Information Hub
HELM believes that knowledge is crucial. It’s not just important to us, it lies at the very heart of what we do. Our goal is to provide you with a clear understanding of each financial statement and offer customized recommendation videos to support your learning. By grasping your finances and their meaning, you can improve your agency's performance.
HELM provides our clients with an ever-expanding information hub and video library, available any time for your convenience.
ABOUT HELM
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HELM is uniquely designed for the domestic staffing industry. We understand the nuances inside our industry and can help you set up or correct your books to maximize your tax savings. We are also focused on education to help you gain knowledge and feel more confident about your financial business decisions.
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Yes, HELM offers professional bookkeeping services that can help save money by reducing the likelihood of financial errors, ensuring accurate tax filings, identifying cost-saving opportunities, and providing financial insights that can optimize your agency.
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Our goal is to create a comprehensive process to ensure our clients have accurate books, understand what their numbers mean and are able to make better decisions based on their finances. We are currently only set up to run full service bookkeeping with add-ons of billing and payroll, so we are unable to do those as stand alone services.
Bookkeeping basics
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Bookkeeping is like charting the course of your financial voyage (we are really killing this ship theme). It tells you where you have been so you can plan the best route for your future.
It involves:⚓ Categorizing expenses and income
⚓ Creating and understanding your monthly reports
⚓ Ensuring you know where your money went
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Bookkeeping is important because maintaining accurate financial records decreases tax liabilities and allows for better decision-making.
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A balance sheet is a financial statement that shows what your agency owns (assets), what it owes (liabilities), and how much is left for the owners (shareholders’ equity). It gives a snapshot of the company’s financial situation at a specific moment.
While sales are important, it is the profit—the amount of money left over after your costs—that truly matters.
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P&L stands for Profit & Loss. This is a financial report that shows how much money your agency earned and spent during a specific time period. It summarizes the revenues (money earned) and deducts the expenses (money spent) to calculate the net profit or loss.
The P&L shows if your agency made more money than it spent (profit) or if it spent more than it made (loss).
The statement is useful for assessing a company’s financial performance and making informed decisions.
Financial basics
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Revenue is the total amount of money your agency made from all lines of service. This may include registration fees, placement fees, training, digital products you sell, and more.
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The net profit is the money your agency has left after deducting your expenses from your total sales (revenue).
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Gross margin is the amount of money you have left over after calculating the expenses you incurred to make the sale. Gross margin is often expressed as a % of your total sales.
For example, if you make a $8,000 placement fee and spend the following:
$750 on advertising, $100 on background screens, and $1000 for the recruiter, your total expenses would be $1,800.
Therefore, your profit would be $6,200.
To calculate the gross margin %, you take the profit ($6,200) divided by the placement fee ($8,000) and multiply it by 100 to get your gross margin %.
6,200/8000 x 100= 77.5%
The gross margin is 77.5%
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For agencies that employ and serve families directly, we recommend 38% gross margin as a minimum. This number allows you to pay employment taxes, workers compensation (if required by law), liability insurance, and overhead expenses.
For agencies that employ and provide corporate back up care, we recommend 55% gross margin.
For agencies that do not employ or offer placement, only 65% is a targeted gross margin.