Our speaker is Mr Aisegame Sulieman.

Aisegame Sulieman is a seasoned accountant with a Bachelor Degree in Accounting from the University
of Benin. He is an Associate of the institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria and as worked as an
Accountant, an Auditor , and is currently a Taxation senior at BBC professionals.

His has a passion for business analysis and advisory and is currently chasing a Master Degree in Finance
at the University of Lagos.

In the course of his career, He has worked closely as an accounting consultant to several MSME's.

Tribe please make welcome our guest speaker, Mr Aisegame Sulieman.

Thank you Dessi

and Good Evening all

To be honest, I have enjoyed the responses so far because they represent the true challenges faced by
business owners in their routine tasks

: To an accountant...record keeping is easy..that is why we have titled today discuss Accounting for Non
Accountants

The challenges are real...infact i have consulted to a business whose owner said she doesnt keep record
because she doesnt want her husband to know how much she is making

So he wont add more responsibilities or start giving attitude

Therefore before I continue let me tell u something about challenges

As a child I did not like reading...it was a big challenge

But as I grew up...I strtd seeing the importance of reading when my best friend came out 1st and he was
honoured on the assembly ground

The ovasion, the respect..and the joy of victory

I started seeing why reading was important and that motivated me to strt overcoming the challenges in
the discipline to sit down in one place and read hours

I see same thing here tonight

So I am going to start with the definition of accounting and hammer more on its importance
and hopefully the importance would spur you to face and overcome the challenges in record keeping

: In theory, there r many definitions of accounting but i tell you one that u should always remember

: Accounting is the language of business

: Your business is a person...different from you...it has feelings..it can get sick too and needs drugs...but
the only way it can communicate how it feels...is by accounting language...

Dont be scared...its real fun

So now the importance of accounting

* To be clear..record keeping is the frst stage in accounting

The frst importance of accounting/ record keeping i tell people is

1 To get money

You see the problem of micro and small scale businesses is generating capital for growth

So they always need investors....people to provide that money..

What investors look at before providing money to a business is risk and return...that is 1) their money
will not lost or vanish and 2) they will get compensated for the funds they provide

The only way they can assess the risk and return of your business is through your accounting records

When you have good records...they can then provide you with the funds that you seek...that way you get
money to grow

Another importance of accounting is

2) To get even more money!!

Looks suprising abi...let me tell you how

Your business is set up to make money true or false?

In order to do this you need to plan and organise your resources for success...planning is simply
preparing for the future

In the words of Richardson...he said...The only way i can tell of the future is by analysis of the past

You cant properly harness the opportunities of the future ( and make more money out of it) ..if you dont
have a record of your past ( that you learned from)

So if you want to make profit..you definately need to plan...and if you want to plan...you definately need
to see where u got it wrong or right before
Another Importance of Accounting is

To save money....I repeat...to save money

Let me tell you about my last week

A client was served 87m tax liability by the FIRS

Hehem...comman see different colours of sweat

The only way we could object successfully to the tax liability was to provide substianial evidence and
records to back our position

With the records we crashed it down to below 37m and we are still digging and providing more records
to crash it lower

What if that record wasnt kept?

Its a simple law..' what is not in writen is not in existence' based on that law...that client would pay over
estimated taxes..

You see..accounting saved him that money

Now always think of this...the govt is watching...if you dont save your money ( by proper
accounting/record keeping)They will take it from you with BOJ..Best of Judgement

Another importance of accounting is Growth measurement

I always say this...In the course of my experience...I differentiate bw a business owner and an
entrepreneur

You see...I have seen people who inherited shop of 300 bags of cement from their father

and 10 years later.. they are still having and selling that same 300 bags of cement

The reason is this

That reason is the difference....

The business owner only does buying and selling to feed his family

He never takes risk..he never measures his performance

He has no vision for the business

He wont bother to attend training

The entrepreneur is different...He is concerned seriously about growth

He always has a target for himself

He has a vision to be great...he takes risks and measures performance always

So if you are an entrepreneur...then accounting/record keeping is a very important tool for you to
measure your performance and growth over time

Remember the rule of growth is that

' What doesnt get measured doesnt get grown'

Another importance of accounting is that

It prevents and detects fraud

Remember the woman i said did not want her husband to knw how much she was making then?

She finally started accounting records..you know why?

Her staff...a shop keeper built a house and a shop...from what he stole in her shop

I am talking real life...not hear say..real life at Ibadan

Guess where the staff built the shop?

Very near her shop...

Guess what the staff was selling?

Sàme P&G products that she was selling

at that point was when she ran to us

Cus it was pretty bad situation às her business was in debt...

She couldnt even quantify how much the staff stole..she did not have evidence of it...she couldnt arrest
the staff or recover her money because no evidence...what is ñot in writen is not in existence

If she had been taking proper record of stock and sales...she would have detected the fraud very early
enough...would have had evidence and would have recovered her money

So finally on the lighter side...

hAccounting gives good healt hh�

I know the doctors will slap me...but before they slap me..let me tell you how

Imagine the b.p that woman had now and the headache involved in the whole case that could have
been saved by simply keeping track of business activities and proper records
The next issue is how do we keep proper records

Before I take that

I will pause for questions/ comments

Thank you

Its a 5mins pause

Let me continue on how to take records

A record is simply a description of events

Think of it as you taking a picture with biro and paper or computer

So that you can show it sometime in the future

So it could be you simply using a biro and paper to write 4 main things...

Or using a notepad or your phone

Or an excel sheet

Or a mini accounting system ( you cañ download them on play store)

Or weĺl a full blown accounting software

For all types of transactions...you must write

Date

Description

Amount

The ďescription must be good enough for any third party who was not there when you entered d
transaction to understand what you are saying without haviñg to ask you questions

Remember writing could mean in electronic form or in physical form

The fourth thing you should keep is the substantiating evidence like invoices ànd the reference to it

Pls and pls brethen...if you sell...send invoices and reciepts as aplicable

It is free....it is costless...especially when sent eletronically

What's the difference Sir??

But if your client insist on hard copy...then u can print and send hard copy
You send an invoice when you have supplied but not recieved payment

You send a receipt wheñ u suppĺy and payment is made straight away

A paid invoiced stamped and signed off as paid becomes a receipt

Now to further understañd this....there are two basic transaction types

U can stamp or sign off the invoice u generated as paid...it stands as a receipt

As i was saying...

The transaction type for simplicity only are

Money in transactions

And Money out transac5ions

Money in is transactions that put money in your pocket...e.g sales

Somone asked how to keep track of income

So here we go

Now sales is sales...wether u have been paid or not

So have a book for sales

Electronic or ur notepad etc

Write the date first..then write the decription of the goods/service you sold..(even online
sales/subscriptions)...then write the customer ( customers are two types-main customers and one off)

Then the amount you sold...write if the person has paid or not...or has made part payment

Then generate the invoice or receipt as applicable and send to the customer if he is
interested...otherwise just keep your copy

Let me address customer types a little...

Maiñ customers are frequent buyers who you have enough information about

One off customers àre passer by who just droped in to make a quick purchase

and you do not want to waste time by asking much details.when writiñg their receipt...instead of the
customer name just put one off customer

Thats record keepiñg for inflow.....

So remember its easy ....the 4 main things are...write the date...Description...Amount....and save the
invoice/receipt

I would love to break here for today