Skip to main content

Owners Distributions






What Is An Owners Draw or Distributions?

A lot of entrepreneurs ask me "Where has my net income from my business gone?" One of the first places I go and look and more often than not the answer is the Equity Section on the Balance Sheet. The owner's draw or owner distribution account is found on the balance sheet, meaning it is not directly tied to the income statement. An entrepreneur might have 100K in net income, but if they have taken 95K out in an owner's draw or distribution, they won't have much cash left.

In addition, most entrepreneurs don't realize that the owners draw or distribution account is often where expenses that are charged to the business that are not business-related end up. So while an entrepreneur has been purchasing their personal Netflix subscription through their business, a lot of times they are not aware that the purchase does not end up on their income statement. The really important thing to remember is the owner's draw account is an exact inverse of any and all expense accounts.

- Ryan

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Days of Cash

I could not believe it. Not more than one day of cash. My heart sank to my stomach. I double-checked. Still in disbelief. Yes, I confirmed with myself for the third time, not more than one day of cash. What I described above is an incredibly scary and harsh reality. There I was working with a new client, a business that had been in business for more than 50 years. They had more than 100 Million dollars in revenue per year, and as I looked at their statement of cash flows and their daily inflows and outflows, I realized…they were literally operating day to day on cash! Meaning, if something were to go wrong with the bank and they were to not receive the businesses daily deposit, the company would not be able to pay their bills, they would overdraft their account. How can a company that earned so much every year and been in business for so many years not have more cash on hand than that? It was unbelievable to me. Do you know how much excess cash your business has?

Monitoring Recurring Expenses

Are You Monitoring Recurring Expenses? Recently, in the last five years or so, I have seen an increase in the popularity of software as a service (SAAS), and business tools that are a recurring expense. It is really easy for business owners to sign up for a tool and use it for a few months and a lot of times I see that they are really beneficial to the business owner for that time, then a few months later they are still paying for a subscription that they no longer use. It sounds a lot like my gym membership from this year! I was really consistent and went to the gym four times a week March through the beginning of June, then summer came, and it was really nice outside, so I stopped going to the gym, but I ended up paying for the membership through September. Luckily for me, the membership was only $10 a month, still, $40 wasted. I recommend to business owners that they go through their recurring subscriptions at least every other month. Pick out what they are using and cancel what the...

Clean versus clear financials

Clean versus Clear Financials | Do You Know The Difference? What is the difference? I would classify clean financials as financials that follow GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principals) and can be used for professional purposes. For example, taking them into a bank in order to apply for a business loan. Or using them while working with your tax preparer to file your income taxes with the IRS. These would be examples of clean financials. All of your accounting data is in the proper place on your financials. Now let's talk about clear financials. Clear financials are more like management tools. Maybe they are used internally to determine gross margin on your products or services. Or maybe your clear financials are analyzed to better understand your business expenses and determine where you need to cut back spending. Ideally, your accountant should be producing both clean and clear financials regularly. Business owners really need both. There is really a big difference between t...