When debts have grown to such a level that repayments are too much to handle, it is impossible to ignore the fact that something needs to be done. There are a few routes to consider, but amongst the most practical is consolidation. The good news is that getting a debt consolidation loan with bad credit is not such a major problem.
Admittedly, the temptation is to file for bankruptcy and get the debt monkey off their back, but the consequences of this option can be severe, with credit options all but wiped out for a period of at least 12 months. Consolidation is more proactive, and getting approval with poor credit scores is actually quite simple.
Why is this? Well, logically it would only be a bad credit borrower who would need to seek a debt consolidation loan anyway. Only after an extended period of struggling to make repayments, and missing them, would it be needed - and missed repayments cause credit scores to fall. But how can someone qualify for these loans?
1. Affordability
Lenders offer consolidation as a normal financial product, so it is possible to get one in advance of any real financial problems. But for those applicants who are seeking a debt consolidation loan with bad credit, the task of qualifying for the loan itself is quite simple.
As with all other loans, affordability is the most important factor in securing approval. When assessing this, the lender will look at your existing debts and their repayment sums. When these are combined, the lender knows to what degree the total repayment sum needs to be lowered to make it affordable.
Getting approval with poor credit scores is simple because the credit scores have no bearing on the assessment. What matters is that the monthly repayments on the debt consolidation loan are within your budget. If the total repayment on 5 existing debts is $1,500, then a new sum of $750 should be affordable.
2. Seeking a Longer Term
In relation to affordability, the best way to ensure this is to seek a longer repayment term. This is because it directly affects the repayment sum. For example, when seeking a debt consolidation loan with bad credit, agreeing a 20-year term is set to ensure approval more than a 10-year term.
How is that the case? If the combined debt balances add up to $150,000, then repaying that debt over 10 years means monthly repayments of around $1,250. But if the same principal is repaid over 20 years, then the monthly repayment sum is $625. Obviously, the latter is much more affordable.
But while securing approval with poor credit scores is so much more likely, it is important to note that the amount of interest paid over the lifetime of the debt consolidation loan will be much higher. The key difference is that the financial pressure is alleviated.
3. Offer Security For Greater Sums
Whether an applicant is seeking a secured or unsecured debt consolidation loan with bad credit can be significant. As with every other kind of loan deal, the lender wants to be sure they will get their money back, and offering some kind of security helps in that cause.
When large debt sums need to be covered, collateral might be hard to find, but a cosigner would be ideal. A cosigner, of course, acts as a guarantor promising to make the debt repayments if the borrower is not able to make them.
Getting approval with poor credit scores might be straightforward, but approval of the debt consolidation loan is practically guaranteed when a cosigner is included.
Internal Audit Report – A Titanic Responsibility
Monday, September 9, 2013
the White Star Line had an Internal Audit Report carried out before the Titanic was even finished. Imagine that a third party had performed a thorough risk assessment of the vessel and gone through a number of “what if “scenarios. Maybe the lookout in the crow’s nest would have had his binoculars and seen the iceberg earlier. Maybe Harland and Wolff would have used a different kind of rivet which wasn’t so prone to popping under pressure. Maybe there would have been sufficient lifeboats for all the passengers and crew. The list goes on and on.
More recently, BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has provided another timely reminder of how a massive company can be virtually brought to its knees by something which might have been avoided if proper risk assessment procedures had been conducted in the first place.
OK, so these are extreme examples of what can go seriously wrong in any major organisation but they do underline the need for constant vigilance when it comes to identifying possible risks and making sure that they are mitigated as much as possible.
Most larger companies now have their own internal audit departments reporting to the board of directors’ audit committee but, however competent they may be, it always pays to have a third party either conducting its own separate audit or working alongside internal personnel. If nothing else, it brings a fresh perspective to bear and enables issues to be identified that insiders might have missed altogether. The remit of an internal auditing team is usually broad and may encompass areas such as the efficiency of operations, the reliability of financial reporting, the deterrence and investigation of possible fraud, safeguarding assets, and compliance with laws and regulations.
Internal auditors typically conclude each audit with a report summarising their findings, making any necessary recommendations and noting any responses or action plans from management. An audit report may well contain an executive summary; a section that includes the specific issues or findings identified and related recommendations or action plans supplemented by appendix information such as detailed graphs and charts or process information. Each audit finding within the body of the report may contain five elements, sometimes called the "5 C's":
1. Condition: What is the particular problem identified?
2. Criteria: What is the standard that was not met? The standard may be a company policy or other benchmark.
3. Cause: Why did the problem occur?
4. Consequence: What is the risk/negative outcome (or opportunity foregone) because of the finding?
5. Corrective action: What should management do about the finding? What have they agreed to do and by when?
The recommendations laid out in an internal audit report are designed to help the organisation achieve its goals. These may relate to operations, financial reporting or legal/regulatory compliance. They may relate to effectiveness (i.e. whether goals were met or compliance with standards was achieved) or efficiency (i.e. whether the outputs were generated with minimum inputs).
More recently, BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has provided another timely reminder of how a massive company can be virtually brought to its knees by something which might have been avoided if proper risk assessment procedures had been conducted in the first place.
OK, so these are extreme examples of what can go seriously wrong in any major organisation but they do underline the need for constant vigilance when it comes to identifying possible risks and making sure that they are mitigated as much as possible.
Most larger companies now have their own internal audit departments reporting to the board of directors’ audit committee but, however competent they may be, it always pays to have a third party either conducting its own separate audit or working alongside internal personnel. If nothing else, it brings a fresh perspective to bear and enables issues to be identified that insiders might have missed altogether. The remit of an internal auditing team is usually broad and may encompass areas such as the efficiency of operations, the reliability of financial reporting, the deterrence and investigation of possible fraud, safeguarding assets, and compliance with laws and regulations.
Internal auditors typically conclude each audit with a report summarising their findings, making any necessary recommendations and noting any responses or action plans from management. An audit report may well contain an executive summary; a section that includes the specific issues or findings identified and related recommendations or action plans supplemented by appendix information such as detailed graphs and charts or process information. Each audit finding within the body of the report may contain five elements, sometimes called the "5 C's":
1. Condition: What is the particular problem identified?
2. Criteria: What is the standard that was not met? The standard may be a company policy or other benchmark.
3. Cause: Why did the problem occur?
4. Consequence: What is the risk/negative outcome (or opportunity foregone) because of the finding?
5. Corrective action: What should management do about the finding? What have they agreed to do and by when?
The recommendations laid out in an internal audit report are designed to help the organisation achieve its goals. These may relate to operations, financial reporting or legal/regulatory compliance. They may relate to effectiveness (i.e. whether goals were met or compliance with standards was achieved) or efficiency (i.e. whether the outputs were generated with minimum inputs).
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internal audit report
How Professional Accounting For Small Business Can Help This Business Grow Even Stronger
Friday, September 6, 2013
It is usually thought self-evident that a large corporation or organization requires a separate accounting department to handle the sheer value of its financial operations. Without the accountants, it is said, the largest business in the world can easily crumble and fall to the ground within weeks. Inexplicably, the same rule is not considered to be in force for small businesses and start-ups. Accounting for small business is unfairly and shortsightedly put on the back burner and forgotten.
Every large business was, at some point, much smaller, and every multinational corporation was, years ago, a much less significant participant in the global market. Believe it or not, but accounting for small business may well lie at the basis of the successes shown today by household name companies. Proper management and excellent staffing do not, in themselves, build a business’s assets and guarantee long-term stability together with strict adherence to every existing federal and local rule. Yet, often the mistake is made early on. Financial mistakes accumulate until they are either happily resolved through hard work, or cause deep financial problems and even meltdowns.
Here are a few tips on how accounting for small business can lead to larger, more stable business:
1) Decide early on if you can handle the necessary data volume in-house. While some one-person start-up businesses may prefer to keep accounting internal, many have found that switching to an external provider of financial operations saves resources, frees up staff that can be more useful elsewhere, and takes the stress out of day-to-day operations.
2) Explore your accounting for small business provider’s ability to create complex reports and budget forecasts. More often than not, these services, when kept internally, quickly lose their accuracy and technical level. At the same time, their proper use can quickly evaluate the company’s operational efficiency through timely discovery of excessive costs and improper documentation.
3) Ensure that your accounting for small business provider is a certified accounting service registered with the appropriate bodies and authorities. In addition, look for authorized dealer or user status in the specific software package that you use. If they are, training will be provided to your internal staff to allow for tweaks to be carried out in-house.
4) Consider obtaining the services of a small business accounting provider for part-time forecasting, planning, financing and other operations, if you are looking into growing your business in the foreseeable future.
5) Take a step towards a modern paper-free document management system, starting with the messy paper-based accounting with bills, notes and other documents. Enquire if cloud-based solutions for your financial tracking needs are available.
All of these steps, taken together, should give you all of the knowledge and tools necessary to decide on a top-level provider of accounting for small business. Most importantly, they can take your business to a fundamentally new level by moving lengthy and stressful operations outside of your work environment. In summary, accounting for small business is just as logical and indispensable as accounting operations for an international conglomerate.
Every large business was, at some point, much smaller, and every multinational corporation was, years ago, a much less significant participant in the global market. Believe it or not, but accounting for small business may well lie at the basis of the successes shown today by household name companies. Proper management and excellent staffing do not, in themselves, build a business’s assets and guarantee long-term stability together with strict adherence to every existing federal and local rule. Yet, often the mistake is made early on. Financial mistakes accumulate until they are either happily resolved through hard work, or cause deep financial problems and even meltdowns.
Here are a few tips on how accounting for small business can lead to larger, more stable business:
1) Decide early on if you can handle the necessary data volume in-house. While some one-person start-up businesses may prefer to keep accounting internal, many have found that switching to an external provider of financial operations saves resources, frees up staff that can be more useful elsewhere, and takes the stress out of day-to-day operations.
2) Explore your accounting for small business provider’s ability to create complex reports and budget forecasts. More often than not, these services, when kept internally, quickly lose their accuracy and technical level. At the same time, their proper use can quickly evaluate the company’s operational efficiency through timely discovery of excessive costs and improper documentation.
3) Ensure that your accounting for small business provider is a certified accounting service registered with the appropriate bodies and authorities. In addition, look for authorized dealer or user status in the specific software package that you use. If they are, training will be provided to your internal staff to allow for tweaks to be carried out in-house.
4) Consider obtaining the services of a small business accounting provider for part-time forecasting, planning, financing and other operations, if you are looking into growing your business in the foreseeable future.
5) Take a step towards a modern paper-free document management system, starting with the messy paper-based accounting with bills, notes and other documents. Enquire if cloud-based solutions for your financial tracking needs are available.
All of these steps, taken together, should give you all of the knowledge and tools necessary to decide on a top-level provider of accounting for small business. Most importantly, they can take your business to a fundamentally new level by moving lengthy and stressful operations outside of your work environment. In summary, accounting for small business is just as logical and indispensable as accounting operations for an international conglomerate.
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