Thursday, November 29, 2007

Treatment Of Bills Receivable In The Accounting Process

Usually this agreement entered into by the buyer stipulates that payment must be made within 30 days. In recent years, the tremendous increase in the use of credit cards, issued by financial institutions to their customers, has done much to simplify these accounting transactions.

Bills, although no longer widely used, are still important in the wholesale trade and in foreign transactions. Bills have certain characteristics that make them negotiable documents. A financial document is negotiable if it can be transferred from one person to another. This is achieved by the holder endorsing the document and delivering it to the other party. Bearer documents are transferred by delivery alone. To be negotiable, a financial document or bill must have the characteristic that, under given circumstances, the owner's rights are unalienable, even though his predecessor's rights were defective or invalid.

A bill is a negotiable document in the accounting process. It is an unconditional, written instruction issued by one person to another whereby the latter is instructed to pay on demand, at a specified or specifiable future date, a certain sum of money, either to the order of the person specified, or to the bearer.

There are at least three parties in the accounting bill records, namely the drawer, the drawee and the payee or bearer. The three parties need to be different persons; the same person can be party to the bill in more than one capacity. For example, the drawer can specify that the money must be paid to himself, therefore he is both the drawer and payee simultaneously.

The definition of a bill stated that it could be made out to 'bearer', in which case any person in possession of the bill on the due date could claim payment from the drawee. This means that the right to receive payment of a bill can be transferred to another person merely by handing it to him or her. If the word 'bearer' is crossed out and replaced by 'order' (pertaining to the possible negotiability of the document) it means that the drawee is instructed to pay the amount concerned to the payee, or to any person specified by him in writing, or to any holder subsequently specified. Such written specification must appear on the bill itself (usually on the back) and is know as an endorsement. Therefore, within the accounting process is bill is considered as a negotiable document.

When an enterprise enters into a large number of bill transactions, it is impractical to make a separate journal entry for each accounting transaction. In such cases, a separate journal with the necessary columns is used as a subsidiary journal. Accepted bills are valuable documents and, as in the case of cash, must be controlled properly in an accounting system. They must be safely stored immediately upon receipt. The balance on the bills receivable accounting control account must be compared regularly with the items in the bills book and with the bills on hand.

Bills receivable are current assets and are shown in the accounting balance sheets as such, together with other current assets. They are shown at face value, less any possible provision for doubtful recovery. Bills receivable are often combined with debtors as a single amount, shown as debtors and bills. As in the case of debtors, provision should be made for any bills that could possibly be irrecoverable.

Michael Russell

Your Independent guide to Accounting

IP Centrex Billing: Do you have the call accounting and IP billing system in place?

With all the hype about IP Centrex, you'd think that every business in American had switched to IP telephony. Analyst firm Ovum estimates that IP Centrex and hosted VoIP revenues will amount to around US $6.6 billion worldwide by 2008, up from US $255 million this year. Frost & Sullivan puts a US $7.9 billion valuation on the market by 2009. It expects, conservatively, that IP Centrex will account for at least 15 percent of all business lines by the turn of the decade, double the size of the current Centrex market.

Many end-users no longer want to have the headache of managing the PBX and its services, and service providers can manage these devices remotely on behalf of customers. This reduces the burden on the IT function within the company and, with financing deals, can even reduce capital expenditure.

How do you know if IP Centrex is right for your company? It's not just about the money, but rather how the features, functionality, and system control play a significant role in making the right choice. It can be relatively risk free - assuming the service provider can provide adequate service and accurate billing along with all those IP benefits. And as businesses view data as an equally essential method of communications and see their workplaces becoming virtual entities, stretched across multiple locations, IP Centrex becomes more desirable than ever before. One of the issues with IP Centrex is the IP billing capability of the provider. Every outsourced telecom provider should be able to offer: -- Bucket billing plans (like cellular billing) -- Unlimited billing rates or plans -- Taxes (up to 10 levels) -- Real-time or web based call reports for end users -- Staggered billing -- QuickBooks Interface -- -- Cost & Charge - Basic Cost Allocation/Billing Software Module -- -- Billing of one-time and recurring charges

If you are considering an IP Centrex system, make sure your provider has all the call accounting and IP Billing systems in place.

 Karen Ritz, Vice President, Business Development for TelSoft Solutions, writes on the benefits of call accounting solutions. More information can be found at www.telsoft-solutions.com

Billboards: Modern Counterparts of Van Gogh and Da Vinci

Taking a drive down an unfamiliar road, or simply driving to and from work has become nowadays more pleasurable and less stressful. What with the multitude of billboards plastered all over the city and suburbs, they have become a wonderful centerpiece with the backdrop of heaven and earth.

Have you ever imagined what life would be like without these big, larger than life posters and signage to aesthetically improve our place? Are you not amazed at how great the quality and colors are? Are you not struck with the brilliance and true-to-life depiction of the images in each of these billboards?

When billboards were first posted, they not only expressed artistic creativity, they also were medium of information and reminders for people of current events and new products. The people then were not yet attuned on billboards being very powerful tools in helping others in ways that they have never imagined before. Fortunately today, we have learned of its uses and are utilizing them in several ways.

Billboards are the cheapest and it reaches more people than any other form of advertising. Thus, many small businesses, and even some of the big corporations for that matter, utilize this form of media because television and radio commercials are more expensive and costly.

One state in fact used billboards to improve the visual quality of their community, and also serve as tools to reduce alcohol consumption by minors. Still another state made several billboards to try to convince people to stop smoking, to prevent the spread of AIDS, and to offer pregnancy support.

However, despite its practical uses, billboards first and foremost are works of art in the modern sense. Its production process, from conceptualization to posting, is definitely a designer's and artist's imaginations put to life.

When designers are put to work to create these magnificent billboards, they do not see their assignment as something corporate or practical. I mean, sure, they see also the numbers in every assignment. But let's face it. Within each of these designer and artist, the billboards are their next work of art. With every billboard assignment, they see themselves as the modern Leonardo Da Vinci and Vincent Van Gogh.

According to one review, Van Gogh's most searching artistic analysis was of himself. This is shown in his famous self portraits. However, Van Gogh was also very appreciative of the profuse of colors found in nature. In fact, one of his very famous paintings was the Irises. Similar to his self portraits, Van Gogh's Irises are carefully studied with the same sincerity and precision. The elements of colors- like the greens, red, yellow, orange and white, and the different ranges of blues- all made the painting look luxuriant and produce a gay colorfulness and richness.

Leonardo Da Vinci also recognized the importance of painting scenes that are very close to reality. He was keen to observe with great care how animals, people, and landscapes really looked. He was also careful to notice the differences on how an object looked when it was close by and when it was farther away, and when it was seen in bright light and in dim light. He turned his attention to nature during long walks. He wrote detailed notes on his observations and made sketches of the things he saw in his notebooks throughout his life.

Whether its Van Gogh or Da Vinci, designers and artists are sure to emulate what they have done. Thus, billboards are most likely to reflect reality and life. What you see in billboards is what we have of life- big reflections of us and our world.

And with the advent of computer technology, we have programs, softwares and equipment to help our artists and designers come up with brilliant, full color and striking images and designs that are sure to stand out. You'll be amazed at the technology we have now that keeps these billboards fresh for the longest time that they have been exposed. Several manufacturers and developers managed to produce high grade materials and machines that could make the pictures and prints true to its original. Xerox, Adobe's Creative Suite, Corel, Epson- these are just a few of the names that are there to help make their lives and work simpler.

Whether it's film making, game development, commercial design, or even fine arts, every creation and output are worthy of praise. There is only one big difference- creating works of art now is faster and easier, thanks to advanced technology. Combined with the power of modern technology of digital media, natural talents and techniques obtained during the formative years can create breathtaking works of art that are at par, if not better, with those of the grand masters.

This article is supplied by our team to propagate the advancement of < rel="nofollow" href="http://www.largeformatposters.com
">poster printing
technologies out in the market and may refer to other existing articles.

Have you ever imagined what life would be like without these big, larger than life posters and signage to aesthetically improve our place? Are you not amazed at how great the quality and colors are? Are you not struck with the brilliance and true-to-life depiction of the images in each of these billboards?

When billboards were first posted, they not only expressed artistic creativity, they also were medium of information and reminders for people of current events and new products. The people then were not yet attuned on billboards being very powerful tools in helping others in ways that they have never imagined before. Fortunately today, we have learned of its uses and are utilizing them in several ways.

Billboards are the cheapest and it reaches more people than any other form of advertising. Thus, many small businesses, and even some of the big corporations for that matter, utilize this form of media because television and radio commercials are more expensive and costly.

One state in fact used billboards to improve the visual quality of their community, and also serve as tools to reduce alcohol consumption by minors. Still another state made several billboards to try to convince people to stop smoking, to prevent the spread of AIDS, and to offer pregnancy support.

However, despite its practical uses, billboards first and foremost are works of art in the modern sense. Its production process, from conceptualization to posting, is definitely a designer's and artist's imaginations put to life.

When designers are put to work to create these magnificent billboards, they do not see their assignment as something corporate or practical. I mean, sure, they see also the numbers in every assignment. But let's face it. Within each of these designer and artist, the billboards are their next work of art. With every billboard assignment, they see themselves as the modern Leonardo Da Vinci and Vincent Van Gogh.

According to one review, Van Gogh's most searching artistic analysis was of himself. This is shown in his famous self portraits. However, Van Gogh was also very appreciative of the profuse of colors found in nature. In fact, one of his very famous paintings was the Irises. Similar to his self portraits, Van Gogh's Irises are carefully studied with the same sincerity and precision. The elements of colors- like the greens, red, yellow, orange and white, and the different ranges of blues- all made the painting look luxuriant and produce a gay colorfulness and richness.

Leonardo Da Vinci also recognized the importance of painting scenes that are very close to reality. He was keen to observe with great care how animals, people, and landscapes really looked. He was also careful to notice the differences on how an object looked when it was close by and when it was farther away, and when it was seen in bright light and in dim light. He turned his attention to nature during long walks. He wrote detailed notes on his observations and made sketches of the things he saw in his notebooks throughout his life.

Whether its Van Gogh or Da Vinci, designers and artists are sure to emulate what they have done. Thus, billboards are most likely to reflect reality and life. What you see in billboards is what we have of life- big reflections of us and our world.

And with the advent of computer technology, we have programs, softwares and equipment to help our artists and designers come up with brilliant, full color and striking images and designs that are sure to stand out. You'll be amazed at the technology we have now that keeps these billboards fresh for the longest time that they have been exposed. Several manufacturers and developers managed to produce high grade materials and machines that could make the pictures and prints true to its original. Xerox, Adobe's Creative Suite, Corel, Epson- these are just a few of the names that are there to help make their lives and work simpler.

Whether it's film making, game development, commercial design, or even fine arts, every creation and output are worthy of praise. There is only one big difference- creating works of art now is faster and easier, thanks to advanced technology. Combined with the power of modern technology of digital media, natural talents and techniques obtained during the formative years can create breathtaking works of art that are at par, if not better, with those of the grand masters.

This article is supplied by our team to propagate the advancement of ">poster printing technologies out in the market and may refer to other existing articles.

For comments and questions about the article and the author you may contact The Large Format Posters Moderator at 888 888 4211 or visit http://www.largeformatposters.com

How to Make Money Selling on eBay -Cost Cutting- the Shipping and Handling Challenge

Those who know how to make money selling on eBay know that every cost associated with their eBay business must be kept to a minimum. Holding costs in check helps to insure profitability. Cost cutting is a key to continually increasing profits.

Most sellers focus their energy only on the direct costs associated with purchasing products for resale. That is an important area of focus. However, there are many other cost cutting opportunities just waiting for attention. One of those is the costs associated with shipping and handling of merchandise.

Shipping and handling includes pulling, packing and the actual shipping of the item. Costs in this area are a major focus for those who know how to make money selling on eBay. There are many opportunities to minimize costs without jeopardizing customer service.

Do you want to know how to make money selling on eBay? Always look for ways to minimize the expenses associated with the pulling, packing, and shipping process. Look for ways to streamline all of the processes. Look for ways to eliminate unneeded steps. Consider establishing a dedicated packing center with everything required to do the job placed in the same sequential order as the packing process follows.

Whenever possible prepackage merchandise so that pulling, packing and shipping require almost no added work. Place a printer in the packing area so that postage and labels are waiting as soon as the item is ready.

Look for opportunities to implement software that could reduce or even eliminate labor, or some of the steps. Those who make money selling on eBay know that software can reduce costs as their business continues to grow.

Do you know how to make money selling on eBay? Minimize pulling, packing and shipping costs. Reduce labor associated with the shipping process. Streamline every step of the process.

To Your eBay Success!

To subscribe to my free e-course "Secrets of Online Auction Success" go to http://www.onlineauctionsmadesimple.net Bob Hamilton is an entrepreneur, writer and consultant. Bob sold his brick and mortar store to sell on eBay and has been helping others to get started on eBay ever since. http://www.openingadollarstore.com

Better Money Handling for Better Health

Therefore, difficulties with money and money handling affect your health and well-being, because money greatly influences our emotion. The feelings of contentment and happiness that comes with a loaded pocket, or the feelings of insufficiency, fear and anxiety that goes with an empty pocket are all indications that money plays an integral role in happiness, health and well-being. Besides, who can a get a good night sleep, when worries about paying an overdue bill fills the mind, or when the phone is ringing off the hook with calls from harsh and unfriendly bill collectors?

Since issues with money can negatively affect your health, it becomes imperative to learn proper money handling habits, to save yourself the worries that come with financial burdens. Of course, as any financial expert will advise, creating a budget and effectively implementing the budget is a very good way to forestall financial problems. We must, however, admit that there is nothing as worse as an ineffective budget, or one that got you into more problems. Thus, learning effective budgeting skills is also important.

To draw a budget, you must first objectively re-appraise your monthly expenses and income. It is very important to be able to come up with a fairly accurate monthly income and expenses. Estimating the monthly income might be quite easy for people that earn a fix amount weekly or monthly, but for people that run personal businesses or whose income depends on a number of factors, this might not be such an easy task. No matter the case, get an estimate of your average monthly income. Then write list your variable and recurrent expenses as accurately as possible. This is will give you a clear idea of whether your expenses are overshooting your income, or if you are leaving no room for emergencies. Here you can cut out unnecessary or unimportant expenses, based on your disposable income. Keep a separate list of items you would like to get, but which are not so important. You can gradually include these items in subsequent budgets till they are all settled.

To make for an effective budget, it is a good idea to set up an extra amount that each partner can spend monthly or weekly on anything they want, with an understanding that once it is spent, that's all. It is also a good idea to provisions for emergencies by setting aside a particular amount of your budget for this. This ensures that you are never caught off guards by any sudden financial requirement.

It is one thing to create a budget, implementing the budget is an entirely different case. Following a budget requires serious financial discipline and commitment. Learn to spend your money only on items that you have listed in your budget, whatever comes up during the month, as long as it is not an emergency, keep it in your other list of items to be attended to later, and depending on its importance, you can include it in your next budget. There is nothing as relaxing as going to bed feeling like you are in control of your finances. If you need help, there are countless non-profit organizations that offer budgeting classes and credit counseling services at no charge. They can greatly help you put your finances on the right tract if you make the move today.

Do you know that you can open a completely legal checking account with a US Bank from anywhere in the world. us-paypa-bank-account.com specializes in opening US Bank Accounts for non-US residents. If you need a US Bank account to further strengthen your online business, you would get all the help you need here http://www.us-paypal-bank-account.com

Three Big Steps To Better Money Handling

With prices increasing all the time, saving money can be harder and harder to do. Here are some solutions for saving a little so that you can still meet your needs and still find ways to trim off a little for the future.

1. BUDGET ? Get one and stick with it! And set aside at least a small portion for savings while you?re at it; savings for your future, your retirement, your education, your vacation, whatever. Head to your local office supply store for planning workbooks or budget sheets to use. Or head to your favorite search engine and type in, ?budget planning? for hundreds of sites with articles, free downloads, tips, ebooks and other resources to help with your budget setup and follow up.

2. PLAN AHEAD ? Make sure to plan for emergencies and the unexpected, like an appliance break down or garage door malfunction. Even if you can only set aside $50 or so each monthly, place it in an account and earmark it for this ?Miscellaneous? fund. Then when things go wrong, and they will ? nothing?s perfect ? you?ll be better prepared.

3. NON-MONTHLY ITEMS ? Work out a monthly payment for items that you don?t pay monthly and set this up in your regular monthly budget. For example, for items like annual home owner or renter insurance, quarterly water bills and automobile insurance payments and annual trash bills, take the amounts and determine what they would be monthly. Then list the items on your budget log and pull these amounts aside, saving them in your account for those purposes. This way, when the bills hit, you won?t be caught off guard and have to scrounge for the payments.

What works well, instead of handling multiple savings accounts for each company owed, is to use index cards and one savings account. Create one index card for each bill. Then simply log the amount you?re setting aside on the card and deposit it into your savings account. Keep the index cards with your savings passbook to remind you what the balance covers. The total of all your index cards should equal the balance in your savings account. (Make sure to create an index card for your regular funds that you are saving each month in step one above and a card for your Miscellaneous fund in step two above).

So next time you get paid, take three giant steps forward. Grab your index cards, follow your budget and invest in yourself and your future. Get a grip on your money handling.

Christopher Phillips

Owner/Founder
Smart eCredit
For Fast and Efficient Online Credit Card Application and Approval



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Good Money Handling for Health and Well Being

Many things can affect our health. Financial issues are one that weighs heavily on many individuals. As prices continue to rise out of control for living expenses, childcare, and gasoline, more and more individuals suffer physically and emotionally due to financial woes. Properly handling your money will help offset some of these effects.

Anyone who has dealt with money issues can tell you it isn?t easy. It can lead to high emotions and lots of conflict in a relationship. This is especially true if each partner has different spending habits. The best way to handle your money is to create a budget. Write down your required monthly living expenses. Next list your variable expenses. You will have to choose ones to reduce or eliminate based on your disposable income. Set up an amount of money each partner can spend weekly or monthly on anything they want with the understanding that when it is gone, it is gone.

It is a good idea to add some type of regular amount to save for emergencies into your budget. An emergency isn?t concert tickets or a trip. It is for something unexpected like the water heater going out or new tires for your car. The less financial issues you have the better you will feel. Who can get a good night of sleep when they are worried about paying bills? Who can relax when the phone is ringing off the hook with calls from unfriendly bill collectors?

If you are having difficulties managing money it will affect your health and wellbeing. Many non-profit groups offer budgeting classes and credit counseling services at no charge. They can help you assess your individual situation to determine a plan that will work for you. They also offer ongoing evaluations, tips, and payment schedules to help ease the burden. You will feel better physically and emotionally.

Visit the Texas Residential Treatment Center and learn about their 12 Step Recovery Program for men - nestled in the peaceful Hill Country near Austin, Texas.