10 Facts about Accountants We bet you didn’t know..!

Do you believe that the account is boring? Here are the big famous names and stories which you certainly do not know about accounting.

Accounting is essential for any small OR big business. Through accounting, anyone can know about the position of business, financial condition of business and profit OR loss of business.

If you are having a small business and not willing to hire in-house accounting then it is advisable to take advantage of accounting outsourcing services.

An accountant is an important part of the organization.

Here you can come to know the less known things about accounting and accountant.

How to maintain common set of books to satisfy requirements of Cost Accounting with Financial Accounting

The integrated accounting system is the system wherein books for the Financial Accounting and Cost Accounting requirements are maintained in a common set. This is why, it is called, that Cost Accounting and Financial Accounting are integrated into one System.

CIMA defines that an “integrated accounting system refers to the interlocking of the financial and cost accounting systems to ensure all relevant expenditure is absorbed into the cost accounts. Under this accounting system transactions are classified both according to their function and nature.”

Integrated accounting should be configured in a way that while it can provide information for the cost of each unit, batch or job or any other measurable unit it should not distort financial statements viz., Profit and Loss Account and Balance Sheet.

For example,

• The purchase of raw material can be directly posted into Stores Ledger Control Account, Work-in-progress Ledger Control Account or Overhead Account in-stead of Purchase account.
• The Direct wages can be posted into Wages Control Account or Overheads Control Account instead of Direct Wages account

Benefits of Integrated Accounting System:

1. Since figures for financial accounts and cost accounts are from a common source, there are no requirements for reconciliation between two.
2. Saving of significant time and cost which otherwise gets wasted in maintaining both accounts separately.
3. Because of the auto reconciliation of cost accounting with financial accounting, management reporting will be quick and accurate and it will help in timely decision making.
4. It simplifies and improves the internal control mechanism
5. All cost related figures are basically derived from financial records so when it is directly linked to financial accounting, it is more reliable and accurate.
6. This system helps in eliminating clerical errors happens in fetching data from financial account books in preparation of cost accounts books data

Process for configuring Integrated accounting system:

• First of all, the degree of integration needs to be considered.
  > Full Integration: Under full integration, all the cost accounting elements in deriving the cost of sales are integrated with financial accounting.
  > Partial integration: Sometimes when full integration is temporarily not possible, difficult or management wants to test an integrated system; integration can be configured up to a particular stage of cost sheet such as prime cost, factory cost, cost of production, etc.

• Then the most appropriate and adaptable coding system should be developed to codifying charts of financial accounts and cost accounts including but not limited to SKU, Locations, etc.
• Standard process data documents should be developed containing all the details related to Cost Accounts and Financial Accounts.
• Establish coordination between departments handling financial information and costing information.
• Account department should be trained so that they can become familiar with, record transactions in, and prepare reports from Integrated accounting System.
• An appropriate accounting package needs to be selected which can best suit the requirements of integration, report generation and automation of the processes.

Examples of posting under an integrated accounting system

Keynotes:

Success always depends on your ability to timely and proper decision making. To have that ability you need accurate, reconciled and advantageous information in your hand. This information can be generated with an Integrated Accounting System which gives all the information which you need for decision making. Using appropriate accounting package and integrating the advance application with the software, a superior integrated accounting system can be developed for any business which can help to keep that business on top of the peers.

We at, CapActix have an expert team available to understand your reporting requirements and helps you set up an appropriate system integrating your financial accounting with cost accounting. We are a prominent accounting outsourcing company based in India. We can help you with establishing an integrated accounting system to make your reporting requirements accurate and reliable. For more details, you can reach us on biz@capactix.comor call us on +1 201-778-0509

Disruptive Developments in Accounting Industry to look for in 2019 and beyond

Current era of technological revolutions have changed the way we perceive our day to day life. Accounting is also not left untouched by technological advancements and disruptive thinking to make life easier and automated. Accounting firms that don’t evolve with the changing dynamics always found themselves lagging behind in the competition. This article is to introduce you to the current trending topics in accounting which you should look for in 2019.

1. Artificial Intelligence (AI)

In simple terms, Artificial Intelligence is a computer system that can learn from experience. Although AI techniques like machine learning are not new to the market, now its pace of adoption in various businesses and industries is increasing. Accounting & Auditing is also one of them. For the proper usage of the technology and turn vision into value, we need to have a deep knowledge of the artificial intelligence and its use in solving business problems.

Among other, Machine Learning is one of the techniques which can play a vital role in the accounting profession. Extensive use of ML in decision-making process enabled accountants to make financial and non-financial analysis faultlessly. AI will eventually take over laborious work from accountant such as data management, data entry, report generation, etc. Therefore, accountants can devote time in value-added services such as problem-solving, advising, strategy developing, and leading.

2. Collaborating platform

Nowadays, accounting is not just taken as posting daily transactions and generating reports. It is perceived as a total solution for Payable management, Receivable management, Payroll Management and Regulatory Compliance management. These expectations from the accounting department can only be met if accounting software uses some collaborating platforms. This allows communication of accounting data with various stakeholders precisely. Some examples of collaboration are as follows;

1.    Sending customer’s the statement directly via accounting software on one click

2.    Generating & submitting a tax return directly from accounting software

3.    Processing payslip & sending to employees directly from accounting software

4.    Preparing payroll compliances directly from accounting software

Such many more tasks which can be done by creating a collaborating platform with accounting software which minimize efforts by accountants.

3. Blockchain

Blockchain technology is basically an accounting technology. With the use of Blockchain technology, accounting efficiency can be increased via a system of universal bookkeeping. Moreover, the scope of accountancy can also be expanded which will make accounts more closure to economic reality.

Unlike database owned other ledgers which are run by a single party, under Blockchain, ledgers will not be controlled by one party. Experts have defined 3P’s what differentiate Blockchain from other ledgers technologies of today as follows

i. Propagation:

Blockchain ledger doesn’t have many identical copies without any affiliated principal copy. All authority has a full copy of the ledgers. Thus, no single authority can exclusively control ledger. All the new transactions posted by any participant will reflect in all the copies with authorized participants.

ii. Permanence:

Because each user has its own copy of the ledger, any dispute can be resolved with consensus. Moreover, any posted transaction can only be edited with the approval of the majority of participants. Thus, it can be concluded that once transactions are recorded on blockchain ledgers, they are permanent and free from any illegitimate altering.

iii. Programmability:

Some blockchain ledgers could allow programming which can automate ledger posting and journal posting on meeting the criteria of the trigger point. Experts have termed it as ‘Smart Contracts” under blockchain technologies.

4. Automation

Automation of accounting processes, specifically for routine and voluminous transactions improves the speed, accuracy, and reliability of the accounts. It helps greatly in reconciliation and balancing tasks. Automation can be achieved through;

•       Certifying and matching business processes based on pre-defined rules
•        Role-based controlled access and permission matrix
•        Automated validation of vouchers based on pre-defined validation points,
•        Creating peer to peer linking and collaborate processes or source documents

As a result of automation, accountants can get rid of process-oriented tasks and can utilize their valuable time and skills on critical issues that fuel business growth.

5. Remote Staffing

Currently, where the real word platforms are transforming into virtual platforms, accounting is also not lagged behind. All the accounting related tasks are being managed on the cloud or online platforms. This has broken the concept of an in-house accountant and staff in front of the eyes. Even online time tracking, as well as staff reporting and

managing tools are more effective.

This makes possible the concept of remote staffing where your place of business and place of work for your staff doesn’t need to be the same. Remote staffing is beneficial in many ways; some of which are as follows.

i. Cost reduction:

The cost can be reduced by exploiting Trade-off opportunities between different markets. For example, because of the wide differences in per-hour rates of different countries, accounting tasks can be outsourced from the USA market to the Indian market by hiring the remote employees in India.

ii. Better utilization of resources and Increase productivity:

In the case of remote staffing, you can hire staff for the required time and with required skills. Moreover, you can hire diverse staff for different activities for a limited amount of time. This gives you immense flexibility and ultimately “You pay for what you need.” This results in increased productivity of the business.

iii. Increase in satisfaction:

As remote staff are working from their place without another interruptive environment of the office culture, they can better concentrate on their tasks and produce better results. Moreover, they can work on task-driven approach rather than time-driven approach which increases satisfaction among both the parties.

We at, CapActix have an expert team available to understand your accounting, reporting and compliance requirements. Our remote staffing solution will take all your accounting burden and add value to your business. We are prominent accounting outsourcing company based in India. We can help you to make your accounts accurate and reliable. For more details you can reach us on biz@capactix.com or call us on +1 201-778-0509.

Key characteristics of good offshore accounting company

Accounting jobs are often synonymous with boredom. They are comprehended as sitting at one’s desk, going through the same old account books and financial statements. An accountant is perceived as someone who is involved in hardcore number crunching and nothing else. Well, this was somewhat true but a decade ago. Because as an accounting professional you do so much more than just number crunching.

You create a financial strategy, give strategic advice, comply with the latest tax regulations, take actions to save money for the client, boost revenue in their business and the list has just started. But accounting in itself is a constantly evolving industry and has so many subcategories, so you cannot thrive by limiting yourself to the stagnated accounting skills. To grow, innovate and become an exceptional accounting professional, you need to learn and develop your skills continuously.

With the advent of technology, accounting jobs are perceived in the global arena today. Accounting jobs are one of the most glamorous and coveted profiles in the world of finance. So what exactly has changed it? Let’s take a tour.

It used to be that ‘keeping books’ for business was literally a paper-based process involving ledger, lots of columns and a pencil to record a business essential financial data. In the digital age, however, even the smallest business can benefit from a wide variety of offshore accounting companies in the market. They not only help you keep your data secure but also help you gain insight into your business that you couldn’t see in paper form. with automation conquering all spheres of a profession, can accounting jobs be left behind?

USEFUL READING :- Not getting enough time to focus on your business

Today the mundane work of accountants such as bookkeeping, receipts, and voucher reviewing, scanning invoices, etc. can be done with just one click. There are many OFFSHORE ACCOUNTING COMPANIES out there who take care of this process-driven work leaving a lot of time for the accountants to focus on strategic areas of corporate finance.

All this brings us to one conclusion. How do we choose an offshore accounting company!

Because finding the best accounting cloud service for your business can be a challenge, with an explosion of shrink-wrapped software products and online application offerings. To choose an OFFSHORE ACCOUNTING COMPANY, you need to understand your business and its accounting needs and assess the products available today. Well to start with every cloud service has its own common and distinct features. It solely depends on your needs to figure out which one suits the best for your business.

What an OFFSHORE ACCOUNTING COMPANY should actually provide?

QUALITY OF SERVICE:

Cloud accounting is spreading its roots at a very high rate in this era. Hence the quality of service plays a vital role in cloud applications and majorly accounting. Now OFFSHORE ACCOUNTING COMPANY takes care of the management of applications and allocation of required resources to such application thereby providing better performance, authenticity and higher computing.

COST EFFECTIVE:

For many accounting businesses, the cost is the final factor deciding how to invest. When it comes to the price of computing, cloud computing services are the most cost-effective and efficient when compared with on-premises servers. Long story short with the cloud you pay for the actual work done instead of the capacity to do work.

GOOD INFRASTRUCTURE AND LATEST TECHNOLOGY:

Good infrastructure and the latest technology are always attractive. Instead of keeping books OFFSHORE ACCOUNTING COMPANIES provide you with the latest technology of cloud services which will free you from the hassle of bookkeeping making your accounting much more sophisticated.

HIRING SKILLED TALENT:

Cloud computing is basically beneficial to those businesses that have grown to the point that they need to consider setting up an internal finance team to take care of compliance and internal reporting, costing, monthly reports, projections, etc. So what these OFFSHORE ACCOUNTING COMPANIES do is provide you with a one-man army which takes care of all your manual work.

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION CHANNEL:

While work becomes easy with these companies, it is also a real privilege to be able to work closely with clients and help them realize their goals which simply cannot be done effectively without cloud technology.

RELIABILITY AND STABILITY:

The perceived reliability of cloud security is one of the highest obstacles to cloud adoption and is largely attributed to the fact that you do not own or control the system your data is stored in. But these OFFSHORE ACCOUNTING COMPANIES make sure each member in the hierarchy has their own login credentials making it as safe as it can get.

CLIENT CENTRIC:

Large enough to meet all your financial needs and small enough to know your name when you call

Also being able to access financial data and information quickly in real-time is always welcome.
We at CapActix empower your business to make informed decisions sooner rather than later.

Also with CapActix, sharing your documents for outsourcing your accounting tasks is easy, secured and trailed. We use an SSL encrypted document management portal wherein you can upload your data and the employees can access it for preparing your books of accounts. Alternatively, if you don’t want to upload your data on our cloud, we can host CapActix on your cloud. With this alternative, you don’t need to share documents with us as they are stored on your server and we can check it with viewing rights and access permission to necessary files to prepare your accounts.

Users can also have different access permissions to files and folders so that non-permitted files and folders are not even visible under their login. Users have a personalized dashboard by their rights and access permission.

And notifications!! How can we forget that? CapActix makes sure to notify clients about all the important tasks pending. With CapActix you can rest assured.

Conclusion:

So now you can outsource your accounting tasks to CapActix Business Solutions without worrying about data security. You can sit back and relax while CapActix does your entire math!!

Wise or otherwise it’s your choice!!

If you are looking for OFFSHORE ACCOUNTING COMPANY, then write to us at biz@capactix.com or call us on +1 201-778-0509

Why partnering with Virtual accounting team or online accounting is good for you

Digital disruption has changed the way we do business. Virtual accounting at first sounds fishy to any non-tech savvy owner. Of course, accounting details are confidential and you would want an in-house team to oversee the financial operations of your business. Owners still are skeptical to outsource bookkeeping and accounting services in the virtual space. They worry primarily about data security, access to real-time data and losing control over confidential information. In the early business stage, you can do with a single accountant looking after your finances. You would realize, as your business grows, that bookkeeping and account management is an arduous task. This important task is highly recommended to be performed by professionals rather than an individual. It facilitates you with better financial controllership and flawless accounting practices.

With almost everything being done online and cloud-based, virtual accounting certainly has advantages worth considering. Let’s have a look at them each.

Independent and reliable reporting

Compare to In-house accountants, virtual accountants are more independent as they neither have direct contact with your business stakeholders such as Debtors and Creditors nor have direct control of your business operations. In most cases, fraud occurs when your in-house accountants create an alliance with your stakeholders which is difficult to track and control. Because of this, most organizations specifically NGOs prefer to hire virtual accountant rather than establishing an in-house accounting department.

Expertise and knowledge of virtual accounting team

When you outsource accounting to the virtual team, you have domain experts there. Based on their wide experience and comprehensive knowledge, they know what businesses need today. They pay attention to the tiny details which are most likely to be avoided by in-house bookkeepers. Virtual accounting services bring in more in-depth and astute financial acumen than an in-house team which leads to business profitability.

Time-saving and Cost-effective

It just does not save time but money too! We know it sounds great. Doesn’t it? Yes, Virtual accounting allows you to focus on your core strategic tasks and simplify your work process. Moreover, the cost of the in-house team is way higher than having a virtual team. You, therefore, are likely to save a bunch of money.  

Accuracy and Real-time access to data

You have access to real-time data all the time. Virtual accounting services enable your businesses with insightful financial reporting. It also analyses your historical data to plan to build stronger financial policies. Overall, it makes you more pro-active about your business to grow.

Latest technology

In the current digitalized era, technology keeps upgrading. In Accounting not only the software, storage media but also the method of bookkeeping get affected by the change in technology. In the era of competition, it is imperative to be updated in terms of the use of technology. Most businesses with an in-house accounting team face mainly two issues; A. keeping pace with changing technologies B. continuous updating of the account team’s knowledge. Virtual accountants are a solution to this problem as it becomes affordable for them to keep pace with changing technology and updating themselves with the latest trends by appropriate training at regular intervals.

24/7 access

You have assistance at your disposal all the time. The virtual accounting team has 24/7 availability to take up all your queries and resolve them. This is one of the biggest perks of virtual accounting. Apart from that, having constant access to critical information gives better control over your finances. If you are not good with technology, the virtual accounting team makes it easy for you. It trains you on bookkeeping and accounting software and other areas where you need to. Basically, your virtual accounting team is your point of contact for everything.

Data security

Data security is a major concern for business owners. It is of utmost importance for any virtual accounting team to protect the confidential information of clients. CapActix ensures safe transfer and storage of your financial data on our secure and encrypted cloud server. We are ISO 27001:2013 certified company and providing assurance to our clients about the security of their sensitive financial information and records.

Conclusion:

Don’t make accounting a hurdle for your business. Leave it to the experts and let them do a job. CapActix enables your business with accurate online accounting and accurate financial forecasting. If you are looking for reliable accounting services to scale up your business growth, please write to us at biz@capactix.com or call us on +1 201-778-0509

How to maintain common set of books to satisfy requirements of Cost Accounting with Financial Accounting

The integrated accounting system is the system wherein books for the Financial Accounting and Cost Accounting requirements are maintained in a common set. This is why, it is called, that Cost Accounting and Financial Accounting are integrated into one System.

CIMA defines that an “integrated accounting system refers to the interlocking of the financial and cost accounting systems to ensure all relevant expenditure is absorbed into the cost accounts. Under this accounting system transactions are classified both according to their function and nature.”

Integrated accounting should be configured in a way that while it can provide information for the cost of each unit, batch or job or any other measurable unit it should not distort financial statements viz., Profit and Loss Account and Balance Sheet.

For example,

• The purchase of raw material can be directly posted into Stores Ledger Control Account, Work-in-progress Ledger Control Account or Overhead Account in-stead of Purchase account.
• The Direct wages can be posted into Wages Control Account or Overheads Control Account instead of Direct Wages account

Benefits of Integrated Accounting System:

1. Since figures for financial accounts and cost accounts are from a common source, there are no requirements for reconciliation between two.
2. Saving of significant time and cost which otherwise gets wasted in maintaining both accounts separately.
3. Because of the auto reconciliation of cost accounting with financial accounting, management reporting will be quick and accurate and it will help in timely decision making.
4. It simplifies and improves the internal control mechanism
5. All cost related figures are basically derived from financial records so when it is directly linked to financial accounting, it is more reliable and accurate.
6. This system helps in eliminating clerical errors happens in fetching data from financial account books in preparation of cost accounts books data

Process for configuring Integrated accounting system:

• First of all, the degree of integration needs to be considered.
  > Full Integration: Under full integration, all the cost accounting elements in deriving the cost of sales are integrated with financial accounting.
  > Partial integration: Sometimes when full integration is temporarily not possible, difficult or management wants to test an integrated system; integration can be configured up to a particular stage of cost sheet such as prime cost, factory cost, cost of production, etc.

• Then the most appropriate and adaptable coding system should be developed to codifying charts of financial accounts and cost accounts including but not limited to SKU, Locations, etc.
• Standard process data documents should be developed containing all the details related to Cost Accounts and Financial Accounts.
• Establish coordination between departments handling financial information and costing information.
• Account department should be trained so that they can become familiar with, record transactions in, and prepare reports from Integrated accounting System.
• An appropriate accounting package needs to be selected which can best suit the requirements of integration, report generation and automation of the processes.

Examples of posting under an integrated accounting system

Keynotes:

Success always depends on your ability to timely and proper decision making. To have that ability you need accurate, reconciled and advantageous information in your hand. This information can be generated with an Integrated Accounting System which gives all the information which you need for decision making. Using appropriate accounting package and integrating advance applications with the software, a superior integrated accounting system can be developed for any business which can help to keep that business on top of the peers.

We at, CapActix have an expert team available to understand your reporting requirements and helps you set up an appropriate system integrating your financial accounting with cost accounting. We are a prominent accounting outsourcing company based in India. We can help you with establishing an integrated accounting system to make your reporting requirements accurate and reliable. For more details, you can reach us on