Liquidity or Tax Saving
Which is best for a company owner?
Recently, I worked on a file where a business owner could save $450,000 in taxes.
But in the letter, she explained that she didn’t want to lose liquidity in her business.
In accounting, we know what liquidity means.
So, before making a decision, a business owner must ask some questions:
How much cash do you currently have on hand?
Do I have enough cash to run my day-to-day business operations?
Can I pay my loan instalments and interest on time?
As a bookkeeper, I want to ask you:
What financial problems are you facing in your business?
#prepareplan #management
Great point! Saving on taxes is important, but not at the cost of running out of cash for daily operations. The best decisions come from balancing tax efficiency with healthy cash flow.
I was talking to a prospective client for my bookkeeping business.
She asked what are the key benefits of hiring a bookkeeper. I was semi-prepared with an answer:
1. Saves Time - frees you from daily data entry, reconciliations, and invoice tracking so you can focus on growing your business.
2. Financial Accuracy - prevents calculation errors, misclassified expenses, and messy records that lead to lost tax deductions.
3. Better Cash Flow Management - tracks incoming and outgoing money to help you spot shortfalls early and pay bills on time.
4. Smoother Tax Preparation - keeps year-round records organized, making tax season faster and reducing audit risks.
5. Clearer Strategic Insights - generates clean financial reports (like P&L and balance sheets) that inform budgeting and hiring decisions.
6. Cost-Effective Scaling - outsourcing or hiring a part-time bookkeeper is often more affordable than maintaining a full-time in-house accounting department.
Wondering what I missed? What else do you tell your clients when they ask this question?
I’d add peace of mind! 😊 Business owners shouldn’t have to guess whether they can afford their next hire or investment. Good bookkeeping helps them make those decisions with confidence, not just keep track of what’s already happened.
Episode 7: Your bank balance is not your income. 💸
As a designer, money reaches you from Stripe, PayPal, Wise, direct transfers and Contra. By the time it lands, fees, currency conversion and delays have already taken a cut, and some of it never gets recorded.
That’s why a monthly bank reconciliation matters. It means matching your bank statement to your books, line by line, so you can:
✅ Spot the client invoice that was never paid
✅ Catch the software subscription you forgot to cancel
✅ Find the processor fees nobody recorded
✅ Know your real profit per project
✅ Reach tax time with clean numbers instead of a panic
It takes about 30 minutes a month. A gap you catch in October is easy to fix. A gap you find a year later is expensive.
“I have AED 250,000 in the bank, so I’m doing great.”
Not necessarily. Look at what’s actually inside that balance:
🟣 AED 100,000 is a bank loan. You have to pay it back.
🟡 AED 60,000 is customer advances. You haven’t delivered the work yet.
🔵 AED 15,000 is VAT collected. It belongs to the tax authority.
🔵 AED 45,000 is your own capital that you put in.
🟢 AED 30,000 is the actual profit.
Cash and profit are different things, for three reasons:
1️⃣ Timing. An invoice you’ve sent is profit, but it isn’t cash until the customer pays.
2️⃣ Non-cash costs. Depreciation lowers your profit, but no money leaves the bank.
3️⃣ Not your money. Loans, advances, VAT and capital all add to your balance without adding to your profit.
Before you spend, ask:
✅ Did customers pay me, or did I only invoice them?
✅ Is any of this a loan, advance, VAT or my own capital?
✅ Which bills and taxes are still due?
✅ What is my real profit this month?
If you can’t answer these, your bank balance is giving you a false picture of how the business is doing.
Next up: Episode 7. Follow along so you don’t miss it.
Cash flow and profitability are two different things. Understanding where your money comes from and where it needs to go is essential for making smarter business decisions.