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5 Steps to the Successful Multi-Office Business

March 15, 2020 by admin

Your company is expanding — and that’s great! You’ve grown from one office to two, three, or even more. But you need to be able to manage all of them to continue to grow. Click through for some help in multi-office management.

Each new office seems deserving of all your time, but there are still your existing offices, whose need for attention hasn’t diminished. Building, disseminating and maintaining a cohesive business strategy across multiple sites is a challenge, but you need to get it right to continue to be successful.

Step one: Information needs to be shared.

This means that no one is behind on information, and you create a sense of community. Technology makes this happen because it allows immediate, widespread communication. You must ensure that there is one main method of digital communication — inconsistently used initiatives quickly become difficult to manage effectively. Use the one tool that works well and commit to communicating relatively frequently through it. You may want to send a brief weekly email newsletter to all staff. The tricky part is working across time zones, so if possible, send official communications when all offices are open.

Step two: Your leadership team is your greatest asset.

Employing an excellent senior management team to undertake communication on the company’s behalf is as important as digital communications. Have a senior management team member assist in running the firm, coordinating each office to provide local leadership. It’s wise to have a strong chain of command and a team that integrates as much as possible with each other to keep everyone informed about work across the company. Strong departmental management complements the businesswide strategic vision.

Step three: Timing is everything.

It’s essential to maintain a top-level presence across all offices and to be a recognizable face to all employees. If your company is based in one region, try to visit each office every month. If your firm is spread across the country, visit every two or three months. Time your visits within a week of each other and give a little more attention in your weekly email newsletter to any office that hasn’t been visited in a timely manner.

It makes sense to prioritize visits according to the size of the office, while maintaining a high level of inclusion in digital communications to show staff that they are highly valued.

Step four: Integrate wherever possible.

Encourage cross-office collaboration to develop a wider understanding of the business as a whole. It’s healthy to work with a number of different people and conducive to caring about the business beyond each office’s four walls. One means of doing this is to give staff opportunities to shape the company’s image, such as by participating in brand workshops or to be personally involved in company improvements.

Step five: Don’t be afraid to try something new.

Always try new things and commit to change. What suits one business may not suit another. Be prepared to innovate to find what works for you. That’s why building a personal relationship with as many employees as possible works — you’re giving people a chance to mix with others they would never normally work with.

Don’t forget the value of old-fashioned face time among and across teams. By encouraging this, you will contribute to successful integration and a corporate culture across geographies. Local offices need to be held accountable for quality control, scheduling and improving systems, and such efficiencies may work companywide.

All of this can seem like a lot of hard work, but splitting time between offices and building a system of shared information is crucial to the overall success of multi-office businesses. By trying to achieve equilibrium, you create a happy workforce that delivers the best results.

Give us a call at 208-215-2112 or request a free consultation now to learn more.

Business Tax and Bad Debt

February 18, 2020 by admin

Do you have a client or customer who won’t pay? Even when all attempts to collect a bad debt have failed, the IRS may give you a break at filing time. Click through to see how to take that bad debt off your taxes.

When can you use bad debt to reduce business income? Even when you take the customer to court and you still don’t get your money, there’s a way to make lemonade from this lemon of a customer.

If your business has already shown this amount as income for tax purposes, you may be able to reduce your business income by the amount of the bad debt. Look at bad debt as an uncollectible account—a receivable owed by a customer, client or patient that you are not able to collect.

Bad debt may be written off at the end of the year if it is determined that the debt is in fact uncollectible.

According to the IRS, bad debt includes:

Loans to clients and suppliers.
Credit sales to customers.
Business loan guarantees.

How do you write off bad debt?

Your business uses the accrual accounting method, showing income when you have billed it, not when you collect it.

If your business operates on a cash accounting basis, you can’t deduct bad debt because you don’t record income until you’ve received the payment. If you don’t get the money, there’s no tax benefit to recording bad debt. You only record the sale when you receive the money from the customer.

Under accrual accounting, manually take the bad debt out of your sales records before you prepare your business tax return.

You must wait until the end of the year, just in case someone pays.

Prepare an accounts receivable aging report, which shows all the money owed to you by all your customers, how much is owed and how long the amount has been outstanding.
Total all bad debt for the year, listing all customers who have not paid during the year. Only make this determination at the end of the year and only if you’ve made every effort to collect the money owed to your business.
Include the bad debt total on your business tax return. If you file business taxes on Schedule C, you can deduct the amount of all bad debt. Each type of business tax return has a place to enter bad debt expenses.

It makes sense in any kind of business—no income recorded, no bad debt.

A business bad debt often originates as a result of credit sales to customers for goods sold or services provided. The best documentation is likely to be a detailed record of collection efforts, indicating you made every effort a reasonable person would in order to collect a debt.

Take some solace by claiming a bad business debt deduction on your tax return. Not exactly a guarantee because you need to show that the debt is worthless, but it’s good to know there may be some relief.

Do You Have to File an Information Return?

January 6, 2020 by admin

executives helping small business tax clients If you made or received a payment in a calendar year as a small business or self-employed individual, you most likely are required to file an information return to the IRS. Click through to learn what this means.

If you engaged in certain financial transactions during the calendar year as a small business or self-employed (individual), you are most likely required to file an information return to the IRS. Below are some of the transactions that you have to report.

Services performed by independent contractors — those not employed by your business.
Prizes and awards, as well as certain other payments — termed other income.
Rent.
Royalties.
Backup withholding or federal income tax withheld.
Payments to physicians, physicians’ corporation or other suppliers of health and medical services.
Substitute dividends or tax-exempt interest payments, and you are a broker.
Crop insurance proceeds.
Gross proceeds of $600 or more paid to an attorney.
Interest on a business debt to someone (excluding interest on an obligation issued by an individual.
Dividends and other distributions to a company shareholder.
Distribution from a retirement or profit plan, or from an IRA or insurance contract.
Payments to merchants or other entities in settlement of reportable payable transactions — any payment card or third-party network transaction.

Being in receipt of a payment may also require you to file an information return. Some examples include:

Payment of mortgage interest (including points) or reimbursements of overpaid interest from individuals.
Sale or exchange of real estate.
You are a broker and you sold a covered security belonging to your customer.
You are an issuer of a security taking a specified corporate action that affects the cost basis of the securities held by others.
You released someone from paying a debt secured by property, or someone abandoned property that was subject to the debt or otherwise forgave their debt to you (1099-C).
You made direct sales of at least $5,000 of consumer products to a buyer for resale anywhere other than in a permanent retail establishment.

Keep in mind that information is for businesses. You will not have to file an information return if you are not engaged in a trade or business. You also will not have to file an information return if you are engaged in a trade or business and 1) the payment was made to another business that’s incorporated, but wasn’t for medical or legal services or 2) the sum of all payments made to the person or unincorporated business was less than $600 in one tax year.

This is just an introduction to a complicated topic, and the mechanics of filing such a return are filled with essential details. If you’re running a business, even a small one, be sure to discuss the details with a qualified professional.

From income tax preparation for individuals to complex corporate taxes for businesses, you’ll like working with us because we make filing taxes easy. Just send us your paperwork, receipts, and prior tax returns and we’ll take care of everything. Call 208-215-2112 or request a free consultation online.