As part of your company’s management, you are responsible for ensuring accurate data, regardless of being a government contractor or a commercial firm. As such, timely coding of transactions is crucial to the accuracy of your data, not to mention internal and external reporting to investors, banks, government agencies, etc. The earlier you code a transaction, the more accurate your data. It’s that simple! It’s important to note that you’re gathering data anyway – just gather it correctly. Why keep track of inaccurate, useless data? It doesn’t make sense, but the latter is the norm.
We recommend that your firm consider using a purchasing system (yes, QuickBooks can handle this for small businesses), where a purchase requisition becomes one of the earliest points in the transaction process. Code the requisition and this account number and project will follow its way through the entire accounting process, through the purchase order, to the vendor bill, to the payment. This is also a strong internal control when it comes to compliance, especially when you undergo audits.
Maybe you need help setting up a QuickBooks chart of accounts for your SBIR accounting needs, or even already have one but it needs to be restructured. We can help. Give us a call today.