Accounting Firm Loans in Goshen, IN: Document Scanners, a Records System Switch and Payroll While Invoices Are Out

A bookkeeping practice bills its clients after each month closes and gives them 30 days to pay, while its own staff are paid every two weeks. In this invented case the practice’s biweekly payroll is $9,460 and the gap between a payday and the client payments is 44 days.

Depending on the calendar, three or four paydays fall in the 44 invented days: $28,380 or $37,840. Covering the larger figure with a line of credit draw at 12.55% a year for the full 44 days costs $572.47 of simple interest in this invented case.

Client payments that arrive early shorten the draw and the interest with it. The practice’s aging report shows which clients pay late, and a partner may ask to see it with the bank statements.

A practice can also shrink the gap from its own side: billing on the first business day after month end, offering clients automatic bank payments, or moving larger clients to a retainer paid at the start of the month. Each of those changes the number of days the line has to cover, and so the interest.

Client paperwork becomes searchable files only after it is scanned. In this invented case a practice buys two high-speed duplex scanners at $2,890 each and a backup appliance for the files at $4,150, $9,930 in all.

Equipment financing over 36 months at 11.8% puts the invented package at $328.87 a month; the payments total $11,839.32, which is $1,909.32 more than the price. For the request, the practice can gather:

• The vendor quote with model numbers for the scanners and the backup unit
• Recent business bank statements
• The practice’s founding year and last year’s fee revenue
• Any lease on equipment it already has, if the new units replace leased ones

Moving client files and workflows to a new document management system costs money once, up front: the license, the data conversion and staff training. In this invented case those come to $21,600.

A term loan at 10.95% over 30 months gives a payment of $826.30 and $3,189.00 of interest in this invented case. An invented credit line draw at 13.3%, paid down by $1,800 a month, clears in 12 months and costs $1,556.10 in interest on the falling balance.

In this invented comparison the line asks for $1,800 a month against $826.30 on the loan. A practice whose cash can carry the larger monthly sum pays less interest on the line; one that wants the cost spread out may pick the loan.

A refurbished office phone system can cost far less than a new one. In this invented case a practice finds 16 refurbished desk phones and a call controller for $4,640. Before it buys, the practice can check:

• That the phones and controller support its phone service provider
• The warranty from the refurbisher, and what it covers
• Spare handsets and power supplies in the lot
• Whether voicemail and call recording come with the controller or cost extra

Two years of equipment financing at 12.9% puts the invented $4,640 system at $220.38 a month, or $5,289.12 in all. New network cabling in the office, if the phones need it, is property work outside this site.

Accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping and payroll services had 63 employer establishments in Elkhart County, IN in 2023, with 416 employees and about $23 million in payroll (County Business Patterns, NAICS 5412). In 41 of the 63, a 65.1% share, the payroll held under five people. ZIP Code Business Patterns list 18 accounting establishments for ZIP 46526, the ZIP whose name is Goshen, IN.

Nonemployer Statistics listed 164 accounting and bookkeeping businesses without paid employees in Elkhart County, IN for 2024.

Architectural, engineering and related services offices (NAICS 5413) numbered 47 in the county in 2023, 30 of them with fewer than five employees. In the ZIP Code Business Patterns, ZIP 46526 showed ten architecture and engineering offices. Their plotters, survey instruments and design software fit the same equipment financing as the scanners above. Other office trades are on the industries page.