AcctTwo Blog

January 31st is the deadline for submitting 1099s to recipients. If you are a business owner, CFO, Controller or responsible for your company's accounts payable department or tax filings, you may know that 1099s are an informational return that is required to be filed with the IRS to report individual income that is not reported on a W-2 as wages, salaries or tips. There is often some confusion about the 1099 process and related rules, and the January 31st deadline sometimes sneaks up on companies.

We've posted before about the dangers of Excel-based reporting and other spreadsheet pitfalls in finance and accounting. Spreadsheets are an indispensable tool for some personal productivity and job functions, but they can be a hindrance to effective processes and controls in finance and accounting departments.

Why does it have to be so complicated?

If your church is anything like mine, you are constantly trying to navigate the requirements of our nation’s employment laws. When researching the topic of “employee versus independent contractor,” what I find is consistently inconsistent. It’s easy to get lost in the lack of interpretation.

This article originally published on SandHill.com

“What happens in accounting, stays in accounting.”

If your finance team’s motto goes something like this, you might have an internal controls problem.

Internal controls are put in place to clearly define proper procedures for finance and accounting team members, to minimize risk, and to alleviate suspicion. Even churches must mitigate risk and ensure that policies and procedures are in place and functioning as intended.

Know the 4 V's

Depending on your role at the church, you’ll hear the word “audit” and come to one of two conclusions:

If you’re the finance manager, you understand the need for the substantiation of the integrity of the data — even though an audit can add to your already busy workload.

This is Part 4 of our Blessed are the Flexible Series. Click here to read Part 3 about Accountability.

Being good stewards of the resources God has provided is not just something we hope we can do. It is required for operating more effectively and efficiently. The concept of being effective and efficient is the cornerstone of a business’s ability to be profitable or not. Even though churches do not exist to make a "profit”, we must make good, educated business decisions so that every dollar spent fulfills the church's mission. Businesses determine their effectiveness and efficiency by measuring performance against targets, goals or previous performance. 

The fourth annual Software CFO/CEO Outlook Report is out for 2015. From a high level overview of industry trends to drilled-down views of specific concerns and tactics sliced by company size, the study by Sand Hill Group's CEO M.R. Rangaswami is an invaluable tool for any company in the software and technology industry. The report describes two major themes in the survey data:

I subscribe to the Harvard Business Review and constantly find fascinating articles about business, marketing, accounting system software, human resources, and human nature. They are often great to share with your boss and co-workers as you collaborate to improve your business or your company culture. Sometimes you might want to share them, but end up hesitating and reconsidering (see Your Late-Night Emails are Hurting Your Team). Good advice, but better kept to yourself?

For financial professionals, independent external audits of GAAP financial statements are an inescapable reality. For public companies, it’s a statutory requirement under SEC regulations and for many fast-growing private companies, it’s a necessity to meet the demands of lenders, VCs, and other stakeholders. There is even a possibility that the IRS could require a financial statement audit as part of a broader tax audit.