Why Your Accounting Books Are A Mess and How to Clean House

By Ron Nierzwicki
President at KSMB Associates

 Your accounting books are a mess. You have no real visibility of how well or poorly your company is doing. You haven’t done a bank reconciliation in a year.

You get a call from one of your suppliers and they say that their check bounced. You get 5 more similar calls that day. You can’t understand why. Your books show that you have plenty of cash in the bank. You go back and realize that you reported a large cash receipt twice and didn’t record a whole week of checks. Not doing your bank recs really cost you. Now you have a dilemma. No cash in the bank and you owe a significant amount... 

Don’t be this company. Let’s show you how to prevent this from happening to you.

Why Might Your Books Be A Mess?

• You don’t have time as you are too busy running your business
• Business is too complicated for a novice to do the work
• Emergencies keep popping up. Accounting is always last on the list.
• Bank recs are not being done or are far behind
• Lack of internal controls; no visibility to account receivable and payable
• Not understanding the importance of good books

Results of Messy Books

• Running out of cash and don’t understand why
• Not certain whether your company is profitable
• Don’t understand your costs
• Going out of business
• Insufficient information to make good decisions
• Not collecting all the money you are owed
• Double paying vendor invoices
• Inability to obtain a bank loan
• No clear distinction between business and owner’s personal transactions
• Tax preparation costs are more expensive than they should be

Steps To Take To Clean Up Your Books and Keep Them That Way

• Install an accounting software package
• Set up a chart of accounts and understand what should be in each account
• Get up to date with all bank recs
• Be certain you have support for all items on your balance sheet
• Do your accounting timely
• Separate out personal from business transactions
• Compare your profit and loss statements to prior periods
• Be consistent in completing your books monthly
• Do a detail monthly review of the numbers
• Seek help if feeling overwhelmed

KSMB Associates can help. KSMB offers a full range of accounting services and can help you get your books back in order and on the right path to success!