FAQs

Bookkeeping gives you a crystal clear picture of where your money is coming and going. When your books are up-to-date, you get an accurate measure of your business’s health and can make smarter financial decisions. Having accurate books pays off at tax time, too. When your bookkeeping is up-to-date, you avoid scrambling to get caught up before the tax deadline, or missing out on any deductions.

Your bookkeeping professional reconciles your accounts monthly, categorizes your transactions, and produces your financial statements. They also make adjustments to your books to ensure they’re tax-compliant. A bookkeeper might need your input on things like categorizing a transaction properly, but we try our best to make bookkeeping as hands-off as possible for you. At Moose Creek Bookkeeping we offer very customizable packages, please check out our service page.

Complete and accurate financial record keeping is crucial to your business success. Good records provide the financial data that helps you operate more efficiently. Accurate and complete records enable you to identify all your business assets, liabilities, income, and expenses. This information helps you pinpoint both the strong and weak phases of your business operations. Moreover, good records are essential for the preparation of current financial statements, such as the income statement (profit and loss), Balance Sheet, and Statement of Cash Flows. Good records help you avoid underpaying or overpaying your taxes and are essential during an Internal Revenue Service audit.

Bookkeepers and CPA’s share a lot of the same duties but they are, in fact, not the same. Bookkeepers deal with day to day tasks, such as recording sales, organizing receipts, conducting payroll, and so on. CPA’s focus on the Income Tax strategies for your business. In other words, bookkeepers take all the loose financial information happening daily and prepare financial statements, where the CPA takes that already organized information and gives tax advice.

Trusting a person online with your most important financial information is definitely scary, but the benefits are worth it! For one, you’re not limited or forced to resort to the nearest bookkeeper and can instead spread your options globally, choosing based on quality instead of simply distance. In addition, you will always be able to access your books and don’t have to wait for your bookkeeper to reply, schedule an appointment, and show you the information. If you still feel uneasy, you can take steps to make sure the bookkeeper you choose is who they say they are. Check out their website, look for testimonials, ask for referrals, and see if they use trustworthy and secure methods of information transfer. Sending important documents through email, for example, is generally discouraged. A trustworthy bookkeeper cares for the safety of your information and identity and will always encourage you to use secure software, like HubDoc or GoogleDrive to send documents containing sensitive information. We want you to feel comfortable and confident if you do choose to work with us, so feel free to contact us and address any concerns you may have. Perhaps meeting via zoom will reassure you that Moose Creek Bookkeeping truly does have your best interest in mind and that your books will be done in the utmost quality.

Your bookkeeping team consists of professionally trained and certified bookkeepers, who reviews all of your monthly statements and your year end financial package. We try our best to keep you with the bookkeeping team you’re assigned when you come on board. If there’s any change in your bookkeeping team, we’ll let you know as soon as possible and make sure the transition is a smooth one.

Sole proprietorships are one of the most common types of businesses. Sole proprietors are unincorporated businesses owned and run by one person. In the eyes of the IRS (Internal Revenue Services), they are the same entity. There are two main benefits to becoming a sole proprietorship: the ease of starting up and the flexibility of taking or adding cash to the business. Since you and your business are considered the same entity, your money is your business’s money and vice versa. Please talk to a business attorney or tax expert to determine the best option for your business.

General partnerships are much like sole proprietorships. Partnerships are also unincorporated and don’t have liability protection. Personal assets are on the line in the case of bankruptcy or defaulting on a loan. A general partnership is the easiest way for two or more people to go into business together. It can be started with something as simple as a handshake. There is no required paperwork or fees. If you’ve been doing a side business with a friend, you’re likely already in a general partnership without knowing it. Please talk to a business attorney or tax expert to determine the best option for your business.

LLC stands for “Limited Liability Company.” An LLC is one type of legal entity that can be formed to own and operate a business. LLC’s are very popular because they provide the same characteristics of a corporation with those of a partnership or sole proprietorship. Any person starting a business, or currently running a business as a sole proprietor, should consider forming an LLC if you are concerned about personal exposure to lawsuits arising from your business. For example, if you decide to open a store-front business that deals directly with the public, you may worry that your commercial liability insurance won’t fully protect your personal assets from potential slip-and-fall lawsuits or claims by your suppliers for unpaid bills. The disadvantages of an LLC are the filing fees to form and operate and are not ideal for business owners who seek outside investors. Please talk to a business attorney or tax expert to determine the best option for your business.

Just like LLCs, C Corporations grant shareholders limited liability—they aren’t personally on the line for the business’s debts and liabilities. But this isn’t the only perk available to corporations. When choosing a business structure, you should consider where you’re getting funding from. Corporations can sell stock, add shareholders, and take on investors. This means you’re not always depending on traditional funding like loans to get the capital you need. The drawbacks of corporations are the cost, regulation, and paperwork required to be operational. C corporations also face what’s called double taxation: the corporation pays income tax and when company profits are distributed to shareholders, they also pay tax on these earnings. Please talk to a business attorney or tax expert to determine the best option for your business.

Although Moose Creek doesn’t file your Federal Income Taxes or provide audit services, we do file Washington State B&O & Sales Tax, Other State Taxes, Payroll Federal Quarterly Reports 940/941, Washington Unemployment and Labor & Industries. We also have great CPA’s we partner with to file your Federal Income Taxes.

Our approach is to understand your business, your personal ambitions and the industry in which you compete. We believe this provides our clients with a personal service, designed just for them  We offer customized packages that fit your business and we understand not every business has the same needs.