Budget Blueprint
To determine if Mountain Sales Services could buy big assets without crippling cash flow, CFO Kirk LaPoure turned to BallPark Business Valuation ... Read more
Basic Accounting
Recent Basic Accounting Articles
FYI: The Talk of the Inc. 500
Inc.'s editor recounts what all the buzz was about at this year's Inc. 500 conference and lists the most memorable quotes from both attendees and guest speak... Read more
Money Talk
Holly Hitzemann, president and owner of Great American Stock, suggests that the key to building a good relationship with your banker is knowing how and when ... Read more
Take This Job and Love it
Reviews of eight business books, including three books from CEOs on the angst and joys of building a company, three books on open-book management, and two bo... Read more
Key Questions to Ask a Prospective CPA
The worst way to find a CPA is to "call one up and hire him" sight unseen, believes Irving L. Blackman, a frequently published CPA and senior partner in B... Read more
Turning Assets into Cash
Your largest current assets, against which you might borrow, are probably receivables and inventory. Ideally, both of these assets turn into cash as soon ... Read more
Choosing Accounting Software
Here's what you need to consider when choosing accounting software: Auditing features. These might include a map mode, an... Read more
Establishing Credit Limits
There is no precise method of allocating credit. However, a simple policy that works well is to allocate customers to one of the four categories of credit... Read more
Collection Techniques to Avoid
Past-due accounts present a number of problems, one of which is how to collect them. When faced with this uncomfortable issue, avoid using these collectio... Read more
Action Plan: Debt Management and Banking
Debt management and cash flow management are inseparable. A poorly managed cash flow will eventually surface as a depletion of working capital. If working... Read more
Cost Control Basics
Fine-tune your billing and collection procedures. Few fast-growing companies manage their accounts-receivable systems as effecti... Read more
Clients You Can Live Without
The big client, menacing, stands up like De Niro in the baseball bat scene from The Untouchables . He walks down to the end of the conference tabl... Read more
Upstarts: Virtual Campuses
Here's how start-up University Access partnered with universities and PBS to sell long-distance learning programs. Plus: why corporations are likely customer... Read more
Capital Steps
Lance Miller, the CEO of start-up Integration Logic Inc., explains why he isn't even trying to raise capital. Cash-flow and profitability, he argues, are the... Read more
Hot Tip: Payroll Tax Strategy
Gerald Padian is both a partner in the New York City law firm Tashjian & Padian and an investor in a start-up restaurant. He realizes he could be responsi... Read more
How to Profit in the Coming Recession
CEO Brodsky explains why the imminent economic recession could actually benefit your business if you know how to prepare. He offers four steps to turning a f... Read more
Choose or Lose
Judy Corson and Jeff Pope, cofounders of Custom Research Inc., realized they could grow their company by cutting their customer base in half. Read more
To Big Five or Not to Big Five
Not many companies from this year's Inc. 500 list chose to be represented by expensive Big Five accounting firms. Here's a breakdown of the various accountin... Read more
Hard Questions
Here's how Inc. 500 CEOs answered 10 difficult questions, including "Should I take my company public?" "How can I keep my employees?" and "Should I ... Read more
How Do I Know I've Outgrown My Start-up Team?, Accounting/Bookkeeping Article
How Do I Know I've Outgrown Myid="leaup Team? Read more
A Decided Advantage
The president of Create-It! reviews Definitive Scenario, a model-building software package that uses spreadsheet data to develop forecasts, pricing strategie... Read more
Do I Need a Top-Tier Accounting Firm?
If you're planning to take your small company public, you probably don't need to go to a Big Six accounting firm. Here are some affordable alternatives. Read more
What's Hot: Analyzing Financials
A guide to books and Web sites dedicated to helping entrepreneurs brush up on their financial-management skills. Read more
What's Hot:Collections
A guide to books and Web sites devoted to improving bill collections. Read more
Business in a Box
A product review of ProvenEdge, a single software package that handles accounting, bill paying, invoice tracking, financial reporting, and word processing. Read more
How to Collect from Clients: Walk the Walk, Talk the Talk
Very few entrepreneurs begin their business ventures with the goal ofbecoming collection agents. Unfortunately, some of us have foundourselves in this unw... Read more
Hire Finance
At what point in your company's growth are your bookkeeper and controller out of their league? A look at choosing the right time to hire a CFO, where to find... Read more
A Daily Dose of Numbers
How often should you track your numbers? Daily, Ron Friedman insists. The CEO of Stonefield Josephson Inc., an accounting firm in Santa Monica, Calif., sa... Read more
The Rapid-Reimbursement Expense Report
If a cash report or a calendar can be sent out via e-mail, why can't an expense report be sent the same way? Most employees are well acquainted with datab... Read more
Excellent Service from External Accountants
Gina Slater Parker, CEO of $1 million Hill Slater, in Great Neck, N.Y., appreciates the value of outsourcing her accounting department . S... Read more
But the Savings Aren't Under the Mattress
Michael Bryant, CEO and sole employee of Career Transition Services (CTS), in Baltimore, believes that for a business his size, financial software... Read more
Slow Boat to Payment
Most companies assume that a slow payer or a bad credit risk is not worth selling products or services to, but that's not necessarily true," notes Les Kir... Read more
Terms of Endearment
Don't sign on new customers until they've agreed to your payment terms. Read more
Around the World in 30 Days
Congratulations! Your company's plan for global diversification is a wild success, with orders rolling in from around the world. Now you've got to figure ... Read more
