What Is Accounting Anyway?

Accounts, Bookkeeping and Payroll can be a burden to small business. This new series of blogs from Nottingham Accounting Solutions aims at making Accounts, Bookkeeping and Payroll a little clearer.

What Is Accounting Anyway?

Anyone who's worked in an office at some point or another has had to be involved with accounting. “The Accounts” … they're the people who pay and send out the bills that keep the business running. They do a lot more than that, though. Sometimes referred to as "bean counters" they also keep their eye on profits, costs and losses. Unless you're running your own business and acting as your own accountant, you'd have no way of knowing just how profitable - or not - your business is without some form of accounting.

No matter what business you're in, even if all you do is balance a cheque book, that's still accounting. It's part of even a kid's life. Saving a pocket money, spending it all at once - these are still accounting principles.

What are some other businesses where accounting is critical? Well, farmers need to follow careful accounting procedures. Many of them run their farms year to year by taking loans to plant the crops. If it's a good year, a profitable one, then they can pay off their loan; if not, they might have to carry the loan over, and accrue more interest charges next year.

Every business and every individual needs to have some kind of accounting system in their lives, otherwise, the finances can get away from them, they don't know what they've spent, or whether they can expect a profit or a loss from their business. Staying on top of accounting, whether it's for a multi-million pound business or for a personal bank account is a necessary activity on a daily basis if you're clever. Not doing so can mean anything from a bounced cheque or posting a loss to a company's shareholders. Both scenarios can be equally devastating.

Accounting is basically information, and this information is published periodically in business as a profit and loss statement, or as part of a set of management accounts.

Nottingham Accounting Solutions Ltd offer accounts, bookkeeping and payroll services in the Nottingham and Mansfield area as well as Sage sales, set-up and 1 - to - 1 training on Sage accounts and Sage payroll. So why not take a look at www.nottingham-accounting-solutions.co.uk