Barbara Cook

About Barbara Cook

Barbara is currently a financial writer working with successful B2B businesses, including SaaS companies. She is a former CFO for fast-growing tech companies and has Deloitte audit experience. Barbara has an MBA degree from The University of Texas and an active CPA license. When she’s not writing, Barbara likes to research public companies and play social games including Texas hold ‘em poker, bridge, and Mah Jongg.

What is a Balance Sheet

Balance sheets are one of the core financial statements presented in business plans and financial models for analyzing potential M&A transactions and establishing a valuation. These balance sheets are prepared with assumptions as estimated projections of future assets, liabilities, and shareholders’ equity.

Business Email Compromise

Business email compromise is a widely used scam with variations. Imposters use BEC to steal money or confidential information from companies.

Income Statement

Income statements are important for assessing a company’s financial performance. Businesses can manage revenue and expenses in the financial plan and budget with variance analysis. Companies use Income statement projections to model and set financial goals.

Accounting Problems

Some accounting problems are caused by using outdated software technology for accounting. Intentional fraud due to greed and poor internal control causes other financial issues. Low staffing levels can cause accounting problems. Not training the financial team causes accounting problems related to improperly applying GAAP.

Payment Rails

In the simplest possible terms, a payment rail is any form of digital infrastructure that transfers money from one individual or business to another. The fintech community refers to payment rails as being on “the far side” of a payment transaction

How To Set Up Direct Deposit

Direct deposit is a very convenient method for automatically depositing payments received electronically. Direct deposit eliminates the inefficient, environmentally unfriendly, and expensive use of paper checks for payer and payee.

Horizontal Vs Vertical Integration

Horizontal and vertical integration are important parts of a company’s M&A strategy to increase return on investment, attain rapid global growth, gain new technologies and talent, improve supply chain and product quality and timeliness, improve distribution, and find opportunities to reduce costs.

Vendor Selection Process

The vendor selection process is important because vetting will help your business avoid low-quality or fraudulent vendors. Your company achieves better terms and reasonable pricing through competitive bids. The vendor selection process includes getting customer references. You’ll ensure that a vendor is financially viable and can make timely product or service deliveries to meet your business needs.

Payment Processor

Payment processors are responsible for obtaining authorization for credit and debit card transactions. Payment processors instruct the financial institution as card issuer to pay the acquirer bank on behalf of its cardholder customer, using secure, encrypted information. Then the acquirer pays the merchant through their designated merchant account, which is a bank account.

Net 45

Net 45 is an important credit term because it allows customers to pay 15 days later than the more common payment terms of net 30. Net 45 could give well-financed businesses a competitive advantage if they’re willing to take the risk and tie up their cash in accounts receivable longer or offer an early payment discount combined with the net 45 credit terms.

Break Even Point

By implementing business growth and cost reduction strategies, management can change the break even point for your business calculated by financial analysts. The break even point can also change in response to external factors like inflation resulting in product cost increases, a recession, and increased competition. You have less control over the external factors.

Enterprise Risk Management

Enterprise risk management helps a company anticipate, detect, and respond to change. Risk assessment includes potential risks, new risks, and changes to existing business risks. Change creates both threats requiring lessening of downside risks and lucrative opportunities to pursue. ERM methodology builds resilience.

Financial Statements

Understanding financial statements is essential for accounting and finance team members, CEOs, business owners, creditors, and shareholders. This article provides financial statement basics and some more advanced concepts for complex companies.

Financial Technology

Financial technology is advancing globally to improve and create financial applications with AI/ML-driven, algorithmic digital technology. FinTech significantly expands the types of financial data used. It enables insights, automated decisions, and actions for businesses and consumers.

Electronic Billing

You want to integrate as seamlessly as possible with existing accounting and ERP systems. However there are many key steps along the supplier payment process that still require significant manual effort beyond sending out payment instructions to the transfer API for bank, ACH, and wire services.

e Tendering

E Tendering helps businesses efficiently find the best suppliers for upcoming purchases at the right price. Multiple vendors respond to procurement opportunities electronically, competing to win sales or provide business services.

Payment Terms

Payment terms are specifications of amounts owed, how, when, and where payments are due on sales transactions between sellers and buyers. Payment terms from a contract or purchase order are included on an invoice to the customer. Although payment terms may be negotiated, often the seller sets payment terms for routine sales transactions.

Spend Management

The primary goals of spend management are to prevent unnecessary spending, maintain accuracy and organization throughout the entire billing lifecycle, and manage supplier relationships.

Open Banking

Open banking is a driving force for digital transformation, using shared electronic financial data.
It provides lucrative business model opportunities for third-party Fintech app and financial services industry providers. Open banking gives global consumers and business users new products, valuable information, and payment services when they share banking data.

Discounted Cash Flow

Discounted cash flow analysis is applied in different areas, including business investment project selection, M&A valuation, and investors determining the market value of stock and other investments.

Purchase Order

This article explains the meaning of purchase order (PO), blanket purchase order, purchase requisition, how a purchase order compares to an invoice, how to create a purchase order, why you need a purchase order, and how a purchase order works.

Backup Withholding

Backup withholding is federal income tax withheld directly by payers from payments to payees subject to IRS backup withholding rules.

W9 for Vendors

Table of Contents What is Form W9? Do Businesses Need a W9 From All Vendors? When Should Your Business Receive a W9 Form from Vendors? The Importance of W9 Vendor Forms What Type of Taxpayer Identification Number is Needed for Form W9? Backup Withholding Related to Form W9 and IRS Information Return Form 1099-MISC FATCA

Accounting Equation

The accounting equation is a formula computed as total Assets = Liabilities + Equity. The basic accounting equation originates with double-entry bookkeeping. It ensures that the accounting books are in balance. The source of a company’s accounting equation numbers is its balance sheet. Equity can be Shareholders’ Equity, Stockholders’ Equity, or Owner’s Equity.