learn how to prepare instructional seminars that will enable you to demonstrate the value of your services to prospective clients. In addition, for three months you’ll have access to a personal coach who will help you apply the things you learn while setting and achieving your business goals. Not to mention, all this comes with a guarantee that you will earn $30,000 more in annualized billings in just 12 months!

Again, what are you waiting for?

It’s time you took action! Pursue your dreams, start that practice and take a bigger piece of the pie. Go on! You deserve it. Enroll now.

They All Start with YOU

Winners compare their achievements with their goals, while losers compare their achievements with those of other people. - Nido Qubein

It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.-Edmund Hillary

The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark. - Michelangelo

The power of the mind is truly mind-boggling. Have you ever pondered the difference between two talented and capable individuals-one successful and one not? Often it’s the attitude each possesses that marks the difference in their achievements. What attitude do you live your life by? And with what mindset do you approach your career?

If you believe that you are on a path to great accomplishment and success, you are. It’s that simple. If you believe that your journey will be rife with struggle and failure, then you’re right as well. We are what we think.

The truth is you CAN start your own accounting practice. And if you already have one, you can make it even more profitable. Others have proven that it’s not only a profitable venture, but it’s easy and attainable. All you need are the skills, know-how, and the ability to market yourself to prospective clients. Sounds easy, right?

UAC Makes It Easy

While we’re not in the business of handing out confidence to our graduates, it seems to come naturally through the course of taking our programs. Here’s what some have said:

You’ll be glad to know that in the time since I completed the course, I have gone from 1 client, a friend of mine, to 27 clients in a matter of just 8 months. I’m finally realizing the potential that I always knew I had.- V. A. VonTonder

This course has literally changed my life. When I started I hardly knew the difference between a debit and a credit. Now I have the confidence to tackle almost any type of business and do their books.- A. Moody

The best part was that it gave me the courage and confidence to start my own business, which has been a dream of mine for years.-C. Christensen

In attaining confidence, these individuals have achieved the mindset necessary to successfully start their own bookkeeping service with grace and ease. Would you like to join them?

The Professional Bookkeeper Program

Designed to train individuals in small-business accounting, this program enables students to gain the expertise necessary to target a very lucrative niche market.

Just for fun, thumb through your local yellow pages. How many of the businesses you see are small, local businesses? Probably quite a few. All of those small businesses are required by law to perform various accounting functions. They need small business accountants.

Fortunately, for you, most accountants have been trained in corporate accounting rather than small business accounting, leaving these small business owners in need of a properly-trained professional who can attend to their specific needs. And if you know how to market your services, you’ve got an even greater advantage over your competition.

The Universal Practice Builder Program

Don’t feel bad. Most accountants are uncomfortable marketing their services. But once you know a handful of proven marketing strategies, methods for building an effective professional network, and can apply it all with a mentor by your side, the rest comes easily.

For over 25 years UAC has been teaching individuals like you small-business accounting. In the process we have learned quite a bit about how to effectively market those same services to the best prospective clients. When you enroll in this course you will get the following:

• A guarantee of $30,000 in new annualized billings in only 12 months
• The skills to become a Profit Expert for each of your clients
• 12 marketing strategies that you can implement immediately
• A process which can produce 15 to 25 qualified leads per month
• 3 months of coaching via telephone and Internet
• Training on a computerized database tracking program
• A presentation DVD to show potential clients
• Seminar training for three different instructional courses
• Access to a plan proven to help retain clients

When you couple the Professional Bookkeeper Program with the Universal Practice Builder Program, you have just about everything you need to start and/or grow your own accounting practice. Just bring a positive attitude and we’ll supply the rest. Don’t wait another day to realize your potential and change the course of your future. Enroll now!

Whether or not you realize it, you take risks every day. Driving to the store to get groceries is a risk. Ordering something online is a risk. Deciding to supersize your drive-thru meal can be risky too.

Some are terrified of risk while others live for it. If you’re an entrepreneur you’ve already taken some fairly hefty risks and have lived to tell about it. If you have dreamt about becoming an entrepreneur but are still waiting for the right time, chances are you’re wary of risk.

Often it just takes a little time to examine the risk and determine whether or not it’s worth it.  In his blog on Entrepreneur.com, Brian Tracy discusses the five different types of risk:

1. The risk that’s not yours to take.

Whether the risk belongs to your spouse, your brother or your business partner, this risk is the easiest to deal with because it’s not yours to take. While it may impact you in some way, you are not in a position to own this risk and must let the proper party take responsibility for it.

2. The unnecessary risk.

Unfortunately many take risks they believed were necessary only to find out later they were not. This is often the result of reckless decision making where risks are taken without first being studied. The results of taking an unnecessary (and thoughtless) risk can be devastating.

3. The risk you can afford to take.

When studying a potential risk you must weigh the cost of the risk against its potential for success. And monetary cost isn’t the only thing you must consider. How much time and energy with the risk consume? The same applies to success. While you should definitely be interested in the monetary return you may see, you should also consider how the success will impact your state of mind and personal satisfaction.

4. The risk you can’t afford to take.

This type of risk should be avoided. Again we stress the importance of studying a risk before making a decision. Often it’s only in running the numbers and weighing the pros and cons that you can determine the risk is much too pricey for you in your current situation.

5. The risk you can’t afford not to take.

And then there are those risks that have a potential payoff that’s too significant too ignore. Not only can you afford to take this risk, but you would be crazy not to. The more experience you gain studying out and taking strategic risks, the more skilled you will become at recognizing these valuable opportunities.

For those of you who have considered starting your own accounting practice, Universal Accounting Center is happy to tell you that doing so is probably a risk you can’t afford not to take. Rated as one of the best of the best home-business opportunities by Paul and Sarah Edwards in their book The Best Home Businesses for the 21st Century, a bookkeeping service is not only an inexpensive startup, but it’s a business with a huge potential client base.

When you enroll in the Professional Bookkeeper Program you learn everything you need to know in order to get started. But if that’s a risk you’re still not sure you can afford, you can learn more before making this important decision.

Purchase our video, Start Today and Have Your Own Bookkeeping Practice, for less than ten dollars and discover all you need to know about this venture. We can promise that it won’t take long for you to determine that starting your own bookkeeping practice is a risk you can’t afford not to take. Order the video now and decide for yourself. Or watch it online for free!

References

Tracy, Brian. “Taking Small Risks.” 9 July 2008 Entrepreneur.com

Let Your Fingers Do the Walking

Why Your Local Community Would Probably Welcome Your Accounting and Tax Practice

If you clicked on this article, we’re guessing that you’ve been thinking about starting your own accounting and tax practice. But you want to make sure the planets are aligned, that you’re sufficiently prepared, and that your community can support another accounting and tax practice.

We have an exercise for you. Follow these directions to see how one more accounting and tax practice might fair in your area:

1. Take out your local phone book.
2. Look up “Attorney.” How many pages of attorneys are there? Make a note.
3. Now look up “Accountant.” How many pages of accountants are there? Make a note.
4. Now compare the two numbers and ask yourself the following question: Which services would the small business be in need of more, legal services or accounting services?
5. Now ask yourself: If your local community can sustain that many attorneys, and we’re guessing the number of accountants is significantly less than the number of attorneys, don’t you think it could sustain one more accounting and tax practice (especially if it’s as good as yours will be)?

Your Niche Market: The Small Business

Small businesses need good accountants more than they need good attorneys. In fact, by the time they need an attorney, we’re guessing their need for your services is long past gone. And while the business owners may need a little coaxing to realize just how valuable a good accountant and tax preparer can be for their business, once you’ve won them over you’ve generally earned a client for life.

Nearly 50% of small businesses fail within the first five years of start-up. Much of this failure can be attributed to poor financial management. Unfortunately for them, most of the accountants trained in a university setting have been prepared to work for big corporations. You can imagine that small business accounting is a different animal (or math problem, so to speak).

Universal Accounting Center (UAC) Knows Small Business

For more than 25 years UAC has been training individuals like yourself small business accounting. Our mission statement reads: To equip students with the education, skills and confidence needed to enjoy a successful career in full-charge accounting, bookkeeping and tax. And not only do we train our students in the practical application of these accounting skills, we also teach them how to market their unique services (because let’s face it, accountants and tax preparers are generally not skilled in marketing).

The Professional Bookkeeper Program

The Professional Bookkeeper Program was designed specifically to address the needs of small businesses, and Universal Accounting offers the most complete small business accounting course anywhere. Not only that, but UAC teaching you effective marketing techniques; you’ll leave the program with small business knowledge and skills and the ability to promote those things to potential clients! You’ll have the ability to earn the Professional Bookkeeper Designation which assures clients that you have been properly trained in small business accounting and will help you know what those clients need most from you.

The Professional Tax Preparer Certification

We trust you could start a successful accounting practice without adding tax services, but the truth is you can charge 100+ per hour preparing individual and business taxes. That’s an incredible income boost during tax season and throughout the year for those clients who need any tax consulting or tax planning services. Why not increase your income by becoming a full-financial service provider? You will quickly become a one-stop shop for those clients who need you do more than just their bookkeeping.

The Professional Tax Preparer Certification is a nationally recognized designation. Countless individuals are scammed each year by people who claim to know what they’re doing. And more and more are becoming leery of tax preparers without any credentials. This exam will enable you to earn the Professional Tax Preparer Designation which will put many of those individuals at ease, assuring them that you have been properly trained in tax preparation.

The Professional Bookkeepers Guide to QuickBooks

Intuit has captured the market in accounting software used by small businesses. Nearly 80% of small business owners use their Quickbooks software. UAC’s Professional Bookkeepers Guide to Quickbooks Pro will teach you teach you how to do the basic transactions, how to reconcile accounts, what the program does with its data, and a basic understanding of fundamental accounting principles. We have also included about 18 hours of bookkeeping instruction and a complete detailed presentation of QuickBooks fundamentals. You may well call it a lifesaver. With these QuickBooks skills you can offer setup and consultation services to your menu, increasing your value to potential clients.

So what are you waiting for? In the time it would take you to finish a more traditional training program (and one geared towards the big business), your business could be up and thriving! Besides, if you wait too long, that list of accountants in your local phone book will just get longer.

If you enroll in these three programs this week you will get a special discount: an exclusive offer for our newsletter subscribers.

Order Now!

Universal Press Release

For Immediate Release (800)343-4827

Universal Accounting Initiates New Interactive Testing Center

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH (March 1, 2007) – Universal Accounting Center (UAC), an Inc. 500 company, has launched an upgraded testing center for students completing the Professional Bookkeeper program, Professional Tax Preparer program and Professional Bookkeepers guide to QuickBooks Pro. The testing center provides a reliable solution for students participating in UAC’s distance programs.

The upgraded Web testing center includes the following features:

• An advanced database accelerating student movement to each question.
• Students can navigate to any question regardless of where they are in the test.
• A virtual “time attendant” following students throughout the test monitoring remaining test time.

Universal Accounting Center is the worlds only accounting specific trade school offering accounting, bookkeeping and marketing training to students throughout the world. Skills are taught through classroom trainings or through a patented home-study course, allowing students to learn at their own pace. In August, 2006, Universal Accounting debuted on the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing private companies in the United States. More information about Universal Accounting Center can be found by calling 1-800-343-4827 or visiting www.universalaccountingcenter.com.

Tax Simplification: “Not Gonna Happen”

A recent student asked me how to respond to a well-meaning relative who felt that accounting was a dying occupation because of tax simplification. I’m often asked if a simpler tax code, meaning flat-tax or federal sales tax, would eliminate the need for accountants. Those who ask this question obviously don’t understand what an accountant does.

First of all, I don’t think such a tax bill could ever pass. Too many special interest organizations with powerful lobbying groups will lose too much to let any such bill pass without a fight.

• Religious organizations will argue that their funding from contributions will dry up.
• National homeowners’ associations will argue (and rightfully so) that homes will drop in value as mortgage interest will no longer be deductible.
• Medical organizations will buy TV ads telling stories about people with debilitating diseases and high medical bills going to ‘tax prison’ because they lost their medical deduction.

And, those are just the obvious problems.

Plus, most tax simplification plans will tax the poor heavier and the wealthy lighter than they do now. That’s a hot-potato that neither political party will support.

No, the public will never let such a thing happen.

Even if we were to assume that such a tax program will be adopted, accountants will remain in high demand. Certainly simpler tax laws may eliminate tax preparers. But most tax preparers aren’t accountants.

The primary and most beneficial roles accountants perform are in the area of management controls, and cash management. A company stands to gain much more through staying on top of these areas than saving on lower taxes. Let’s face it, companies don’t go out of business because they are paying too much in taxes, but they will if they have poor controls, or poor cash management.

Big businesses certainly understand this. A large company I once worked for had four thousand accountants. Less than 1% of these accountants worked in the tax department. In other words, 99% of the accountants with this company were working on providing management with crucial information regarding profitability, while monitoring the company’s financial position. This company understood that income taxes are a necessary evil that require some attention, but the potential for business improvement is much greater in other areas.

So, do we ignore taxes? Certainly not! Taxes must be completed, and done correctly according to law. Besides, a good tax preparer may save a tax payer hundreds of dollars, if not thousands in taxes — sometimes many times the cost to have the taxes prepared.

Tax preparation will always be needed. And, my guess is that it will become even more complicated before becoming any easier.

Regardless of the tax law, however, accountants will always be a critical part of the business world.

Also, see the article entitled “Why are Businesses Begging for Your Services?” This is “must reading” for every freelance accountant.