Common mistakes

Jon_1984

Hi Everybody

Sorry to invade from the student area but I have been tasked with writing an article for a trade magazine we produce at work. The articles content is supposed to be about common mistakes sole traders/partnerships make when keeping book-keeping records themselves to give to their accountants.

I was wondering if anyone could give me some idea of the types of errors/problems you see occuring to base it on?

Thanks

Jon

Sevren

Hi Jon - here are a few :

i. Posting capital items to revenue
ii. Not reconciling bank accounts
iii. Not reconciling control accounts
iv. Duplicate entries
v. Getting in a muddle between the purchase/sales & nominal
vi. Not fully grasping that gross profit does not mean cash in the bank
vii. And the biggest of all, not employing the likes of you or me !

I also think that presentation is crucial - when I refer draft accounts onto an accountant I give them well labelled folders presenting everything that they will need to see in an orderly fashion - this speeds the process up and cuts fees down (the accountants - not mine !)

Probably moving away from the focus of your report, but I have noticed an increase in smaller companies relying on press button reports in user friendly software to make business decisions which comes with some major problems when you factor in the points above !

Hope this helps

Jon_1984

Hi Sevren

I have whipped up an article from that - thank you very much!

Jon