All About Color Accounting Course and The Benefits

It’s time to improve the communication skills of accounting professionals and the understanding of business management as it relates to the accounting business model. It’s time the accounting information becomes useful to business owners to help them make more informed decisions.

Color Accounting is a technique that uses color and a tactile model to improve financial literacy by connecting the principles, meaning, and application of accounting data. Other studies have found a substantial relationship between color, attentiveness, and memory recall. You may also opt for other Universal Accounting Online Courses for better guidance and information.

Instead of replacing this technique with a three-color balance sheet-income statement (“BaSIS”) storyboard and color-coded “buckets” (accounts) and “tickets,” Color Accounting is innovative in that it does away with explaining how accounting works using debits and credits (transactions). Transaction tickets are assigned to bucket accounts based on how they influence the buckets on the storyboard. Accounting topics are taught in this fashion, using color and tactile objects to help students visualize the logic of money flows.

It’s a highly effective accounting training curriculum that employs real-world situations that managers can readily connect to. It’s the approach that’s been shown to turn non-financial managers into confident masters of the financial fundamentals in only one day worldwide. The presentation is also a lot of fun, and at the end of the day, you’ll have a solid working understanding of fundamental accounting principles that you can apply daily.

Color Accounting is a teaching approach that uses diagrams and logical colors to illustrate how accounting and business operate graphically so that everyone can make better decisions. These are some of the advantages:

Fluently read and understand financial statements.
Engage confidently in financial conversations – asking powerful questions and improving communication, and reducing misunderstandings.
Truly understand the mechanics and language of accounting and finance use by professionals.
Confidently make sound decisions more quickly.
Create budgets that work and guide the delivery of results.
Impact the organization by meeting its financial goals.
Share the mindset of colleagues, clients, and the CEO to gain credibility as a trusted, business-savvy team member.
A clear framework for the structure of financial information
A robust understanding of the mechanics of accounting
Fluency in the language of accounting and finance
Enhanced business understanding, based on The Value Cycle of Business

About BaSIS Framework

Almost all resources are based on the Color Accounting Course visual system and illustrate important topics using the BaSIS Framework. The Framework provides accounting comprehensively on a single page, with logical color-coding. There are several advantages to having both the Balance Sheet and the Income Statement in one view…

During explanations, the lecturer or students might point to it (portability)
It is simpler to assist in resolving frequent misunderstandings, such as the mistake between cash and income.
When studying, using color instead of the phrases debit and credit makes the logic of debiting and crediting obvious, requiring less rote memory.
Combining visual, aural, and kinaesthetic learning modes to increase speed and depth of the intake.
It’s simple to observe and comprehend the distinctions between balance sheet and income statement accounts and sub-accounts.
The language becomes more visible: words are presented more clearly and defined in terms of what they are and are not.

You will learn the language of business and apply it to business choices with the Color Accounting Course program in Universal Accounting. Understanding the foundations of accounting will provide new insights into how organizations operate, and your connection with financial data will be altered. They also have an exclusive program of QuickBooks Specialist Training. Have a visit straight now.

Top 4 Benefits Of Accounting Training

The demand for accounting specialists is unlikely to decrease anytime soon. Indeed, as long as there are businesses and currencies, there will be a need for specialists to assist both firms and people in organizing their finances and paying their taxes.

Accounting career prospects are expected to be accessible indefinitely, regardless of the health of the economy. Whether times are good or bad, accounting training assist businesses and people strategize and devise plans for success. Consider how difficult it would be for firms to examine their financial performance and make lucrative decisions in the future if they did not have accountants.

One of the numerous advantages of getting an accounting degree is career stability. If you’re thinking about enrolling in an accounting program, keep reading to find out what makes this profession so appealing.

Accounting Careers Can Be Found In A Variety Of Industries

One advantage of pursuing accounting training is the vast range of firms for which you will be qualified once you have completed your studies. You’ll be able to apply your financial knowledge to an accounting job in an industry that interests you.

From video game firms and fashion merchants to non-profit organizations and veterinary clinics, everyone requires payroll specialists that understand financial bookkeeping. Once you graduate, determining the industry you want to work in may make the job search process a lot more fun.

Accounting Professionals Have A Wide Range Of Job Opportunities

You will have the choice to choose which sector of accounting you want to work in, just as you will have several industries to choose from. While many accountants work in accounts payable, others work in a variety of compliance jobs.

Within a single online accounting training firm, you may have access to a wide range of accounting options. Indeed, many firms provide many opportunities for growth, as well as the opportunity to try your hand at a different job within the department. After graduation, you may be interested in pursuing numerous accounting opportunities, such as being a controller, auditor, accounting assistant, and others. You may also think about launching your own accounting firm, where you can manage a range of customer accounts on your own. Regardless your employment goals be sure to leverage your opportunities with the Complimentary Job Placement Assistance Program.

With accounting skills, starting a home-based business is a possible career option.

You’ll Be Prepared For Business Success

To be successful as a business owner or entrepreneur, you must understand basic accounting principles.

Managing costs, cash flow, bills, vendors, and payroll are all important aspects of running a business. Preparing financial accounts, evaluating how profitable your firm is, estimating future sales, and conveying financial information to stakeholders and investors are all critical accounting skills for entrepreneurs.

Accounting can help you go one step closer to your entrepreneurial ambitions as a business owner. Therefore if you want to start an accounting business, visit us at Universal Accounting!

Accounting Professionals Make A Good Living

The average accountant’s compensation now starts around $50,000. However, as you achieve more experience, you will be able to earn far more. Accounting has a lot of earning potential, especially if you appreciate studying and staying up to speed on the newest accounting techniques and trends throughout your career.

Some accountants utilize their knowledge to teach in the profession, while others work hard to become partners in big accounting companies, so you never know where your accounting training may lead you! To learn more, contact us at Universal Accounting!

Keeping Up with Customer Expectations: The 2022 Edition

Offering customers a positive online experience has been the price of admission for marketers since the dawn of digital marketing. The problem is that the definition of positive keeps changing. Where do customers expect you to engage with them? Once upon a time, having a website was plenty. Then having a mobile presence became essential, followed by customers’ demand for mobile applications that personalized their experience of your company. Next came social media. Which platforms did they prefer? How many platforms did you have to manage to satisfy their demands?

Customers keep raising the bar and sometimes it’s tough to see how high your company has to climb. Certainly, COVID19 further upped the ante. Customers wanted more and better service from the safety of their homes. But even in the pre-COVID era, customer expectations for technology-enabled service grew every year. And analysts predict they’ll demand even more should we ever reach an age that can be called the post-Covid era. Gen-Z will likely lead the charge, expressing a distinct preference for helping themselves via digital channels, from in-app messaging to online chatbots.

Customer Expectations by the Numbers

What do customers want right now? A comprehensive 2020 study by Appnovation provides some insight, reporting that 44% of customers surveyed fully expected businesses to adopt new and innovative digital solutions in 2021. Another 45% of survey respondents expected companies to enhance their existing technology, as well. Then there were the hopefuls: even those customers who didn’t expect these changes expressed a desire for innovation, nonetheless. Only 17% of customers reported that they didn’t much care about digital service innovation. But that number may be suspect. Customers who profess not to care quickly change their tune when they’re inconvenienced or unable to get the services they need online. That’s precisely the customer experience that drives innovation. So don’t discount the seemingly disengaged. They should figure as an important segment in your marketing planning.

The Common Threads Among Customer Expectations

According to a study by Aqui, 78% of customers want to do business with brands that “get them.” Brands that demonstrate insight into their needs and can quickly solve their problems get top marks. Most of us aren’t mind readers, of course. That’s why primary market research should be an essential element of your brand planning. If you haven’t hosted any focus groups or put a survey out into the market in some time, now is the right moment to do so. The global pandemic brought profound changes. Customers are shopping differently now and 75% of respondents to Aqui’s survey reported trying new brands, stores, and channels during the COVI19 era. If what you know about your customers is based on 2-year-old data, your established customer profiles may be way off target.

Customers want to trust brands and see companies live up to their brand promises. Trust has new meaning now. Customers expect brands to prioritize their safety, demonstrated by actions as basic as implementing enhanced sanitation or as complicated as cybersecurity. They also want brands to provide financial security for themselves and their employees, even if it means taking a financial hit themselves. No doubt, that’s why record inflation has become a hot political issue. The pandemic has even influenced customers’ expectations of brand communications. They’re less interested in light-hearted advertising and prefer to see messages that demonstrate empathy and help them solve the new problems they’re having now. You may want to discuss that trend with your advertising agency.

Digital Readiness Cuts Across Industries

Customers have varying expectations of the companies they do business with, of course. Would you buy a new car without taking it for a test drive? Not surprisingly, Appnovation’s study found that, in the pre-COVID era, a majority of consumers wouldn’t. That’s not to say they didn’t visit car dealer websites or read a lot of online product reviews—but the need to physically touch something before you buy it is real and underscores that in-store and person-to-person customer experiences shouldn’t get lost in the digital shuffle. Many people want to squeeze the avocados, too. Despite an increase in shopping for essential goods online, Kroger, Stop and Shop, and Piggly Wiggly parking lots are still jammed.

Customers making purchases in certain industries, especially banking and other financial services, express a high level of digital readiness. Let’s look at banking for a moment. It may have started with ATMs—people didn’t care to wait for a teller to serve them in bank branches—but now customers are plenty content to perform a wide range of banking tasks online and via mobile app. They want to open checking accounts, pay their bills, refinance their student loans, invest in their retirement, and more, all online. And the banking industry upped its game in response.

The lending industry stands out for having made some tremendous strides towards improving customer experience, aided by new financial technology applications that make the process of applying for and being funded for a loan faster, simpler, and more convenient. Traditional banks and credit unions, established online mortgage lenders like Quicken and LoanDepot, and a booming new crop of fintech lending startups have all adopted digital lending platforms in recent years. The insurance industry and its many tentacles—from traditional home and auto policies to the growing pet insurance sector—has also benefited from financial technology. Indeed, these companies have their own moniker: they’re known as insuretech companies. Not surprisingly, fintech has dominated in the venture capital arena, attracting $134 billion in funding in 2021—a number that represents 177% year-over-year growth.

Fine-Tuning Your Sales Process

If you’re still relying on the same Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application you’ve used for years, you’re not accessing all the technology available to help you close deals. Sales enablement applications are gaining favor and 77% of companies who employ a sales team in excess of 500 members are now relying on SAAS companies that provide sales enablement tools. And interest is growing. Google searches for “sales enablement” increased by 52% between 2020 and 2021.

What’s the difference between CRM and sales enablement platforms? CRMs collect the data you need to manage relationships. Sales enablement manages relationships for you. These applications often feature digital conference rooms where salespeople and customers can meet virtually while having immediate access to proposals, relevant content, records of previous conversations, and more. Sales enablement platforms can better align your sales and marketing functions.

Sales enablement solutions also function as sales training resources. Training not only improves sales performance, but also keeps your sales team happy. One of the most commonly cited reasons why sales people quit their jobs is a dearth of training and a clear path to career advancement. A LinkedIn study revealed that 94% of employees say they’d stay put in their roles if their employers invested in their futures through sales training. Sales enablement technology is one way companies can keep their salespeople engaged and satisfied—and manage the other epidemic we’re in the midst of: record attrition levels. One in four workers quit their jobs last year. And attrition levels are even higher in the sales arena—19% higher, in fact.

The First Step in Meeting Customer Expectations

As the old saying goes, you can’t fix something if you don’t know it’s broken. Research that enhances your understanding of your customers—and your employees—is vital to meeting, or better yet, even exceeding, customer expectations. And yours should cover every touchpoint. Website and mobile stats, email CTRs, customer service standards, monitoring product reviews and consumer ratings—there’s a wealth of data out there that can help you fine tune your customer experience. And one last suggestion: study your competition carefully. Find a way to differentiate yourself in a meaningful way. What does meaningful mean? That’s a question only your customers can answer.

Author Bio:

Susan Doktor is a journalist, business strategist, and principal at Branddoktor. Her contribution comes to us courtesy of Money.com. Follow Susan on Twitter @branddoktor.

7 Ways to Get Your Company Out of Debt

Debt can be tricky to navigate, especially if your business has been in the red and struggling to get into the black for quite some time. Thankfully, there are many ways to get your business out of debt and increase your long-term financial health as you do so. Below, Universal Accounting offers seven ways to tackle your debts and get back on track with your finances.

1. Put Yourself in Control

Step one is to identify where you are in terms of debt. How much do you owe and to whom? Start by separating your business and personal accounts. Then, get your financial house in order. What are your net earnings? What’s left over after paying bills, rent or mortgage, credit cards, and other liabilities? How much money can you afford to put toward debt repayment every month?

2. Have an Effective Invoicing Process

Timely payments are essential to your success. That’s why upgrading your invoicing software is an important step in ensuring that your business gets paid on time. By investing in a quality invoicing system, you can save yourself the hassle of chasing down late payments and worrying about cash flow. In addition, a good invoicing system can help you keep track of your spending, budget more effectively, and make it easier to keep close track of your overall financial health.

3. Create a Budget

One of the first steps in any debt-reduction plan is creating a budget. Think of it as a spending plan that includes what you need to spend and how much you can afford. Creating a budget helps show where your money goes every month and helps identify areas where you can cut back or save more money.

4. Reduce Expenses

It’s common for small businesses to operate on a thin margin. But if your business is in constant survival mode with little room to breathe or plan, you may want to examine your expenses and look for ways to trim them where possible. Doing so can set your business up for long-term financial health. This is one of many simple steps you can follow from the Universal Turnaround Model.

5. Increase Revenue

Take a look at your current product offering or service mix, and think of ways you can pivot to produce more revenue. Perhaps your customers can benefit from an add-on service to use your product in more situations. Or maybe there’s another customer base you can tap into with a different kind of product that costs less to produce than what you currently offer.

6. Consolidating Debt

As you begin working off your debt, consider consolidating all your various debts in one place. Consolidating can simplify your financial life significantly and make it easier to manage multiple payments.

7. Improve Your Financial Standing

To enhance your financial situation, form an LLC. Due to the tax benefits, you may owe less come tax season. Various states have different rules for forming an LLC, so check the details in your state before proceeding. If you don’t want to do the groundwork yourself, a formation service can save you money on lawyer fees.

Healthily Growing Your Business

Getting out of debt isn’t an easy process, but it can be done with time and effort — as long as you’re serious about your goals. Focus on getting paid, sticking to a budget, cutting expenses and finding ways to increase your revenue as part of your main goals, but don’t let mistakes and slip-ups derail you. Instead, use them as learning experiences, get back on track, and focus on what matters most — healthily growing your business.

Learn more how you can address cash flow concerns with “Red to Black – a turnaround guide for accounting professionals” when you work with business owners as their Profit & Growth Expert.

How Your Business Can Use Financial Projections

Running a business involves risk and uncertainty. Fortunately, financial projections can help you understand the likely outcomes your business might face. Regardless of your industry or your company’s size, you can benefit from accurate financial predictions. Learn how BizBench can help.

Types of Financial Projections

There are many methods you can use when creating financial projections for your company. Understanding the different varieties of projections can help you select the appropriate models and documentation styles for your company. First, you can create financial projections that include either short-term or long-term predictions. A short-term financial projection might outline the next year, with monthly breakdowns. However, if you intend to use your forecasts to attract investors, you need a long-term statement covering several years. In addition, different types of financial statements can be used to predict future sales and expenses. You can use this information to create financial projections anticipating your income and cash flow. Employing a range of financial forecast and quantitative modeling methods can help you make robust, reliable predictions.

What to Include in Your Statements

When creating financial projections for your business, it’s important to include all the necessary information. For example, you should have a projected income statement and balance sheet detailing your business’s current and future financial status. Your projections should cover both sales and expenses, including operating costs and payroll. A break-even analysis can help determine the revenue your business needs to cover its expenses. You should also include predictions about your company’s future assets and liabilities which can impact your balance sheet projections.

Creating Useful Financial Projections

Launching a profitable business can be challenging. Research suggests that 20% of new businesses fail after two years of operation, and nearly half of companies don’t make it to the five-year mark. Writing a thorough business plan that includes financial projections can help you avoid common pitfalls and secure much-needed funding. Using templates ensures you have all the data you need when creating your forecasts. You can also invest in financial projection software to improve the efficiency and accuracy of your predictions. Save time by generating reports automatically. Furthermore, you can access analytic tools and explore various scenarios with your projections. An accounting system can provide accurate cash flow information, and you can use this to organize your finances, too.

The Purpose of Financial Projections

Once you create your financial projections, you can use them to improve your business in various ways. First, financial forecasting can help you notice potential problems before they occur. This allows you to plan ahead and navigate challenges more smoothly. Financial projections also create realistic and clearly defined goals for your company. You can use your predictions to assess your progress, too. Failure to meet the expectations detailed in your financial projections can be an important warning sign that your business is struggling.

When communicating with potential investors and business partners, your financial projections can help convey your company’s vision for the future. If your business requires funding to launch, you need accurate predictions so that your investors know what to expect. Financial forecasting can also help you calculate your business taxes in advance. You could face penalties and fees or even lose your right to conduct business by not paying taxes. Many states mandate that businesses file reports and pay taxes annually to remain compliant. In Utah and most other states, compliance also entails filing an annual report, especially if there are changes to the business’s operational structure, address, and more.

Whether you’re starting a new business or have been in operation for many years, financial projections can help you handle periods of growth and struggle. You can create realistic predictions about your company’s finances with the right tools, like BizBench.

To help you as you plan to work ON your business, work with a certified Profit & Growth Expert.