Читать книгу QuickBooks 2021 For Dummies - Nelson Stephen L., Stephen L. Nelson - Страница 13

Start with the most basic question: Why do you even need an accounting system like QuickBooks? It’s a fair question, so let me supply the two-part answer.

The first reason is that federal law requires your business to maintain an accounting system. Specifically, Section 446 (General Rule for Methods of Accounting) of Title 26 (Internal Revenue Code) of the United States Code requires that you have the capability to compute taxable income by using some sort of common-sense accounting system that clearly reflects income.

If you decide to blow off this requirement — after all, you got into business so that you could throw off the shackles of bureaucracy — you might get away with your omission. But if the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) examines your return, and you ignored Section 446, the IRS gets to do your accounting the way it wants. And the IRS way means that you pay more in taxes and that you also pay taxes earlier than you would have otherwise.

Here’s the second reason for maintaining an accounting system. I’m sort of going out on an editorial limb here, but I’m going to do it anyway. My strong belief — backed by more than three decades of business experience and close observation of several hundred business clients — is that you can’t successfully manage your business without a decent accounting system. Success requires accurately measuring profits or losses and reasonably estimating your financial condition.

This second reason makes sense, right? If your friend Kenneth doesn’t know when he’s making money, which products or services are profitable, and which customers are worth keeping (and which aren’t), does he really have a chance?

I don’t think he does.

To summarize, your business must have a decent accounting system, no matter how you feel about accounting and regardless of how time-consuming and expensive such a system is (or becomes). The law requires you to have such an accounting system. And successful business management depends on such an accounting system.