In order to thrive and promise the smooth functioning of the business, it is extremely important to keep a handy checklist of foolproof accounting in place. It not only ensures that anything important is not missed by the business and as well promotes the practice of keeping a complete and an all-inclusive financial records in place which helps in streamlining the tax preparation.

It becomes indispensable for any kind of business to keep a proper team of accountants on hand so as to determine whether it is in a profitable state or not. Furthermore, accounting is also extremely important in order to understand which areas of the business are doing well, and which ones need more attention. A book keeping function ensure that every transaction of the business is properly recorded.

Normally, most big companies have a dedicated accounting section to cater to accounting needs it is of equal importance for small businesses to keep a checklist on tips for having a seamless accounting experience.

Although most big companies have separate units for various sectors of finance and accounting like cost accounting and retail accounting etcetera; it would be in favor of small businesses to keep a composite accounting record.

Small Business Accounting Checklist

Let us take a look at a handy checklist that shall help the small entrepreneurs to keep their accounting in place and setting up a robust accounting strategy!

1. Checking the daily Cash flow

Cash liquidity is extremely crucial in order to ensure the day to day operations of the business enterprise. The business should always study and analyse the expected payments to creditors, vendors and cash inflow from debtors to evaluate any particular trend if exists.

By daily checking the cash flows so the entities can keep a track of avoidable and unavoidable expenditure, and is, therefore, one of the most important tenets of the accounting checklist for business start-ups.

2. Day to day recording

A business should record all the transactions that happen during the course of normal business cycle. This shall help in ensuring that all the functions like the customer billing, vendor payment and cash receipts etcetera are in place and there is no room for embezzlement or fraud.

Although this can be done manually but a lot of accounting software and accounting applications help the owners to ease this recording function like the MS Excel or the QuickBooks.

A day to day recording in the chronological order makes the owner have a strong hold over the businesses’ accounting functions.

3. Documentation

A proper invoice always ensures that the documentation process is in place. This makes the recording of transactions complete and to the point. It also makes the audit trail complete and easier to trace.

Nowadays the businesses prefer to issue and accept digitized invoices thereby reducing any clutter. In case of any theft or fraud, the documented processes are easier to trace the whereabouts.

The documents must be generated as and when the transactions occur in order to prompt and accurate record generation.

4. Time management

It is inevitable to keep a prompt system of payment and receipts. This helps in building the credibility and goodwill in the market. A delay in payment is like a bane to the business.

The small business owners should always keep a track of their accounts payable and ensure that enough funds are available at all the time and have been earmarked to pay their suppliers on time.

This, would ensure that friendly relationships are maintained with the vendors and shall avoid any late fees. A business that pays on time also has better chances to receive on time.

5. Check on financial statements

A close check on the financial statements ensures that the financial health of the company is in fact in place. The unpaid vendors, expected cash inflows and outflows, projected earnings statements etcetera are some of the indicators about the good financial health of the company.

A check on statements requires close scrutiny for all the to and fro transactions. This would cover up checking the cash flow statements, income and expense statement, and the balance sheet.

This helps the company to know the limits of the credits, loans and the deadline meeting criteria. This would also help the business in the long run by making a better-informed decisions.

6. Reconciling the pass book and cash book

An accurate reconciliation of cash records as per the books of accounts and as per the bank statement is very helpful in knowing the position of the cash liquidity, the cheques in transit and charges of the bank in particular.

A reconciliation done after every 2 months helps in cross-checking whether or not the creditors have actually deposited money in the bank for repayment. This also makes it easier to correct errors or find omissions which can then be looked into and corrected

7. Physical Inventory check

The inventories must be verified physically from time to time at a fixed interval. This helps in calculating the economic order quantity needs and the reorder needs. It also helps in locating and regulating the pilferage, leakage or theft if any. This is extremely important in case where the operating cycle is high and the goods are of perishable nature. This helps in knowing the authenticity of the store keeper as well.

The business may fix either 15 days or 1 month for checking; depending on the length of operating cycle of the business. Even a surprise visit shall add more security.

8. Tax and other legal paper work

It is extremely important to keep all the legal documents in check. Keeping an up to date paperwork with respect to tax, payroll, foreign laws, licences and trademarks (if needed) and the documents needed to start the business as per the country law has no other option.

This shall ensure the company is complying with all the laws and regulations with respect to federal, state, or other local taxes. It is helpful for avoiding unnecessary legal implications and attracting any unwanted legal attention from the government.

In India a company is required to pay tax annually, with advance tax every quarter (may change subject to relevant amendments from time to time)

9. Receivables Ledger

This act as a life jacket in the time of financial crunches. Sometimes, due to unforeseen circumstances, the business might not get paid back in time. Therefore, always maintaining a ledger separately to record all past-due invoices can help to keep a track of how much money is owed to the company and from whom.

This shall make reaching out to the people who owe the money much more easily. The debtors can be contacted at appropriate time intervals.

It is also helpful in knowing the amount collected, the amount due, the portion of the amount that remains uncollected. This shall further help in estimating the percentage of bad debts and the amount of provision which the business needs.

This shall also help in maintaining the finances promptly. It would be in favour of the business to check the receivables ledger every quarter.

10. Variance calculation

Variance refers to the difference between the budgeted and actual amounts. It is crucial to correlate the current year’s profit & loss statements with what was budgeted at the start.

This is always a way to assess if the company is moving rightly in the direction it initially thought it would. Whether the company’s goals and objectives are met or not can be ensured with the help of variance calculation.

An entrepreneur can check historical profit-loss statements to compare yearly performance while finding out problem areas in the business. Comparing it against what was budgeted is also extremely useful in finding out how close the company is sticking to its goals.

The study of variance also tells how much the basis on which the goals have been initially formed needs revision. It is recommended to do it semi-annually.

11. Horizontal and Vertical comparisons

By comparing the balance sheet on an interval smaller than one year for the same time period for the previous year, a better clarity of how the assets and liabilities are performing can be evaluated.

By looking out for significant trends and changes, the company can predict much better future outcomes, and take necessary actions as and when necessary. This also helps in finding what new the company can introduce in a particular month or quarter to boost up the profits.

A cost accounting comparison of the products shall give better and deeper insights of how the company should take the product further. A comparison on quarterly basis shall be really beneficial.

12. Making the reports as per the country and industry

Every business enterprise function as per the laws of the industry and the economy in which it is operating. The entity needs to be sure about complying with the needs of reporting as per the norms as laid down.

If the legal frameworks require submitting some of the reports on a specified time interval it should be well aware of and must be complied with.

The time period whether it is monthly, quarterly or semi -annually must be checked and the reports must be submitted accordingly.

13. Filling out requisite forms

The business unit must be well aware of the forms it is needing to fill as per the national and international standards. In order to avoid the penalties, proper knowledge of various deadlines is a must.

Setting a yearly remainder shall be like a savior for the business.

To better manage the time, e-filing services available online shall be used. This is a very efficient and effective way of saving time and cost as well.

In India a company usually requires, before registration

• Aadhaar Card
• PAN Card
• Bank account
• Registered office proof
• DSC – Digital Signature Certificate
• Form – 1 for Incorporation of Company in India
• Form-32 for particulars of managers, secretary, and proposed directors
• Director Identification Number of all proposed company directors
• Original copy of the formal letter which is published by ROC about company name availability
• Form- 18 for address or situation of the proposed company.

There are significant changes from time to time in the requirement of forms which should be adhered to and completed in keeping pace with the changes.

14. Dedicated accounting wing

Accounting is one of the most crucial function of the business. Whatever the business earns if not properly accounted shall go in vain. It is extremely crucial to keep a dedicated accounting wing to take responsibility of the same.

There are a lot of legal and procedural compliances which the business needs to adhere to. This means that there must be at least one dedicated person who is well versed and fully aware of how and when to do it.

Most of the big businesses are required by law to keep a Chartered Accountant which is not a compulsion for businesses up to a certain turnover limit; so usually they avoid keeping an accounting unit as well.

Though a lot of big businesses are doing it; efforts should be made by the small units as well to promptly maintain a dedicated wing for it. Even if the manpower resource is limited a small business unit must keep at minimum one dedicated staff for accounting.

A company needs to be profitable in order to survive. It is extremely important in order to maintain the records of its profitability. Any number if missed from book keeping can turn the business upside down.

Small business can accelerate their wheels of success at a fast pace if they have a good accounting function maintained. The business in their growing phase can take the help of qualified chartered accountants and various available QuickBooks online.

A good bookkeeping and accounting function ensure the loopholes are reduced to a minimum and the enterprise is greased from time to time for proper functioning.

The post The small business accounting checklist appeared first on Growthonomy.

COVID-19 and Wuhan – The Commercial Capital

In order to prevent and control the spread of Novel Coved-19, Chinese Government imposed a full lockdown on Jan 23, 2020 in the city of Wuhan. All major roads and highways were blocked as a reason of the same and approximately 11 million citizens were placed in quarantine that lasted for an unexpected duration of 60 days.

Various severe challenges were imposed because of this lockdown. As Wuhan is considered as the circulatory system of the entire retail sector. Be it groceries or everyday supplies. And the lockdown acted as a barrier wherein the people were cut off from the communities and were locked up in their homes/apartments.

Soon after the declaration of the lockdown the first situation that came up was panic buying from the local stores. In order to prevent themselves from the risk of contamination arising out of contamination.

During this situation two biggest retail giants of china accepted the challenge to keep the quarantined residents supplied with all the necessary items during the isolation days. High degree of innovation and flexibility was seen in terms of skills, processes along with range of products and services offered.

Technology Transformation By Alibaba

With the help of its digital logistics platform, Alibaba became the first one to take a huge move in this direction. With rapid fast market understanding Alibaba identified and contacted all the major quality manufacturing partners, which reopened the mask and other medical supply units during the time of Chinese New Year.

Alibaba offered fast track shipping and tracking of all the critical supplies such as face masks, hand sanitizers and other essential supplies at best prices through its B2C and C2C marketplace.

Alibaba Didn’t stop here, with the help of its digital payment system named Alipay, they were able to collect a huge donation amounting to $1 million alone in the very first 8 hours.

When it comes to physical delivery and distribution, Alibaba’s Cainiao Network and its competitor JD.com are already in process of experimenting new automated technologies in a bid achieving an edge over Western rivals Amazon and Alphabet. 

Innovative Solution By JD.com Played An Important Role In Fighting COVID-19

If we talk about the examples, in 2018, JD.com had tested delivery in remote areas through drones, driverless smart vehicles etc.

After the lockdown was imposed, the first challenge that was faced by digital retailers was: Increasing the delivery capacity without moving manpower into the province?

Coming up with a solution JD.com and few other retailers deployed their new automated technology. Smart vehicles with loaded maps were remotely operated to deliver donated goods to hospitals and household communities.

The empty streets contributed to this experiment. Along with empowering the retailers to cope up with demand hikes without violating the Government laid policies and guidelines.

Major Challenge Faced By The eCommerce Giants:

As major roads and highways were blocked, it was a challenging task to deliver goods and essential items to remote areas affected by virus. Delivery to some remote areas that were still connected by small roads and ferries were consuming time up to 6 hours.

Here JD’s team came up with a creative and innovative idea of delivery using drones, which completed the task effectively in just 20 minutes.

Lockdown resulted in a huge demand of daily essential such as rice, flour, fruits, vegetables and other items. As a result of the same there was a huge transformation from offline to online stores. Which led to shortage of human resources to monitor these supply chains.

Smart Move by Freshippo (Grocery Subsidiary of Alibaba) & 7Fresh (branch of JD.com)

Grocery subsidiary of Alibaba named Freshippo, confronted the challenge by asking workers from shuttered restaurants and retail outlets to staff the supply chain and hiring them

JD.com’s 7Fresh branch quickly followed the suit. And in a short span of time were able to leverage these workers and had to provide them with least knowledge and skills in terms of e-commerce context.

Further leveraging the opportunity, 7Fresh significantly increased the production of ready to cook items with the help of the temporary catering staff that they have hired.

Similarly, MTDP, a super-app restaurant delivery platform came forward to offer its services for the delivery of everyday supplies by partnering with over more than 7,000 brick-and-mortar supermarkets to process digital orders and deliver to individual households.

Contact Less Deliveries:

Delivery workers are most prone to this situation as they are the one who will interact and get in touch with the consumer base. Putting their health at stake and may act as a vector in transmitting the virus.

In order to further reduce and minimize the risks, JD.com and Alibaba both took all the necessary steps like equipping their employees with facial masks, gloves and disinfectants.

Not only that further safety processes were incorporated in their routine, such as temperature checks, mandate disinfection after each delivery and final drop off.

The last mile delivery, which required customer signatures before drop off also proved to be major area of concern for the e-commerce giants as customers refused to accept the orders because of interaction with the delivery personnel and gated communities also refused the entry.

In order to overcome this situation, JD.com placed delivery boxes outside the gated communities and after placing the order in the box a QR code is sent to consumer informing the delivery of the item and requesting the receipt.

Other Initiatives By Alibaba To Fight COVID-19

AliHealth also got pace during this time, providing Covid-19 information through Taobao and Alipay. As the situation started getting worse, it started offering free online consultation on their platform.

As the businesses and Government of the entire world came on to the foot front to defeat the Covid-19 situation, the rapid success of Chinese e-commerce giants and their strategy is teaching the entire world, how to be tech savvy and access mass markets.

The post How Innovation Helped Alibaba Soar High Even During 60-day COVID-19 Lockdown appeared first on Growthonomy.

Click here to Download list of all Kirana stores in Noida providing home delivery of essential items

(See below for sector wise list)

Although e-Commerce is in the latest trend and with the advancement of technology, a change in consumer behavior has been observed. With people switching from offline market to the online market.

However, with the break of Novel Corona Virus (COVID-19) and the lockdown that has been imposed because of the same. The traditional kirana stores are proving themselves to be the live savers, by operating under such pandemic situation and ensuring that the customers are at least able to fulfill their basic requirements like Groceries, milk and various other daily essentials.

Be it big departmental stores, government operated kirana stores, small society stores there are hundreds of stores in a locality and everyone is at the forefront to ensure that there is no panic that is caused because of the lack of daily essentials and we are able to overcome this situation.

Also another important thing to be noticed over here is, the kirana stores majorly operates on credit where the consumer pays once a month are still functioning. Wherein the E-commerce or online stores who have a bigger pocket are not even able to tackle this situation properly.

Therefore, these thousands of kirana stores which are available in every location be it mine or yours are putting in a great effort and even after risking their own lives are operating for us be it providing home delivery or in store service.

Below is a sector-wise list of Vendors or Kirana Stores for essential items (Grocery & Medical supplies)

PS: If we have missed out any store you are aware of, kindly leave the details in comment box and we will update the list. Also, try sharing the details of Kirana Stores or Medical Stores providing home delivery in your area so that a similar list can be prepared for other cities also.

Noida Sector 11 & 12

Noida Sector 14

Noida Sector 15

Noida Sector 15A

Noida Sector 17

Noida Sector 19

Noida Sector 20

Noida Sector 21

Noida Sector 25

Noida Sector 26

Noida Sector 27

Noida Sector 28

Noida Sector 29

Noida Sector 30

Noida Sector 31

Noida Sector 36

Noida Sector 37

Ambedkar Vihar Sector 37

Noida Sector 39

Noida Sector 40

Noida Sector 41

Noida Sector 42, 43, & 46

Noida Sector 44

Noida Sector 45

Noida Sector 47

Noida Sector 48

Noida Sector 49

Noida Sector 50

Noida Sector 51

Noida Sector 55 & 56

Noida Sector 93 – Village Geyjha

Noida Sector 99

Noida Sector 100

Noida Sector 104 – Village Hajipur

Noida Sector 128

Noida Sector 130

Noida Sector 134

Noida Sector 135

Noida Sector 143

Noida Sector 150

Noida Sector 168

Noida – Village Aghapurr

Noida – Village Asgarpur

Noida – Village Atta

Noida – Village Badoli

Noida – Village Baktavarpur

Noida – Village Bhangel

Noida – Village Challera

Noida – Village Chapraulli

Noida – Village Dallupura

Noida – Village Dairy Gurjar

Noida – Village Dairy Pandit

Noida – Village Gulavali

Noida – Village Jhatta

Noida – Village Kambakshpur

Noida – Village Kondli

Noida – Village Mangrauli

Noida – Village Mohiyapur

Noida – Village Momnathal

Noida – Village Morna

Noida – Village Nagli Nagla

Noida – Village Nagli Sakhpur

Noida – Village Nagli Sultanpur

Noida – Village Nagli Vajidpur

Noida – Village Nalgada

Noida – Village Nithari

Noida – Village Rahillapur

Noida – Village Raipur

Noida – Village Sadarpur

Noida – Village Salaarpur

Noida – Village Samasthpur

Noida – Village Shahdara

Noida – Village Shahpur Govardhan Baangar

Noida – Village Yaakootpur

The post Kirana Stores Near Me – Location-wise Contacts for Home Delivery appeared first on Growthonomy.