Inside Small Business | Small Business & Home Business Marketing

Accounting

LW: We've seen that along with the legal system another thing that is really hard for small business owners is accounting. When you first started did you do everything internally when you first started?

Brian: Yeah, we kept all of our stuff internally. Again, since my wife came from a Big 4 background she had plenty of accounting training. And so that was something that was a fairly natural fit for her. At the same time, by keeping operations fairly simple, so by keeping to a 1099 structure rather than an employee structure, your accounting needs are much lower. Our operation is fairly lean as far as what we actually need from accounting, but we're able to handle it all internally. For those businesses that require payroll and some of the features that come along with payroll, that's actually in my opinion a great thing to outsource. Because of the details and the activities that are associated with all of the reporting and everything that's necessary for all of the salary and management, it's just not worth it. That is great stuff to outsource because as a small business owner that's just mind-numbing detail and you have better things to do with your time like run your business.

LW: Do you guys use a specific program or system internally?

Brian: We use Quickbooks. It's a fairly simple thing and it actually produces some pretty professional looking documents and we can brand those documents as well. We put our logo on pretty much everything and that includes our invoices. So it's something that allows us to establish brand presence and it actually makes a nice professional presentation.