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Accounting and financial management 101

October 10, 2019
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Accounting and financial management 101

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The good news is you’ve started your business, and — even better, — it’s making money, so how could there be any bad news? Unfortunately, for many people, money is a taboo subject (even if the whole point of starting a business is working on something you love that’s also profitable). Having your own business is a lot of work, and requires sacrifice, spending many hours working outside of regular business hours when you’d rather be with family, doing everything in your power to make it work because you’ve put everything you have into it. As passionate as you are, the payoff has to be worth it (or more than worth it, ideally).

The only option is for a business to make money, but that isn’t enough. It’s equally important to manage that money wisely, so not all of your efforts are wasted because of bad management.

Even if you plan on hiring someone, like an accountant or a friend who’s particularly good at math, having some solid knowledge about financial management will save you a lot of hassle, unpleasant surprises and cold sweats and sleepless nights come tax return time.

Can you do it by yourself? You might be an Excel pro, but it takes more than basic technical knowledge to manage a business’s finances. There are many questions that you need to ask yourself, like what is, or isn’t, tax deductible, how to manage your provincial and federal taxes, as well as your gains and expenses, and how to calculate your net earnings. Basically, it’s not because you can manage the budget at home that you should automatically dive into managing your business’s finances. If you don’t want those to turn into a nightmare, it’s best to be prepared.

What are basic accounting statements and how are they created? How are internal accounting books and records processed? Balance sheets? Financial statements? How do you set up and interpret those? What about creating financial reports? Dealing with income tax? Processing employee pay?

Are you sweating yet?

If the answer is yes, you aren’t alone (or at least, you shouldn’t be). All of these questions are answered in the Accounting and Financial Management course offered by Concordia Continuing Education as part of its Entrepreneurship program. If you want to take the reins of your business and not let its finances be managed by a third party, you know what you have to do; and it starts with signing up for the program that has all of the answers.



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