Personal Finance guide

Besides writing a debt settlement letter to your creditors or debt collectors, another way to communicate with them is through phone calls. If you think that you are better in verbal negotiation, you can start calling your creditors to bargain with them. Here are some important reminders you need to keep in mind. Make sure that you DO NOT take the following actions:

• Don’t call your creditors if you are not well prepared. If you haven’t got all your statements and details of debt ready, don’t start any conversation with them. Don’t propose anything before assessing your financial position. If you are not sure how much fund you have on hand, how do you offer any settlement amount?
• Don’t start your negotiation if you are not sure whether you are talking to the right person who has the authority to make decision
• Don’t contact the officer in charge if your emotion is not stable
• Don’t cry when you are telling your creditors your current financial situation. Don’t try to gain sympathy through crying
• Don’t yell to the officer if your offer is rejected. You still need to be calm and respect the creditors no matter what situation is as your main intention is to seek approval for settlement
• Don’t use the threatening words as the telephone conversation is recorded by the creditors most of the time
• Don’t review your saving account number until you receive written agreement from your creditors
• Don’t change your terms each time you call your creditors. It causes confusion and inconsistency. It will delay the negotiation process if you are uncertain with what you want.

Continue reading ‘Knowing the Don'ts For Debt Negotiation’ »

Pretty soon year 2010 will be here after the holidays. For people who are still knee deep in credit card debt, how do you have a happy new year?

Be optimistic

You have a whole new year ahead of you. Start doing your financial planning from now onwards. Work out your budget by gathering all your financial statements and find out the exact figure of your outstanding balances. Make your debt repayment according to your budget so that your outstanding balances can be cleared soon. Besides, change your lifestyle and spending habits. Cut down the usage of credit cards. Make sure that you set your resolution and stick to it in order to have a happy new year.

Continue reading ‘How to Have a Happy New Year With Credit Card Debt’ »

There are always circumstances in our life that is beyond our control. For these reasons, we sometimes struggle to maintain the ideal credit rating or referred to the assessment of the ability of the borrower to pay regularly on time. To people with bad credits that are having challenges in managing their finances, the solution is adverse bad credit loan. Such crises oftentimes happen when the credit rating becomes adverse. Consecutive failure to pay the monthly dues or declaration of bankruptcy can lead your credit rating into adverse effect. Hence, it makes your credit record looks bad.

Adverse bad credit loans means the lenders will provide money for many purposes such as home improvements, child support, debt consolidations and more. The lenders will ask for collaterals such as home and other valuable asset in order to secure the loan of people with bad credits history.

Continue reading ‘Adverse Bad Credit Loan’ »

If you are considering Bankruptcy proceedings for losses that you have accrued, we have just the thing you need to lessen your worries. At clearinsolvency.co, we provide you with a discreet and competent bankruptcy service to deal with everything you might need when you are considering bankruptcy proceedings.

Is bankruptcy right for me?

Continue reading ‘Get the Most Competent and Qualified Bankruptcy Assistance -from Clearinsolvency.Co.Uk’ »

Declaring bankruptcy may be one of the best ways in which you tackle insolvency. Though it is not a very complicated procedure, you could benefit a lot from competent and professional expertise you get. Come to clearinsolvency.co for all the bankruptcy assistance you need.

When do you need clearinsolvency?

Continue reading ‘Bankruptcy assistance from the experts- form clearinsolvency.co.uk’ »

1. Free stuff from Banks

Banks have been in trouble over recent months, so now they are all wanting to attract savers, and they are offering great incentives to do so; for example, at the moment, the Alliance and Leicester are offer a £100 cash back offer. Credit card companies are also offering some great deals right now, and switching bank of credit card is really easy. For more information on where the best bank and credit card bonuses are, visit: http://bankbonuses.weebly.com

2. Make FREE phone calls online
Use Skype to make FREE calls to your friends and family anywhere in the world online. If they are not also Skype users then you can call their landlines for ridiculously low costs. They have some fantastic international rates too.

Continue reading ‘Beat the Credit Crunch now! The easy way’ »

Good news! There is no more waiting in those ridiculously long lines at the bank only to have an unfriendly teller wait on you. Read on and see the benefits to Employers and Employees by using Direct Deposit instead of Printed Paychecks. And, look for our other article on how using Payroll Pay Cards can even further benefit both sides, for employees do not have checking accounts.

How does Direct Deposit Work?

To sign up your employees for direct deposit, you will fill out a bank authorization form and your employees will fill out a corresponding direct deposit form. These are kept on file by the payroll service as evidence of their authorization. Fees for bouncing payroll funds are usually significant. That is because of the risk involved of releasing funds to employees that are not fully funded by the business. It is very important to keep sufficient payroll funds in your main bank account, or, open a separate bank account where you transfer the funds in one lump sum each payroll.

It is very easy for a good payroll service to change banks either for the employer or employee. It involves communication along with new forms signed.

Why Would I use Direct Deposit instead of Printed Paychecks for my Small Business Payroll:
Direct Deposit offers employers a money-management tool that benefits Employers and Employees. More than half of the country is already using direct deposit for payroll paychecks.
Benefits to Employees:
Direct deposit is good for . . .
• Employees who would like to save time by eliminating trips to the bank to cash a payroll check.
• Employees who want to receive their paychecks as early as possible on the payday.
• Employees who want access to their pay when they are not in the office on payday.
• Employees who want more security against loss, or theft of their check.
How many of you have accidentally lost your paycheck, or didn’t receive your check in the mail, or threw it in the trash with a stack of papers, chances are this applies to a lot of you. These are just a few reasons why Direct Deposit is the right choice for your company and employees. An added befit is employee wages are available for them to access on the day of the payday usually early morning, with no rushed trip to the bank after they get off work only to arrive too late for the money to be put in their account the same day. The employee doesn’t have to be in your office to pick up their check or make special arrangements when they are on vacation or traveling on business in order to get their paychecks. Employee wages can be deposited into both checking and savings accounts on one payroll, giving the employee the ease of having money go into 2 different accounts without a transfer fee or any extra work. Also, most banks offer free checking to people who have direct deposit.

Benefits to Employers:

The benefits of direct deposit to employers is . . .

• You don’t have to be in the office to sign the checks
• You don’t have to verify the checks are mailed on time
• You don’t have to separate checks as they print out
• You don’t have to stuff envelopes
• And all the benefits to your employees make for a satisfied workforce

Continue reading ‘Hate Long Lines at Banks? Direct Deposit: A Method of Electronic Funds Transfer’ »

Your restaurant payroll is typically 22 to 32% of your gross revenue. In order to drill down to an appropriate actual total wage for your restaurant or bar, you need to check a few items, and do some research.

STEP 1: Know Your Metrics!

1. This article will help you identify the details surrounding your business, and allow you to create a detailed and accurate budget.

Use the budget in your daily and monthly review to keep payroll costs in line, and run a profitable restaurant business.

STEP 2: Research your Category and Wage Laws

1) Research Sub-Category of Restaurant Industry: Frozen Yogurt Retail, Full-Service Restaurant, Liquor Store, Pizza Delivery or Pizza Dine-In, Sandwich Deli, etc. Compare your budget to industry norms.

2) Local and Federal Minimum Wage. Know your local facts.

3) Employer Tax Contributions. You will need to calculate the Employer’s contribution towards state and federal taxes. Employer contributed state taxes can include unemployment, disability and employment training tax. Federal contributions include FICA (Social Security and Medicare) and unemployment. A restaurant payroll service can assist you with these calculations. The Employer Contribution to payroll taxes can add up to 10-15% or more on top of the base wages.

STEP 3: Create a Budget

1) Calculate budgeted wages. You will need an employee labor schedule, and wage by position. Use a spreadsheet program to create a monthly budget.

2) A detailed wage calculation will include wages by department: Kitchen, Front of House, Management, Bar, Etc.

As an example, here is a basic calculation for one department only:

7.25 minimum wage
8 employees
20 hours per week, average
Calculated wages: $1,160 per week

3) Add in a factor for Employer Contributed Taxes (see above).

4) Identify the Gross Revenue by Month

5) Calculate the Wages as a Percentage of Revenue.
As an example, if your total payroll budget is $15,000 per month, and your revenue is budgeted at $45,000, your %-of-Revenue is 33%. If the calculated percentage is higher or lower than your target, then analyze your numbers carefully to see that they are correct. Let us say your budget was 28%, based on industry standards.

STEP 4: Factors that May Cause Your Wages to be Higher than the Industry

1) Management wages and percentage of wages higher than norm.

1. Do you have managers that overlap departments?
2. Could your bar manager also manage special events?
3. Could you reduce from 4 managers to 3, and spread the responsibilities over the remaining managers?

2) TimeKeeping

1. Do you have a working timekeeping solution?
2. Do you use timecards, punch clock, swipe cards, online timekeeping or even biometrics (fingerprints)?
3. Is your automated timekeeping password protected?
4. Are your employees punching in early or leaving late? Are friends punching them in or out to add hours or cover late arrivals or early departures.
5. The cost of inaccurate or poor timekeeping has been documented to cost restaurants thousands of dollars per year.. You can see industry figures at the Pink Payroll website under the timekeeping tab.

STEP 5: Ways to Use the Payroll Figures to Create a Profitable Restaurant

You may decide to reduce employee hours, and reassign responsibilities in order to stay in line with budget. Or, your advertising may need to increase to bring in more customers to meet your profitability goals.

Continue reading ‘7 Steps to Knocking Down Your Payroll Costs’ »

Outsourcing accounting services has long remained a privilege reserved only for larger corporations. But now, the affordability and cost effectiveness of using outsourced accounting services is attracting small businesses as well. Small businesses normally have a lot of functions and very less resources for completing them. Using expert bookkeeping and accounting service providers for outsourcing accounting functions save small businesses a lot of resources, which can then be utilized somewhere else within the business.

But the main query a small business entrepreneur will have is this: Is outsourcing accounting services really worth it for my small business? The answer to this is complicated and requires evaluating the pros and cons of using a firm for financial functions of the business.

Continue reading ‘Does outsourcing your accounting make sense for your small business?’ »