It should come as no surprise that Seattle is one of the leading tech cities in America. There’s no income tax which fosters entrepreneurship; features a large portion of millennials (one of the largest population groups with high levels of education); and is home to two of the leading tech giants: Amazon and Microsoft. According to a recent study, it’s overcome the Silicon Valley and just behind DC and Austin, Texas. With that in mind, if you’ve created a tech business selling a new product or are operating as a SaaS provider, you need experienced accountants. Our tech startup cpas speak your language and can keep up with the rapidly growing industry.
More than an accountant, you need a CPA firm that can operate as your financial consultant and startup coach. When launching a new product, you need someone who can project realistic targets and determine what is costing you money vs what will make you money – and what that timeline looks like.
Plus, tech companies face the added obstacle of competing on a global scale when they may start off no bigger than a local brick-and-mortar business. This is one of the reasons why Huddleston Tax CPAs continues to employ experienced accountants with a long history with tech clients and startups.
As your accounting firm, Huddleston Tax CPAs will provide:
- Guidance on business entity selection
- Tax planning to ensure profits and reduce losses
- Cash flow analysis
- Payroll processing
- QuickBooks consulting from Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisors
- Strategic business planning, coaching, & valuation
- Bookkeeping
- Governance and risk compliance
- Mergers and acquisitions
- Tax credits and incentives
Contact us today to discuss the needs of your tech business.
Tech Startup CPAs
A certified public accountant versed in tech-related businesses and startups can guide you past a number of tax and accounting issues. For example, entity selection is pivotal for choosing the business entity that most appropriately classifies your company.
When developing a startup tech company, it is also crucial to determine the accounting procedures and practices you will put into place from the onset of things.
Which Accounting Software Should You Choose For Your Company?
As your tech business grows, you are going to need an accounting software package. If you keep your financial records with excel spreadsheets, you may find eventually the bookkeeping method can no longer control the growth of your business.
Certain bookkeeping packages work exceptionally well for real property/real estate, and there is other software that works great for project accounting. While generalized accounting software packages are frequently less costly, whereas the industry-specific accounting software is quite often more pricey, but know that industry-focused bookkeeping software can save you money and time as your business grows.
How Should I Choose An Accounting Method?
Big corporations are required to adhere to GAAP, or the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Small Businesses, on the other hand, can exercise more liberties in how they record their records. When you are the owner of a start up, you may prefer the cash method of accounting,
Some more advanced methods of accounting, such as the accrual method of accounting, may better serve you as your business grows. The accrual method of accounting records expenses and income upon invoice, rather than waiting for cash to change hands. This bookkeeping method provides you a more expansive insight into your finances.
As far as taxes are concerned, if you sell, purchase, or produce merchandise, rules apply as to when you have to use the accrual method of accounting.
Creating A Budget
A number of the small business accounting software packages will allow you to construct a budget, either based on last year’s records or completely from scratch. Establishing a budget is necessary considering the fact that it will create your business standards of performance. After a period, you should compare your businesses’ performance versus the budgeted amount. This analysis will show you whether or not you might satisfy your year’s sales goals. This can help keep businesses profitable.
Measuring Your Success
And choose an accounting software that allows you to compare the current year financial statement with those of the previous year. This can help you set goals, see trends, gain insight.
Tax Planning For Tech Startups
There are number of deductions and tax credits that might be available to you.
- Tax Deductions
- Home Office Deduction
- Auto Deductions
- Depreciation
- Hardware
- Software
- Real Property
- Tax Credits
- Clean energy manufacturing credits, tax credit for investments in manufacturing facilities for clean energy technologies.
If you need some help with the accounting and tax issues related to your technology business,
give us a call at 1-425-483-6600 or send us an email at info@huddlestontax.com.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is ecommerce accounting?
In the same way that a floppy disc as the “Save” button is wildly outdated, so too does “bookkeeping” when applying to ecommerce companies. While companies of yore had legitimate paper trails, more and more businesses are completely digital, from their invoices to their accepted payments. An ecommerce accountant does everything a CPA would, but with your digital space, this means collecting, analyzing, and reporting the financial data of your business. Having a CPA specializing in ecommerce is invaluable especially where “shipping” of goods is concerned.
What is SaaS accounting?
SaaS accounting is a specific focus for specialized CPAs because there are myriad factors brick and mortar businesses (and even ecomm businesses) don’t need to consider. One of the key elements a CPA should keep in mind is the rule of 40% and measuring the trade-off between profitability and growth. If it drops below 40%, then the pricing/model should change. Moreover, SaaS by nature, needs to factor in churn which will significantly impact a CPA’s projections.
Why do SaaS companies need CPAs?
Simply put, most SaaS companies aren’t profitable for the first year. It’s integral to ironing out the kinks and creating a baseline to better understand the user base. CPAs need as much information as possible to uncover the unknowns and forecast appropriately. If your SaaS company is not achieving the 40% rule within the first year, it will be more difficult to grow, it’s necessary to get it right the first time.
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