Finance

A chargeback is, when a customer gets cheated by a merchant and they demand their money back directly from the bank. If the customer submits legitimate proofs of the fraud case, the bank directly takes the money from the merchant’s account and refunds the customer. The merchant also has to pay a heavy fee. Some customers are using this to claim fraud chargeback cases. They are presenting false proofs and to steal the merchant’s money. Chargeback management outsourcing services can save a merchant from such fraud cases. Some of their benefits and mentioned below:

• Recovery of revenue

When a chargeback is filed against a merchant, they suffer heavy losses. Even if they win the dispute, still they have to bear the cost of administration and chargeback fee. The best way to avoid these costs is to avoid chargebacks altogether. One can hire chargeback management outsourcing services and take their help to dispute friendly fraud chargebacks and avoid future losses. A chargeback management service will solve disputes on your behalf and also eliminate various chargebacks that are caused by criminal fraud.

• Interactive system

In this age of online marketing, everything has become super-fast, dynamic, moving, and always evolving. One has to be as active as possible to survive in this ever-changing market. That becomes very difficult without any expert’s help. A single person cannot manage all these things.

The chargeback management services give on the advantages of specialized expertise. They help one to cope with the changes that are taking place in the global market constantly. The business owner does not have to monitor the technological changes and keep track of their customers regularly. An outsourcing chargeback management solution does all these for you.

• Cost-effective

Before availing any service, the first question one should ask themselves is, ‘will it save money?’ If the answer is ‘yes’, then they are good to go.

These services guarantee the ROI of a company. One can reduce their expenses by effectively responding and processing their chargeback system. A merchant can cut down his unnecessary expenses, relocate staff, and take other measures to get more effective results.

• Increases income

Chargeback management outsourcing services do not only help to recover revenues, but it also increases the net income of a merchant. When one uses fraud scoring, they can identify potential fraud cases and terminate their transaction. This sounds to be a good way to eliminate fraud cases but in reality, only 7% to 10% of those detected fraud cases were proven true. The rest declined cases were false positives. This can damage one’s sales massively. One loses its customers and a huge amount of profit that could be gained. So, using a chargeback management service is beneficial as they give super accurate results and thus a merchant can accept more transactions and gain profits in a secured way.

• Merchant’ bank account

If a merchant’s bank account receives a lot of chargeback dispute cases, the bank can freeze that account. With each chargeback case, the ratio gets higher that can be the cause of account termination. Making any transaction from that account will become impossible then. With chargeback management outsourcing services, a merchant can eliminate the fraud chargeback disputes and maintain the chargeback ratio of the account at a healthy level. Thus, hiring chargeback management services can be very beneficial for a merchant.

• Optimizing the data

When merchants use a professional chargeback management solution, they can enjoy the benefits of the years of research, data, and experience which are easily accessible to chargeback management companies. Instead of relying on the in-house statistics that can limit the scopes and create errors, one should take the help of professionals who possess a wider range of information and data to work with.

• Customer satisfaction

When a business uses expert chargeback management outsourcing services to fight friendly fraud chargebacks, they avoid fighting legitimate disputes. A chargeback management expert knows how to deal with genuine chargebacks and thus retains its customers while resolving friendly fraud disputes. When a merchant claims fraud chargeback dispute, they call the customer a liar. This can upset potential customers who suffered a loss. So, with the help of chargeback management, one can fight the actual fraud cases without affecting customer retention or accidentally blaming the genuine chargebacks.

• Saves time

When a company receives chargebacks from its customers repeatedly, all the workers get diverted to solve the dispute to recover the revenue instead of generating new revenues. This wastes a lot of energy and time. A fraud chargeback management service can save us from all the hassles of chargeback disputes. It tracks the customer and their charges, resolves the dispute, and also saves the company from potential frauds. Thus they help to run a company smoothly and make profits.

Thus a merchant can safely accept transactions and excel in the business under the expert guidance of chargeback management services.

The demand for credit cards has been increasing significantly in the last few years. Limited disposable income leads individuals to lean on various types of personal borrowings to fulfill their financial obligations and pay for expenses. Several financial organizations have thus introduced a wide range of credit cards to meet this increasing funding need. Thus, applicants should pay attention to a few important aspects while narrowing down their options.

Other than credit card interest rates, borrowers should be careful about multiple application submissions and frequent switching of debt instruments. Details like application rejections are recorded in an individuals’ credit history impacting it negatively. These credit habits can pull down the rating as well as the chance of availing future financial assistance.

Thus, here is the checklist that individuals should consider before applying for a credit card for improved chances of approval –

• Existing debt amount

To reduce the possibilities of application decline, individuals should be aware of their current debt situation. Any poorly-managed credit account or excessive debt can decrease the creditworthiness of borrowers and be among the reasons why your credit card application can be rejected. 

Lenders may also levy higher credit card interest rates, provide lower credit limit, etc. with such debt facilities or may deny serving with any lending advantages to these profiles.

Thus, individuals should minimize previous credits or loans and make timely payment before applying for a new one to avail the maximum benefits of cards.

• Reason for obtaining a card

Nowadays, many credit cards are customized as per different spending habits. Thus, aspiring borrowers should assess their purpose to avail of a card along with their purchasing pattern to perform a methodical search for a suitable card. With this evaluation, individuals can efficiently concretize their searches with appropriate information. 

Like, applicants want to avail a credit card for generic shopping and wish to carry a balance, they should prioritize their search for cards with reward points on most transactions.

Similarly, borrowers who spend mostly on fuel or gas must consider a fuel credit card that can offer incentives on fuel transactions. Competitive credit card interest rates should also be a lookout too.

• Loyalty points and other reward programs

Reward programs are of the most attractive advantages of credit cards. Depending on financiers and card type, it offers multiple promotional benefits like loyalty points, discounts, vouchers, cash backs, etc. So, individuals need to look for cards like the Bajaj Finserv RBL Bank SuperCard that provides some most useful reward programs of all. 

• APR

When it comes to APRs or Annual Percentage Rate, individuals should undoubtedly look for relatively lower credit card interest rates. Generally, APRs are not applicable if borrowers repay the full amount before the bill payment due date. However, instances like carrying a balance or withdrawing cash invite high-interest charges.

• Various other fees and charges

Lenders also impose different penalties and charges like annual fees, processing fees, balance transfer fees, etc. So, applicants should be acquainted with these fees beforehand. 

• Qualifying criteria and document requirements

Individuals have to meet specific eligibility parameters and furnish several documents to obtain credit cards. While acknowledging the process of how to choose the right credit card, applicants should be completely confident about their eligibility. 

The qualifying criteria consider an applicant’s age, citizenship, income, and credit score that must be above or around 750. Moreover, individuals are also required to submit some essential documents like salary slips, PAN, financial statements, and KYC documents like Aadhaar, driving license, voter ID, passport, etc.

Individuals should opt for lenders like Bajaj Finserv who keeps documentation requirements simple. 

This financier also brings pre-approved offers which make the application process quick and convenient. These offers are also applicable to other financial products like business loans and personal loans. Individuals can look at their pre-approved offer by providing their phone number and name.

Lastly, whether borrowers opt for offline or online applications for credit cards, they need to compare the available option based on the aspects mentioned earlier to find out the right choice. Thus, they should know all the important things before applying for a credit card and eventually make an informed decision.

You are focusing on your business and providing the best service possible to your clients and expanding your business, but are you successful? Your answer might be ‘yes’, of course, you are! But wait, having a great marketing strategy to take your business to the next level is only half the battle won. You also need to look into accounting for real estate budgeting to ensure complete success!

We share with you some ‘tricks of the trade’ to make sure you get your real estate budgeting right!

Points to Consider for Real Estate Budgeting

Leveraging Past Finances

When it comes to real estate budgeting, you need to look at your cash inflows and outflows. Inflows are typically the revenues you earn in terms of commission, coaching, profit sharing from brokerage, or any other income you generate through referrals.

Your expenses would include those that can be directly related to running your business.

Your cash flow is the profit you make from your business. It is calculated after deducting your business expenses from your revenues. You need to pay taxes on this amount.

The starting point for real estate budgeting would be your official bank statement where both revenues and expenses related to your business are recorded.

The major heads for expenditure would be insurance, professional fees payable to accountants and other experts, office overheads, transportation, and advertising.

You can get accounting software to record all your transactions. Divide your expenses between fixed and variable components and try to trim down the wasteful expenditure in the variables section. Set aside funds for your expenses and both personal and professional taxes.

Review Your Budget

A quarterly review of your budget enables you to track any deviations and take remedial action. This is an important part of real estate budgeting as you find out the underperforming departments and those products which are doing better than others. You can divert more funds to departments that are performing well so that there are no supply issues.

The products you find not performing can be handled either with more targeted marketing, training, or both. This will ensure the optimal allocation of funds.

This will also help you find out if you need to automate your accounts payable and accounts receivable so that your creditors receive their payments on time and you don’t miss collections from your debtors.

You can also determine the percentage to which you need to increase your sales to meet your sales budget or by what percentage your need to reduce your expenses to meet your overhead budget.

Small Expenses Count

When it comes to real estate budgeting, every dime counts! So the next time you decide to spend on a relatively cheap advertising campaign, think twice. When you add all those ‘little’ expenses, they add up to quite a ‘large bill’ at the end of the year and can upset your expense budget!

There are some questions you need to ask yourself every time you need to shell out any money. Have you checked the credentials of the agency? Do they have expertise in the target audience niche that you are looking at? Considering your overall marketing strategy, how much value will this campaign add to it?

Even if you are test marketing your product with a small budget to a particular niche that involves a potential customer section, you should find out if the marketing agency understands the metrics involved. They should have clear deliverables and be accountable to you if those promises are not delivered.

Keep an Eye On Your ROI

The goal of real estate budgeting is to get you the desired return on investment or ROI. If you find that your existing budget is not delivering the ROI you expect, then you need to adjust your budget accordingly to achieve it.

As a rule of thumb, if there is an expense without a corresponding income, then you need to eliminate it. Not only should you monitor your expenses and marketing strategies regularly, but you also need to find out which of these are generating a larger share of your revenues.

If you find that you find that a particularly expensive marketing strategy is yielding higher than expected revenues, then this expense is a productive one. You also need to find out the social media channels that your target audience spends most of their time on by hiring a digital marketing agency. This will help you develop a more focused marketing strategy that generates higher ROI.

Social media also helps in the generation of leads since the conventional marketing strategies try to spread awareness among a broader group of people, and this does not work in this day and age. You need to keep in mind that one strategy doesn’t fit all when it comes to real estate budgeting.

What works for your competitor might not work for you. You should have answers to questions like who is my target audience? What social media platform do they use the most? What kind of customized mobile app do I need to engage my target audience better?

Keeping yourself updated about the latest digital marketing tools and understanding your business requirements well helps in effective investment versus wasteful expenditure.

Invest in Your Business

The best source of funds to use for investing in the growth of your business would be your profits! Create budgets for your personal life as well and cut out all non-essential expenditure. The key to successful real estate budgeting is using the profits generated by your business to generate higher revenues.

This creates a healthy cycle where your business expansion is funded by the business itself. The dual benefit, in this case, would be meeting the expense budget comfortably and not having to take any loans that involve high interest rates. This will ensure that your business is debt-free.

Apart from investing the profits, you also can focus on business growth and development by outsourcing tasks that don’t generate any revenues. You will save on overheads, and this will add to your profits. You pay fees to these professional firms, and they take care of all accounting responsibilities.

Take Your Business to the Next Level with a Real Estate Budget

If you want to succeed as a real estate Accountant, start real estate budgeting now. The reason for this is that real estate budgeting allows you to focus on what is important for the business and you start allocating funds to the high-revenue generating areas of your business!

Demat Account is your entry point to start investing in share markets. Share Markets work in a complete digital ecosystem and the shares are traded on an exchange in their dematerialized form. The dematerialized form is nothing but the digital version of the shares.

Benefit of Demat Account

 In the past, before computerized trading, shares existed as paper certificates. Trading in shares involved lengthy paperwork, and transfer of shares involved costs and took time as they had to be posted or couriered. All these involved risks such as loss of shares, damage or forging of shares, or even theft. Thankfully, with Demat Account, all these risks have been eliminated. Shares can now be stored digitally in Demat Account. It can be held securely and transferred conveniently saving time and money. 

How to open Demat Account

Every new trader has the most common question in their mind that How to open Demat account To get the answer, need to approach a stockbroker registered with SEBI and the stock exchange.  You need to complete an account opening form that will ask for your basic details like name, mobile number, address, PAN, and bank details. Following this, a few documents need to be uploaded before your account can be opened.

 Several stockbrokers now provide the option to complete the account opening process online without leaving your home. You can open your account by uploading soft copies of the necessary documents through a phone or laptop. Even verification can be done by the customer by recording a short video of himself/herself and submitting it to the stockbroker.    

Documents Required For Demat Account Opening

If you keep the soft-copies of documents handy, you can complete the account opening process smoothly in less than 10-15 minutes. Here we present the list of all documents needed to open Demat account. It doesn’t matter which stockbroker you choose, the documents will mostly be the same.

1. PAN Card: PAN Card is essential to open a Demat Account. Any broker will ask you to enter the PAN number in the 1st step while opening an account. Make sure your PAN is a valid one with a clear picture of you, your signature, and your date of birth.
2.  Photograph: Your passport size photograph is needed for the application. While on the online medium you can keep a soft copy of passport photograph, for offline medium, you should keep 3-4 photographs handy. 
3. Proof of Address: Proof of Address document is also mandatory for opening a Demat account. You can choose from the following documents for proof of address: Valid Passport, Aadhar Card, Valid Driving License, Voter ID Card, Utility Bills (e.g. Electricity bill) not more than 3months old, 3-month bank statement, 
4. Proof of identity: Your PAN Card with a clear photograph can serve as the identity proof and your stockbroker may not ask for separate identity proof. However, as the case may be, apart from PAN card, the following documents can be used as proof of identity: Aadhar, Valid Passport, Voter ID Card, Valid Driving License,  Identity card issued by any of the following: Central/State Government and its Departments, Statutory/Regulatory Authorities, Public Sector Undertakings, Scheduled Commercial Banks, Public Financial Institutions, Colleges affiliated to Universities, Professional Bodies such as ICAI, ICWAI, ICSI, Bar Council, etc., to their Members; and Credit cards/Debit cards issued by Banks/NREGA Job Card.
5. Bank Proof: Bank Proof is needed to link the bank account with your Demat-cum-trading account. The acceptable documents are Cancelled cheque, Bank Passbook, and latest bank statement. They should have IFSC code and account number clearly mentioned. 
6. Signature on white paper: In the online process, a scanned copy of your signature will be required. Make sure that the signature matches that on the PAN card. 

That’s it! These documents in your possession before sign up can ease the form filling process and you can open account in minutes. Since stockbrokers offer Demat cum Trading Accounts, they may also ask you to submit income proof if you choose to trade in Futures and Options. The documents for income proof can include- 3 Month salary slip, a 6-month bank statement, Net worth Report, Holding Report, Income Tax Return (ITR) and Demat Holding Statement. 

Why delay any further, open your Demat and trading account today and start investing in share markets.

Disclaimer: Investments in securities market are subject to market risk, read all the related documents carefully before investing. 

One of the best ways to ensure that your finances are in order is to find accounting outsourcing firms that can work as an extension of your own. The best companies have teams of skilled and experienced accountants and bookkeepers with adequate resources at their disposal, ready to handle every single one of your accounting needs.

Accountants play a critical role in any business. They ensure the accuracy of financial documents and compliance with laws and regulations, prepare and maintain crucial financial reports, and prepare tax returns. Accountants also evaluate commercial operations, provide guidance on cost reduction and profit maximization, and perform forecasting and risk analysis assessments. On top of that, these professionals have a legal obligation to act honestly and avoid negligence in their work. So, they are liable.

However, like any other professional, not all accountants are fit for work. Some are only doing it to get by and not really to help you and your business grow. That’s why you cannot go around picking any accounting company that comes your way. You need to be diligent in your approach if you are to find accounting outsourcing firms that fit your company’s needs. With that in mind, here are some critical factors to keep in mind when choosing an accounting firm:

Specialization

Many entrepreneurs and business leaders assume that all accounting firms handle the same type of work – but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The reality is that some firms specialize in a few areas to offer even better services to their clients. As an example, some accountants only handle tax accounting or financial accounting or management accounting. Others specialize in auditing and forensic services or environmental accounting, and so on. But you will also meet others who do all types of accounting. If you want better experience and results, you may want to work with a specialized accountant, because that means they have extensive knowledge in the particular area you are interested in.

Experience

In addition to specialization, it’s a good idea to work with an experienced accountant. Keep in mind that an accountant may be specialized but still lack experience because they are only new to the field. Ask about the number of years they have been in practice, and the number of companies they have helped in the past. This should give you a rough idea of how experienced they are.

Certification and licensing

Not all accountants are CPAs. Accounts need to pass an exam and meet state-specific criteria to be a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). Accreditation is the only way to tell whether the accountant in question has the necessary training and knowledge to do what he/she says they’ll do. Again, since this certification is subject to renewal, you have to ensure that the accountant in question is has the latest certification. Check out Licensing shows you that the accountant has met all the requirements and guidelines for practicing in the city or country.

Availability 

Your firm’s accounting is a significant responsibility. The last thing you want is to deal with an accounting company that has too much on its plate. This will only translate to hurried work and a not-so-good experience. Find a firm that’s available to handle your job. It’s also a good idea if they are available to answer your questions or address your concerns whenever a need arises. In this case, you’ll need to know if you can drop a call, or will need to meet in person.

Personal preferences

In your search for the best accounting firm, you’ll notice that you click with some accountants, but not the others. It is essential to work with someone you’re comfortable with. Remember, these experts are going to work as an extension of your business. The last thing you want is to deal with someone who irritates you. Try to avoid accountants who keep using terms like “you don’t get it.” If you feel intimidated, walk away.

Audit support 

One of the primary duties of accountants is to help prepare tax. But it is an added benefit if your accountant can stick by your side through audits, for extra support. Small businesses get frequent visits from tax auditors. So, you may want to work with an accounting firm that provides their own offices for audit reasons and offer an accountant to represent your interests. This will remove a whole lot of stress from your shoulders.

Cost

Last but not least, is the cost. You likely have a budget in place for your accountant. If a potential accountant wants more, it’s a good idea to negotiate. Either way, don’t settle for one that charges too high or too low for your preference.

Conclusion

As a business owner, you understand the value of networking. Your networks come in handy in such times as they will help you find the right accountant. You can also check out online reviews and recommendations. But once you identify potential accounting companies, use the criteria above to narrow down to the best.