Declare the deposit ???

[DisneyPrincess]

Hey ladies, Happy New Year to all of you. Back on track tomorrow, it sure was nice to have almost two weeks off

Well here I am already getting my paperwork done. Its my first time doing all of this so I just want to get it out of the way as I didnt do anything as I go, I just piled up all the papers for last minutes

I might have a few questions regarding expenses and all since I have no idea how it works... but for now I have a tiny bitty small question : do I declare the deposits, late fees, bank fees for returned cheques... in my income ??

Thanx for the help

[treeholm]

When you declare the income depends on whether you are using a cash or accrual accounting basis. I just use a cash basis, which means I declare income as received. So, I received deposits in September that will be used towards the last week of care, which may be 2013 or even later. But I declare them as 2012 income because that's when I received them. Late fees, bank fees etc. you would declare when they are incurred, and make sure that if you paid any fees to your bank you declare them as expenses to offset the income.
If you use an accrual basis, then deposits would be considered deferred income, and would actually count when they are used. This is a bit more complicated, but an accountant can help you with that. Hope that helps!

[Inspired by Reggio]

I declare ANYTHING clients give me in the way of 'fees' as income because we are suppose to declare ALL income sources .... so their weekly fees, if they are late picking up and pay me overtime fee or they are late with a payment or if they get charged a NSF fee by me, sunscreen program, additional field trip costs and so forth all get recorded as income in my files ... however only their WEEKLY FEES get incorporated into their actual childcare tax receipt column because IMU the rest are not 'childcare fees' but rather account penalties so they have a separate column in their ledger to record them that does not get added into their year end receipt .... still income for ME but they are not eligible for the tax break for the parent just strictly the 'childcare' costs

Also remember if YOU get charged a bank fee for an NSF cheque due to a client make sure to claim that as a banking expense ... same with I claim any income clients give me for sunscreen but than I turn around and claim the sunscreen as an 'expense' so it balances out it just proper book keeping to record everything that comes in and goes out regardless so that in an audit there are no discrepancies!

With the security deposit ~ I do use the accrual method Treeholm has mentioned ~ so it gets recorded in the security deposit section of each clients ledger but does not get 'claimed' as income by me until I apply it to their account at the end of care in that tax year ~ which is when it will show up for them as a childcare expense.