Personal Finance Tips

If you answer yes to any of the following questions, you may want to consider looking into getting a business loan.

1. Is the amount of your current assets minus the amount of your current liabilities a negative number?

Subtracting your current liabilities from your current assets will show you how much working capital your business currently has. Working capital is generally the money that can be used to put back into your business in order to advance your business. Businesses not only need working capital to expand, but sometimes, working capital may be necessary to stay afloat. If your working capital is not a positive number, you may be able to benefit from a business loan. You can use a business loan as an immediate injection of working capital for your business that does not need to be paid off immediately.

2. Have your original funds for business financing come up short?

It usually takes multiple sources of financing to start and run a business. Most business owners do the math, calculate all of the projected expenses and find financing from various sources; friends, family, personal savings, investors, grants, etc. But once all of the money is put to use, it may turn out that, still, more funds are needed. It may now be time to consider getting a business loan.

Contrary to popular belief, a bank is not the only place to get a business loan. A business cash advance can supply you with the funds that a bank gives without the requirements of great credit, and collateral.

3. You want to expand your business

Using a bank loan to expand a business is a great idea. The money that you receive in your loan can finance the purchase of additional equipment, extra advertising, inventory, and anything else that you may need on your road to business expansion.

As stated above, a business cash advance is a type of business loan that can be very beneficial to many business owners. Business cash advance lenders purchase a business’ future credit card sales. Therefore, a lump sum is given to a business owner to be used for business financing, and soon after, a small percentage of the business’ daily credit card sales goes towards repayment of the business cash advance.

A business cash advance is a preferred method of business financing for many reasons: Business cash advance lenders have few requirements for eligibility, offer an easy repayment process, and allow borrowers to renew business cash advances.

Insurance is a necessity in any business. Businesses cover themselves against losses such as fire, theft and unexpected natural disasters. It is with the bookkeeping or accounting that owners get it wrong.

On successful insurance claims, a payment is normally made to the insured. My experience has led me to believe that small businesses have no clue, as to how, to account for insurance settlements. Most businesses reflect the payment as income.

Not only would this be deceptive but also violates International Accounting Standards. Since the transaction has everything to do with assets and nothing to do with income, it should be adjusted against assets. Erroneous accounting for assets might prejudice the business further in future, if similar insurance claims are made.

Insurance companies settle claims on assets, on its book value and not its costs. (And yet the asset was insured on its cost at date of purchase). Whereas this principle might vary from country to country, book value is widely accepted as the norm. Since most small businesses fail to maintain proper fixed assets registers, insurance companies perform “desk top valuations”, or make an “estimate”, on the book value, mostly much lower than its “real” book value. Without proper records, the claimant cannot debunk the assessor’s final conclusions.

Before I loose you in a sea of confusion, let me elaborate. If an asset is on your books at least, without the asset register, but you have no purchase date, and this asset is lost due to theft, no accurate wear and tear can be furnished. Furthermore, if a claim is settled, and reflects as “income”, what happens to the asset that was stolen, but still reflects on your books?

Many reading this article could not care a hoot about the number crunching involved, but please stay with me for a minute. You might not care, but an investor, a bank and yes, the insurance company might pick this up on your financial statements when they demand your reports.

The method used to account for insurance claims is the “disposal method”. Any asset subject to an insurance claim should be transferred to a “Disposal Account”. Depreciation on the asset for the relevant period is calculated, and credited to the disposal account with the insurance settlement. The cost, less depreciation equals book value. Any settlement amounts over or under book value, will result in a loss or profit on disposal.

An insurance claim, wrongly entered as “income”, can be adjusted by transferring the amount to the disposal account. After effecting these entries, the disposal account should balance to zero. Your new records would reveal, the loss or profit on claim (income statement), settlement in bank account, fixed assets less the stolen/lost asset, and a lower depreciation estimate for the year.

I acknowledge that this is your accountant’s job, you however have a duty to provide accurate records. But how many businesses continue to pay, the same insurance premiums on the assets, since purchase date, when they, entitled to a lower premium, due to a lower asset value.(prior to any asset losses).

Also, a precarious asset situation in your books, might lead to problems in your tax affairs.
No business can afford a visit from the IRS. Did you know that tax authorities always commence auditing, your assets, before they move on to your income?