Category: Office

Office is a term used to describe a place where professional individuals conduct business. Types of professionals that are most often conduct their business in an office include, attorney, accountant, real estate agents, mortgage brokers and lenders, dentists and other healthcare providers, insurance brokers plus many others.

Your Family Budget as a Present Day Economic Tool


Architects draw up plans that reflect everything which goes into constructing a building and a carpenter utilizes a set of those plans to build a house. Without the use of that house-building roadmap the finished product – in this case the house – would not meet expectations of its intended occupant. For example, the bathroom might get overlooked altogether, and nobody wants that, so it’s best to have a house-building plan which we know of as architectural drawings.

Similarly, Rocket Scientists would never begin construction on a new booster rocket without a detailed set of design specifications, because failure to draw up or utilize such specifications would result in mistakes ranging from the minor nuisance variety to the more serious tragic accidents.

We ordinary everyday folks may not be architects, carpenters or rocket scientists, but this doesn’t mean we should go blindly out into the world without an inkling of an idea about finances and without any plan whatsoever to deal with our personal finances. That wouldn’t be very smart of us, would it? So we need a plan on how best to handle our finances or, as it is referred to in some circles, a money plan.

In business for yourself, not by yourself!
Your very own digital business!

Another name for a money plan is a budget and it is crucial to get us to our desired financial goals. Without a plan we will drift without direction and end up marooned on a distant financial reef or, in more direct terms, financial ruin. Not a pleasant destination for anyone! So if you haven’t taken the time to create a budget – or money plan – it may be a good idea to get started on one very soon (immediately?).

And if you have a spouse or a significant other, it is best that you make this budget together so you will both be on the same page with the family financial direction. Just sit down with your spouse and figure out what your joint financial goals are. You’ll need to include both long term and short term financial goals and then plan your route to get to those goals.

Every journey begins with one step and the first step to attaining your goals is to make a realistic budget that both of you can live with. A budget should never be a financial starvation diet. That won’t work for the long haul. Make reasonable allocations for food, clothing, shelter, utilities and insurance and set aside a reasonable amount for entertainment and the occasional luxury item. Savings should always come first before any spending.

Today is the first day of the rest of your life. Keep it positive!
Today starts the rest of your journey. Make it count !

Even a small amount saved will help you reach your long term and short term financial goals. You can find many budget forms on the internet. Just use any search engine you choose and type in “free budget forms” in the search box. You’ll get lots of hits. Print one out and work on it with your spouse or significant other. Both of you will need to be happy with the final result and feel like it’s something you can stick to.

Make sure to keep track of your finances (income and expenditures) by adhering as strictly as you possible can to the budget you create. Additionally, if you are not much of a numbers person your spouse might be the better person to keep the budget in-tact thereby benefitting your entire enterprise.

Taking a Look at the Income Statement – Part Two


Of course profit and cost of goods sold expense are the two most critical components of an income statement, or at least they are what people will look at first. But an income statement is truly the sum of its parts, and they all need to be considered carefully, consistently and accurately.

In reporting depreciation expense, a business can use a short-life method and load most of the expense over the first few years, or a longer-life method and spread the expense evenly over the years. Depreciation is a big expense for some businesses and the method of reporting is especially critical for them.

One of the more complex elements of a an income statement is the line reporting employee pensions and post-retirement benefits. The GAAP rule on this expense is complex and several key estimates must be made by the business, such as the expected rate of return on the portfolio of funds set aside for these future obligations. This and other estimates affect the amount of expense recorded.

Many products are sold with expressed or implied warranties and guarantees. The business should estimate the cost of these future obligations and record this amount as an expense in the same period that the goods are sold, along with the cost of goods expense. It can’t really wait until customers actually return products for repair or replacement, should be forecast as a percent of the total products sold.

Other operating expenses that are reported in an income statement may also have timing or estimating considerations. Some expenses are also discretionary in nature, which means that how much is spent during the year depends on the discretion of management.

Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) measures the sales revenue less all the expenses above this line. It depends on all the decisions made for recording sales revenue and expenses and how the accounting methods are implemented.