Timely and quality financial information will make you more money. This is a concept that all business leaders will easily agree on when at a trade show or conference sharing best practices. Yet, the moment they return to their business “life happens” and this is easily forgotten. 
As many of you are currently spending time compiling information to provide to your tax preparer, we thought it appropriate to share a few of the common bookkeeping issues we have seen when onboarding Winmark franchisees (in 29 States throughout the U.S.) from other providers or in-house processing to our service.
1) The balance sheet and income statement do not match the “month-end DRS report”:
- Shouldn’t they?
- In the event of an audit, this discrepancy will open you up for questioning on your submitted income tax information that will likely lead to audit complications and, ultimately, will cost you money.
2) Revenue is being recorded incorrectly on the income statement:
- Providing an inaccurate valuation of the business that may cost you dearly at the time of sale.
3) Gift Cards for promotional use and tax consequences of “shrinkage” are not being handled correctly:
- Not knowing the true outstanding balance of gift cards due, whether they have been used multiple times, or if you might even have fraud or theft occurring in your store.
4) Balance sheets and income statements are prepared too late for it to even matter:
- Best in class franchisees are using their balance sheet and income statement to make the right business decisions quicker than the competition.
- This should occur within the first ten days of the month following based on trends.
To learn more about how we help Winmark franchisees use quality financial information to make more money, please visit our website http://www.bergankdv.com/winmark
