8 Tips to protect yourself when shopping online
I love to support local businesses and do so whenever I can. But, I also do a lot of my shopping online for several reasons, not the least of which is the whole shop in your jammies thing. We have family who lives in other states, so shopping online makes it easy to remember birthdays, graduation, back to school, and most certainly Christmas. However, online shopping is not without its risks. There are both IT risks, and financial security risks. I’ll not address the IT risks, but here’s a link to a great article on the subject at A PC Geek, he’s my brother.
HELP! My checking account is overdrawn AGAIN!
This is a subject that is near, and dear, to my heart. When I got my first checking account….well, let’s just say it was before the invention of the internet and online banking. So, I have the advantage over many younger Americans in that I was taught how to balance my checkbook. No, I’m not talking about balancing it on the tip of your nose or the tip of your finger. I’m talking about checking off all the transactions that have crossed through your check register and matching the balance in the check register to the balance on the bank statement. Personally, I think this is something that should be taught in high school math class, but the principles could be taught as early as elementary school.
Common Small Business Accounting Errors
It’s easy to make accounting errors and it actually fairly common in small businesses. There are some steps you can take to avoid making mistakes in your books. Here are five common accounting errors that you can avoid with just a small amount of effort.
1) Skipping small expenses in your records.
It is important to note every business transaction – even the small ones. If you don’t record all general business expenses, your books will be off. Inaccurate accounting records causes problems for measuring profitability and filing taxes. Be sure you keep receipts and organize them into the appropriate accounts.
Welcome to our blog!
This is our initial entry and I wanted to attempt to convey what I hope to achieve with the blog and a little about what you can expect from future posts. Most of my writing experience to date has been business or academic, so it will be an interesting transition to writing in a more creative venue. Although the topics are meant to give you information and education on finance-related topics, I don’t want to bore you with too many statistics or analysis even if the topic of the post is how to tell if your business is keeping up with industry trends. So, selfishly, this is an exciting learning experience for me.