In most businesses, what drives the balance sheet are sales and expenses. In other words, they cause the assets and liabilities in a business. One of the more complicated accounting items are the accounts receivable. As a hypothetical situation, imagine a business that offers all its customers a 30-day credit period, which is fairly common in transactions between businesses, (not transactions between a business and individual consumers). An accounts receivable asset shows how much money customers who bought products on credit still owe the business. It’s a promise of case that the business will receive. Basically, accounts receivable is the amount of uncollected sales revenue at the end of the accounting period. Cash does not increase until the business actually collects this money from its business customers. However, the amount of money in accounts receivable is included in the total sales revenue for that same period. The business did make the sales, even if it hasn’t acquired all the money from the sales yet. Sales revenue, then isn’t equal to the amount of cash that the business accumulated. To get actual cash flow, the accountant must subtract the amount of credit sales not collected from the sales revenue in cash. Then add in the amount of cash that was collected for the credit sales that were made in the preceding reporting period. If the amount of credit sales a business made during the reporting period is greater than what was collected from customers, then the accounts receivable account increased over the period and the business has to subtract from net income that difference. If the amount they collected during the reporting period is greater than the credit sales made, then the accounts receivable decreased over the reporting period, and the accountant needs to add to net income that difference between the receivables at the beginning of the reporting period and the receivables at the end of the same period.

If you provide terms for your products or services to your customers, it can be a challenge to predict how your cash flow will be from day to day. You are actually providing financing for your customers. I hope you understand that is what takes place, you are being the bank.

Terms are a necessity in today’s business environment and to land some accounts, it is an absolute. Even though the agreed upon terms are 30 to 60 days or more, it does not always come in on time, however an inconsistent and unstable cash flow does not have to exist.

If you are struggling with inconsistent cash flow, you need to look into factoring. It is a very powerful form of finance that will allow you to predict your cash flow, and grow your company at a rapid pace. You do this by selling your credit worthy accounts receivable to a factoring company. This allows you to get an immediate injection of cash. The factoring company will wait for your customers to pay the invoices while you use your money to meet your cash flow demands.

Factoring is one of the oldest forms of commercial finance, however it remains unknown or misunderstood in the commercial finance market place. Factoring is also known as accounts receivable financing and can be the perfect solution for start ups as well as seasoned and rapidly growing companies.

A start up company can qualify for factoring due to the fact that the invoice is the asset being used. As long as the invoice is to a credit worthy company the invoice then becomes an asset that can be sold to a factoring company for immediate cash. The factor waits on the customer to pay the invoice instead of you waiting on the payment. It is as if you are turning all of your term invoices into COD without taking away your terms to the customer.

The cabinet agreed the draft budget, which must still be approved by parliament before 31 March.

Japan’s economy has suffered from deflation, a high yen that hurts exports, weak domestic demand and poor consumer confidence.

The budget is aimed at boosting the economy, but adds to public debt.

And some analysts have said the programme was unlikely to offer a big economic boost.

Debt-servicing costs and social security spending making up about 55% of the budget.

Aid for local authorities accounts for another 18.2% of the budget. The remainder of the spending is split among defence, public works projects, education and technology.

The Democratic Party-led administration has promised to keep new borrowing at 44.3tn, in line with this year’s level.

But Japan was forced to raise spending due to higher debt servicing costs.

Japan’s public debt is expected to reach 891tn yen, or 184% GDP, by the end of March 2012, the highest among developed nations.

The government said tax revenues would be about 40.9tn yen in the next fiscal year, with another 7.2tn raised by raiding special reserves.

The government has already reined in spending programmes including handouts to fund childcare.

A late rally in retail stocks helped the index as investors bet on a late surge in consumers’ Christmas spending.

However one analyst forecast that there would be a correction in share prices after an overly-strong rise in December.

Giles Watts, head of equities at City Index, added that the lack of trading volume meant that Friday’s rally was built on “hot air”.

The index has risen 8% so far this December, its strongest for the month since 1987.

With its move above 6,000 points, some observers are claiming London has regained a poise not seen since before the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, which caused turmoil on world markets.

The FTSE 100 is up 10.8% on the year, with several bullish market analysts predicting that the index may end 2011 between 6,600 and 6,900.

On Friday, Marks & Spencer, Next, B&Q parent Kingfisher, and supermarket giant Tesco were all in strong demand.

And troubled sports retailer JJB Sports added 22.6% after saying it hoped to raise more than £31.5m in a share sale.

Friday’s FTSE close is the fourth straight weekly advance.

“The prolonged Santa rally has left the market looking strong ahead of the holidays and there is still the potential for further gains before the end of the year,” said David Jones, equity strategist at IG Index.

France’s Cac 40 index slipped 0.3% to 3,900.4, but there was no trading in Germany where on Thursday the Dax index had slipped 0.2% to 7,057.7.

Start with the simple things. Eat out less, and stay home more often. Have your friends over for a movie night instead of going out on the town. Start a rotation. Have friends over to your house one weekend, and go to their’s the next weekend. This way you both save without having to sacrifice your social life.

There are many ways to save money shopping for your children. All it takes is a little research. You can often find clothing at a consignment or thrift store for half of the original cost. But be careful — you can often find the outfit new on sale for the same price. Once you have shopped around for a while, you’ll learn where to look.

Set up a clothing swap with your friends who have children. You can hand down clothes to a younger child who will then hand them, and others, back down to your younger child.

There are other areas that you can save money when it comes to your children. You may have noticed that children love to draw. Instead of sacrificing your new office paper, let them use your used office paper. Simply stick a box in your office that you toss paper into. I do this. My children know to just get paper from the box and get busy. You can even re-use paper grocery bags for a change of pace.

Babysitting costs can add up. Wouldn’t it be great to find a free babysitter? Try rotating sitting with your friends. We keep the kids on Friday night and our friends go out. On Saturday, we hit the town. Both couples get to enjoy a night out without the added expense of a babysitter.

Speaking of the weekends, don’t blow all that you have saved on the weekend. You have worked so hard all week, so it’s easy to think that you deserve a little fun. While that is true, there are ways to enjoy the town without spending a lot of money. For example, instead of going to the amusement park (which can cost a small fortune), go to a new park and ride bikes through the trails. Picnics, hikes and scavenger hunts cost little, but make lasting memories for your children.

One of the biggest ways that money is lost is through simple mismanagement. Credit cards do help make ends meet, but only temporarily. If you can’t pay off the balance at the end of each month, you are going to be in a world of hurt in the future. Interest charges and minimum payments can stretch out a small amount of money into a long, endless repayment period.

Overdrafting your account is another example of lost money that you could be saving. Even if you have overdraft protection, the fees will cost you in the long run. If you have a $25 overdraft fee, and overdraft four times a month, you will lose $1,200 a year. Was it really worth it? What could have been purchased with $1,200?

There are ways to save money that don’t take a lot of effort. It may seem like a little bit here and there is just useless. But it only takes 100 pennies to make a dollar.

The rate was the highest since July 1998, said EU agency Eurostat.

The number of people without a job rose by 80,000 in October to 15.95 million people, and by 84,000 people to 23.15 million in the 27-state European Union.

Separate figures showed that inflation in the 16-nation eurozone remained unchanged at 1.9% in November.

In the medium term, the European Central Bank wants to keep inflation below, but close to, 2%.

With inflation close to this target figure, analysts expect the bank to keep its main interest rate at 1%.

“The ECB is likely to be quite pleased to see eurozone consumer price inflation stabilising at 1.9% in November,” said economist Howard Archer at Global Insight.

There were 47,185 mortgage approvals in October, down slightly from September’s level and 17% lower than in October 2009.

The data suggests that house sales will be stuck in a rut in the coming months.

Separately, the property website Hometrack said the average home was now taking nearly 10 weeks to sell.

This, it said, was the longest sale time for 17 months.

“The seasonal slowdown in the housing market has kicked in a month early, with demand for housing falling at the fastest rate for 23 months,” said Richard Donnell, director of research at Hometrack.

“Concerns over the economic outlook on the back of recent spending cuts, together with widespread expectations that house prices are set for a period of retrenchment, are driving the continued weakness in demand.”

Microsoft’s net income jumped 51% from last year, to $5.41 billion, or 62 cents per share. The company easily topped analyst estimates for both sales and earnings.

Some of the gain came from Microsoft’s move to exclude sales of $1.5 billion from last year’s results because of a Windows 7 upgrade program. The company waited until after Windows 7 shipped to recognize revenue from those sales. Still, factoring out the deferral’s effects, Microsoft had double-digit sales and income growth.

All of Microsoft’s business units reported year-over-year growth. However, its loss widened in its perennially money-losing online division, which lost $560 million in the quarter ended Sept. 30.

Revenue from Microsoft Office rose more than 15% compared to last year, thanks to Microsoft Office 2010′s first full quarter on the market. Sales of Xbox 360 video game consoles grew 38% and outsold every competing console in the U.S. for each of the past four months, Microsoft said.

The one-off Barbie, created by Stefano Canturi, wears a black strapless evening dress with a choker featuring a one-carat square-cut pink diamond.

It went for $302,500 (£191,500) to an anonymous bidder.

The figure is at the lower end of the estimate that the auction house had given but it is still the most ever paid for a Barbie.

The previous world auction record for a Barbie was $17,091, set in 2006.

Barbie was first created in 1959 and she has undergone many transformations since then.

Canturi, an Australian jewellery designer, said he wanted to pay homage to Barbie’s “modern yet timeless style”.

The BBC’s Laura Trevelyan, who was at the auction, says the doll is also an investment in uncertain economic times – because of the diamonds.

Canturi says: “People are finding things other than the normal channels for investing and what’s happening is going back to the basics like going back to beautiful gold, gems, something they can actually hold on to.”

The prices of diamonds and coloured jewels have gone up by more than 20% over the past year, according to the auction house, Christie’s.

The proceeds of the sale of the bejewelled Barbie will go to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

For the school year 2010-11, in-state tuition and fees at public four-year colleges and universities rose to $7,605, up 7.9% from a year ago, the College Board reported Thursday. At private four-year institutions, the average cost rose 4.5% to $27,293.

Dwindling state budgets are sparking the hikes at public colleges. Over the past decade, public school tuition has risen at an annual rate of 5.6% vs. 3% at private schools.

“Prices are continuing to rise more rapidly than the rate of inflation, particularly in the public sector,” said Sandy Baum, independent policy analyst at the College Board. “Public colleges and universities are getting less money from the states because the states just don’t have money to give them.”

Students at California State University, for example, are paying the price for the state’s budget crunch: Tuition rose 5% this year, after jumps of 10% annually the past few years, as the state has sliced funding — chopping it about 20% in the past two years alone.