It’s been a couple of weeks since my last post and boy is it fun to do something different for a change. I’ve spent the last two weeks with my head in the books literally, bringing all the company’s accounting up to date. But how can a company only 5 weeks old have a lot of accounting you might ask…?
A couple of years ago I set up a business doing news aggregation on UK sports teams. The company developed some software called Newsfinity, which works tirelessly and automatically to gather news stories on specific subjects, and turn them into web pages. An example of such a site is Gooner News.
The business has been relatively successful (it makes a small operating profit) but I haven’t had as much time as I would like to devote to it. My partner in the project moved on to other things very early in the proceedings, and offers of consulting work pulled me away myself. With no employees to speak of, just a part-time developer requiring supervision to do actual work, the business stagnated, although the sites themselves have grown steadily during that time.
When it came to finally starting WorldTV, I looked closely at the accounts for the news sites – a large drawer filled with receipts – and decided it would make a good ‘shell’ for WorldTV. The company had a history, it had expenses, it had revenue. These are all good things to start a new venture with.
My reasoning was…

• Suppliers are more likely to extend credit or lease facilities
• Having prior accounts looks good to investors, even if they show losses
• Losses can be brought forward to offset future profits
• It can save 3-4 weeks of beaurocracy setting up a new company and the hassle of opening new bank accounts

Having never properly done the accounts for my news business, a drawer full of receipts going back over 2 years was always going to be a major ordeal, but finished they are, all duly entered into QuickBooks. It’s quite satisfying to be able to produce every conceivable financial report, whether it’s a balance sheet or P&L, or heaven knows what else might be asked of us, in about two clicks of a mouse.
If I have time later today I’ll post my ‘system’ for turning receipts into accounts with the least hassle.