Have you been subjected to a tax return audit before, or are you curious about what leads to an audit? Here are the top 12 red flags that might lead the government to examine your tax return. Please note: these are in no particular order. The more obvious each point stands out on your return, the more likely you are to be audited.

Because women, veteran, and minority-owned restaurants are a small portion of the restaurant industry, they were granted a priority application period for the Restaurant Revitalization Fund.

The priority application period for underrepresented restaurant owners came to a close on May 21st, and now the fund is open to all restaurant owners on a first come, first served basis. If you're in the food and beverage industry, has your accountant proactively spoken to you about this? If not, keep reading for details.

If you own a business but haven't read Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You by John Warrillow, we highly recommend it! Its concept is to run your business as if you are going to sell it tomorrow. You should maximize what your business is worth at all times, not just when you're getting ready to sell. CSI Accounting & Payroll's owner, Brian Paulson, took inspiration from this book while creating some of these tips.

Small businesses tend to miss the mark on this and consequently are not worth very much. Sales and profits can be high, but the purchase price can be low at the same time. The following blog post is a list of tips to maximize the value of your business to a potential buyer.

Why is it so important for underrepresented U.S. business owners to take advantage of benefits like the Restaurant Revitalization Fund? Everyone deserves the American Dream.

• A majority of U.S. business owners are white. They own over 2.5x more businesses than minorities do (African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, and Hispanic Americans combined) and make almost 7.5x more in receipts.
• A majority of U.S. business owners are also men. They own almost 1.5x more businesses than women do and make over 6x more in receipts.

The Restaurant Revitalization Fund is currently open to women, minority, and veteran-owned businesses as a priority until May 21st. If you fall into any one of these categories, has your accountant proactively spoken to you about this? If not, keep reading for details.

You know the value of receiving monthly financial statements, and you're putting in the time and resources it takes. However, once they're in your hands, you're not sure what to do with them. Therefore, have the experts at CSI Accounting & Payroll help you analyze your statements to get the best plan of action for your business.

One of our main goals in our accounting department is to use the monthly financial statements we create to offer profitability advice. Have you ever wondered what kind of advice you could be receiving? Here are some of the topics that are most frequently brought up in our meetings.

If you use bookkeeping software to prepare your financial statements in-house, then you're probably counting on it saving you money to make up for all of the time it takes you.

What happens when it doesn't? Record inaccuracies can result in fees down the line or make you miss out on reimbursable expenses. It can be easy to not even realize you're getting lost if you don't have a background in accounting.

How can you tell if your bookkeeping is getting mixed up? Start by taking a look at your financial statements.

The following blog post is based on a letter from CSI Accounting & Payroll's owner, Brian Paulson, to our clients.

As we all know, 2020 and 2021 have been very challenging years in many respects. Along with everything else, Congress has been doing more things than ever before that have implications on the taxation of both businesses and individuals. It has been very challenging to do so, but we pride ourselves on staying on top of what is coming out of Congress so we can quickly summarize it and convey it to our clients.

NOTE: This information was up-to-date at the time that this post was written, but COVID relief laws are constantly being updated and changed. Please contact us directly for updated information.

While there are people who use different providers for different services, CSI Accounting & Payroll offers the best of both worlds when it comes to financial services. Having accounting and payroll under one roof has lots of benefits under normal circumstances.

This post touches on those normal circumstances, as well as how bundling accounting and payroll can help a struggling small business owner with navigating COVID wages, loans and credits, and forgiveness.

The COVID-19 pandemic proved to be devastating to many small businesses. 163,735 U.S. small businesses closed their doors between March 1st, 2020 and August 31st, 2020. This resulted in the government setting aside some crucial relief efforts.

Whether you participated in the first round of PPP loans last year or not, there's still a good variety of relief packages available. The two most popular relief efforts are the PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) loans and the ERC (Employee Retention Credit), which will be discussed in this post.

NOTE: This information was up-to-date at the time that this post was written, but COVID relief laws are constantly being updated and changed. Please conduct your own research with reliable sources or contact us directly for updated information.

Any reasonable small business owner would ask themselves, "What makes CSI Accounting & Payroll so special? What do they do that my current bookkeeper and annual tax accountant don't? What about my payroll provider?"

You're here for a reason, and that reason is because all professional services are not made equal.You may have a need that is not being met with your current services. Let's see if we can be a good match for each other!