Ever wonder what an accountant in the pest or lawn industry really does each month to produce accurate financial statements that give you an accurate picture of how your business is performing? It all begins with recording transactions and ends with the closing of the books.

During the month you record transactions:

Revenue

• In your routing software, you create work orders that get posted into customer invoices, which become accounts receivable. The invoice records the type of service the customer receives, as well as the proper sales tax where required.
• When the customer pays, payment is recorded, which relieves the account receivable. These payments are batched together and deposited to the bank.
• These customer charges, payments and accounts receivable are brought over to your general ledger software, such as QuickBooks, in batches and all revenue for the period is broken down by service code, division type and branch location for presentation on the profit and loss statement (P&L).
• Sales tax is accumulated in your routing software and recorded as a liability in QuickBooks that will show up on your balance sheet and is relieved by paying the government.

Expenses

• Purchases are made. Materials are ordered from your distributor, delivery is verified and the vendor issues his invoice. That invoice gets recorded in your accounts payable system. That invoice is either keyed into the computer or many of our clients scan the invoice and, through artificial intelligence, the vendor is recognized, the expenses are properly coded, and the amount is properly recorded in the accounts payable system
• Vendor payments are made by recording checks that relieve the accounts payable balance. Many of our clients use Bill.com, which we administer. It gives them a dashboard where they can click off vendors to pay, saving a tremendous amount of time by avoiding check printing, stuffing, etc.
• Payroll is entered using a payroll service, ensuring all employees are coded properly by department and payroll taxes are recorded and transferred to QuickBooks.

Month End

Reconciliation of routing software balances for revenue, payments and accounts receivable to QuickBooks ensures the integrity of revenue numbers.

• Reconciliations are performed for each cash account, loan account and credit card accounts. This process ensures the balance we believe is correct coincides with what the bank/finance companies/credit card companies show as their balances.
• Month-end journal entries are posted to record interest, depreciation and other accruals.
• A trial balance is printed to ensure profit and loss and balance sheet accounts are correct and look reasonable. Where there are anomalies in balances, they are researched and confirmed or corrected.
• A financial and operational report package is created once all the above work is completed. This package includes a P&L, balance sheet and statement of cash flows, as well as operational and financial dashboards showing key performance indicators compared to the past and others in the industry.

If you need accurate and timely information to run and grow your business, the above steps are the minimum amount of effort you or your staff need to complete. Or… you can outsource all of this to our firm and focus on what you do best, like sales and operations.