Melton Bookkeeping and Accounting Services LLC

10/29/2026

Cash Basis vs. Accrual Basis And Why Does It Matter?

Have you ever run a Profit & Loss report in QuickBooks and noticed that you can choose between Cash Basis and Accrual Basis? Ever wondered why the numbers are different?

Under cash basis accounting, income is recorded when you receive payment, and expenses are recorded when you pay them. For example, you complete a $20,000 job in September but don't get paid until October. On a cash basis, that $20,000 shows up as October income.

Under accrual accounting, income is recorded when earned, and expenses are recorded when incurred, regardless of when money changes hands. On an accrual basis, the $20,000 in the above example is September income, even though you won't collect it until October.

Now let's say you also received a $7,000 subcontractor bill for that job in September. You paid it in September. Under accrual accounting, both the $20,000 revenue and $7,000 expense appear in September. That gives you a much clearer picture of whether the job was profitable.

So which method does your bank or bonding company want?

If you're applying for a business loan or line of credit, your lender may prefer accrual-basis financial statements. Accrual accounting shows more than what has already been collected or paid. It helps the lender evaluate what customers owe you, what you owe vendors, whether your business is profitable, and whether your business has sufficient resources to meet its obligations.

Which report do you give your tax preparer?

Always give your tax preparer accrual-basis financial statements, along with the supporting Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable reports. If your return is filed on the cash basis, your preparer can determine the adjustments needed to convert the books to the appropriate tax basis.

Which one is better for making daily business decisions?

Imagine looking at your bank account and seeing $50,000. But what if you have $65,000 in vendor bills coming due? Or you completed $100,000 in work last month but haven't collected the money yet?

Your bank balance alone doesn't tell you whether you're profitable, how much you owe, or how much customers owe you. That's why properly maintained accrual-basis financial statements, along with accurate A/R and A/P reports, are so valuable.

Cash flow tells you whether you can pay your bills. Accrual accounting helps tell you whether your business is making money. Both matter!

Neither method makes up for inaccurate bookkeeping.

If your receivables, payables, bank accounts, and other balance sheet accounts aren't reconciled, neither report is going to tell you the whole story. That's why good bookkeeping is about much more than recording transactions. It's about giving business owners information they can actually use. Charlie says, you have to know where you're at to know where you can go from here. Charlie is one smart bassett hound!

10/28/2026

I don't usually talk about products onlline. I don't like to push products. But I really like this product and want to share in case anyone is looking for something like this.

Every year about this time, I start looking for paper planners/calendars to use. I buy the Erin Condren Life Planner. I really like her planners. But here is the problem.

Every year I'm so excited to open the package and see my new planner. I start out the year with good intentions. But google calendar is so handy and everything is electronic and so easy. I don't have to carry a big planner in my purse. It's on my laptop and on my iphone.

So I began searching for that perfect planner/calendar that might do some of the things that google lacks. I'm just tired of wasting money on paper planners.

I was so excited when I found Artful Agenda. It is a life planner/calendar that syncs with google! It gives me the month, week and day view. The day view allows me to see tasks for the day and click them off as I finish them. It is also easy to create recurring tasks!

And as with all great planners, stickers are a thing.

If you are like me and need something to help you stay organized but a bulky calendar on your desk or in your purse is not working for you...

Please check out Artful Agenda. If you love it, like I do, and you are tired of buying paper planners that you never use, please use my referral code RP1615759. Here is the link: https://artfulagenda.com/referralprogram/

You will love this electronic planner! Really!

10/22/2026

🎃 Some Business Tasks Are Too Scary to Wing It

Running a business means wearing a lot of hats—but that doesn't mean you should wear every hat.

Some things are worth delegating to someone who knows how to get them right the first time.

👻 Five areas where professional help can save you from some scary mistakes:

✔️ Bookkeeping & account reconciliations - because numbers in QuickBooks aren't necessarily correct numbers.

✔️ Payroll & payroll tax compliance - mistakes involving wages and payroll taxes can get expensive quickly.

✔️ 1099 preparation & year-end reporting - waiting until January to figure out who needs a 1099 can create a mess.

✔️ Tax planning & preparation - good tax planning happens before the year is over, not when the return is being prepared.

✔️ Year-end financial cleanup & tax preparation readiness - your tax professional shouldn't have to unravel your books before they can prepare your return.

You don't have to know how to do everything yourself to run a successful business.

Sometimes the smartest thing you can do is know what to delegate.

🎃 Save the scary stuff for Halloween, not your bookkeeping. 🐾

10/21/2026

🚩 Want to Make an Accountant Nervous? Show Them a Balance Sheet Full of Negative Balances.

There are a few things in bookkeeping that make my skin crawl.

Negative asset and liability balances are at the top of the list.

When I worked in public accounting, I could sometimes look at a client's Balance Sheet for about 30 seconds and know I needed to start digging.

Why?

I'd see things like:

Checking Account ........ ($12,487)
Accounts Receivable ..... ($8,200)
Loan Payable ............ ($15,600)

Could there occasionally be a legitimate reason for a negative balance? Absolutely.

But when I see several of them, or a balance that simply doesn't make sense, it's a giant flashing sign that says:

🚨 LOOK CLOSER.

And it's probably the single most common obvious warning sign I see in messy books.

So what causes negative balances?

It depends on the account.

A negative bank account could mean transactions are missing or incorrectly dated, expenses have been duplicated, checks were recorded to the wrong account, or checks are being held until funds can be moved around.

Negative Accounts Receivable can come from customer payments or credits that haven't been properly applied. Many times it is caused by incorrect dates recorded on transactions. A client comes in to pay a bill for services on Monday, the 31st. The invoice to the client is recorded on Tuesday, the 1st. Oops! But it's so easy to correct.

Negative Accounts Payable can result from vendor payments or credits that aren't matched to the correct bills. It can also happen when someone records a bill, the bill is paid, and then someone deletes the bill.

A negative loan balance might mean loan payments were recorded incorrectly, the original loan wasn't entered properly, or principal and interest weren't separated out correctly.

And sometimes... something was simply posted backwards or to the wrong account.

That's bookkeeping. Mistakes happen.

The problem isn't that an error occurred. The problem is allowing an obviously questionable balance to sit there month after month without asking: “Does this number make sense?”

Your tax preparer WILL notice. Please don't send your tax preparer a Balance Sheet with obvious negative balances and hope they won't look at it. 😂

I prepared business taxes for more than 23 years before starting my own accounting business. I can tell you, the tax preparer looks! They will notice it.

And when I worked in public accounting and saw one, my immediate thought wasn't: "Well, I'm sure everything else is perfect."

It was: “I better look at the rest of this very closely.”

Because if an obvious problem made it all the way to the tax preparer, there may be less obvious problems hiding behind it.

That's why reviewing the Balance Sheet is such an important part of good bookkeeping.

Don't just run the report. READ it.

Ask whether every balance makes sense.

And please, at very least, fix the obvious problems before you hand the books to your tax preparer. They'll appreciate it.

And they won't have to wonder whether anyone looked at the Balance Sheet before sending it over. 😉🐾

10/20/2026

“Why does one bookkeeper charge $300 a month and another charge $1,500?”

My first question would be: What has each person agreed to do?

“Bookkeeping” can mean recording transactions and reconciling a checking account. It can also mean handling customer invoicing, tracking unpaid bills, preparing accounting adjustments, and investigating balances that don’t make sense.

Those are very different responsibilities.

📚 Bookkeeping services keep your financial records current and organized.

🔎 Controller services provide accounting oversight, resolve issues, and handle more complex accounting. If you already have a bookkeeper—or do the bookkeeping yourself—a controller can work alongside you.

📈 CFO services help you use the numbers to forecast cash needs, evaluate profitability, and plan decisions such as hiring or expansion.

Some businesses need one level. Others need a combination.

Before comparing quotes, ask:

• What work is included?
• How often will it be done?
• Which reports will I receive?
• What will I still be responsible for?
• What costs extra?

A lower-priced service may meet your needs perfectly. But it may also leave you doing work you thought you were handing over.

Compare the services. Then compare the price.

I explain the differences, including the cost of hiring these roles full time, in my latest blog:

https://meltonaccountingservices.com/why-bookkeeping-prices-vary/⁠

10/17/2026

Your business is growing. Is it time to hand over the bookkeeping?

You need invoices sent, customer payments recorded, unpaid invoices tracked, and bills paid. You want your income and expenses recorded correctly—and you’re ready for someone else to take care of it.

But you don’t have enough bookkeeping work to keep a full-time employee busy. And hiring someone means wages, employer payroll taxes, and possibly benefits.

That’s where I can help.

My full-service bookkeeping can include:

✅ Recording and categorizing your income and expenses
✅ Preparing and sending customer invoices
✅ Recording customer payments and tracking accounts receivable so you know who still owes you
✅ Recording bills, scheduling payments with your approval, and recording those payments
✅ Reconciling your bank and credit card accounts
✅ Balancing all loan accounts at year-end, with principal and interest properly recorded, so your books are tax-ready for your CPA or tax preparer

Every month, you’ll receive a profit and loss statement and a balance sheet. You’ll be able to see what your business earned, what it owns, and what it owes—information you can use when making decisions about hiring, equipment purchases, or your next step toward growth.

Full-service bookkeeping starts around $550 per month for a business with one checking account, one credit card account, and a lower volume of transactions.

A business with a checking account, savings account, two credit cards, and two loan accounts might be around $1,250 per month, depending on transaction volume and the services needed.

These are starting estimates. Your fee will reflect the work your business actually needs.

You get experienced bookkeeping support without adding an employee to your payroll or paying employer payroll taxes and employee benefits for that position.

And you get back the evenings and weekends you’ve been spending on the books.

Use that time to grow your business—or enjoy the family you’re working so hard for.

Call today, and let’s talk about taking bookkeeping off your plate.

Paula Melton, CPA
Melton Bookkeeping & Accounting Services LLC
📞 417-630-0057

10/17/2026

Have a small business with simple bookkeeping needs? Getting help may cost less than you think.

Maybe you just need someone to record your income and expenses, reconcile your bank accounts, and make sure everything is ready for your tax preparer at year-end.

You don’t need anything complicated. You just want it handled—and handled correctly.

That’s something I can help with. 😊

For basic monthly bookkeeping, starting estimates are:

✅ 1–2 accounts: $250/month
✅ 4 accounts: $500/month
✅ 6 accounts: $750/month

“Accounts” means bank and credit card accounts—not the number of customers you have.

Your monthly fee depends on the number of accounts, the volume of transactions, and the work involved. A small business with a couple of accounts and limited activity may only need the basics.

You’ll also receive a profit and loss report every month showing your income, expenses, and how much your business earned.

I can also reconcile your loan balances at year-end so the principal and interest are properly recorded and your books are tax-ready.

You’ve already got plenty to do running your business. Your evenings don’t have to include catching up on bookkeeping.

Call today, and let’s talk about what your business actually needs.

Melton Bookkeeping & Accounting Services LLC
📞 417-630-0057

10/17/2026

Aren’t these great?

SOLD🌿 Beautifully refinished matching pair of Stanley Furniture nightstands!

🌿 These quality vintage nightstands have been given a fresh, timeless look with a custom greige blend of Wise Owl Paint, rich dark-stained wood tops, coordinating natural wood bases, and elegant brushed brass hardware.

🌿 The original dimensional drawer fronts and detailed molding add character, while the neutral finish makes this pair versatile enough for traditional, transitional, or modern bedrooms.

✨ Features:

* Authentic Stanley Furniture
* Custom-mixed Wise Owl Paint greige finish
* Dark-stained wood tops
* Coordinating stained wood bases
* Brushed brass hardware
* dovetailed drawers
* Clean, lined drawer interiors
* Two spacious drawers per nightstand

Sold as a matching pair.

A beautiful combination of vintage craftsmanship and updated style, ready for their next home!
Pickup: Ozark

10/16/2026

Mother Nature got serious about Fall today.

Since the first official day of Fall, our average HIGH here in Marshfield, Missouri, has been 83.2 degrees.

I haven’t even closed my pool yet.

Today? It’s 50 degrees.

Apparently, we’re skipping the gentle transition and going straight to “why do I live here?” weather.

Meanwhile, Gulf Shores and Destin keep coming to mind. I could be sitting on a beach instead of wondering whether it’s reasonable to do bookkeeping wrapped in an electric blanket.

I’m pretty sure this is NOT the weather God intended me for. Anything under 85 degrees and I freeze.

Mother Nature, I’m going to need you to submit these temperature changes for approval first.

Is anyone else already counting the days until Summer? And who has been waiting all summer for this?