Accounting practises for US companies?

[Jeix]

Hello fastlaners.
I run a small online business in my home country of Italy. Over here, when it comes to accounting, it's a huge mess. You have to report every single cent that enters the company's bank account and every single cent that exits with a statement like an invoice, even when other types of financial documents would normally suffice. For example, if your company shops at a supermarket (let's say you are a cleaning company and are buying cleaning products), and you pay with the company's bank account, it's not enough to receive a receipt from the supermarket, you'll actually have to request an invoice from them in order to properly report the purchase, which sucks, especially if your business processes a large amount of small transactions every day (which I do, since I operate online).
What's worse, you're also required to produce PAPER copies of each of them and apply a little sticker that you have to buy (it's basically a small tax), then fricking SHIP the paper copy to the customer (it sounds insane, I know, we are still at the stone age here and I hate it) and store ANOTHER paper copy for tax returns. The sticker thing only applies for invoices over €77 but it's still a huge pain.

I've been dating an American girl for almost 2 years now so there's a chance for me to travel to the US and set up my company there.
Does anyone know if accounting is this much of a mess in the US too? I've heard they give more freedom to companies but I've yet to look into it a lot and I assume it's going to vary for each state. Can someone from the US help? Even a little generic info would do.
Thank you!

 

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[WJK]

No, it's not like that here in the USA. I do almost all of my business stuff electronically. My banking and tax records are also electronic. I've been "paperless" for many years. I went from banks and banks of file cabinets to having one in each of my offices for things that I must keep -- like the original (wet) signature contracts. There are very few pieces of paper that must be kept.

 

[Jeix]

No, it's not like that here in the USA. I do almost all of my business stuff electronically. My banking and tax records are also electronic. I've been "paperless" for many years. I went from banks and banks of file cabinets to having one in each of my offices for things that I must keep -- like the original (wet) signature contracts. There are very few pieces of paper that must be kept.

Thank you so much.
Can you tell me more about bank movements?
Like I mentioned in my post, it's a mess over here and for dumb reasons.
Why would I need to produce a paper invoice if I'm using a credit card (a trackable method) at a public place (like a supermarket) which gives me proof of the transaction (a receipt) as well as recording it electronically and reporting it to authorities themselves? I am clearly unable to conceal anything even if I wanted to, why the extra jumping through hoops? Sorry about the rant, I just hate it.
How much simpler is it in the US?

 

[WJK]

When I go to a store many email me their receipt, and, if I want, they give me a paper cash register receipt. For odd receipts, I just scan them and enter them into my computer files. I download my credit card info through my accounting software. Then I code all the transactions for my different business tax categories so the data is integrated into my business records. At the end of the year, I print a report that includes everything for my accountant. My banking info is secure since I have a satellite service that changes my password every time that I go online with my banks. And it's all electronic these days.

Compared to the past, it's now a lot simpler. I used to spend a lot more hours and boatloads of money on keeping receipts when they were all paper. It took staffing and lots of my time. I had files and files for the different categories of receipts. And we were required to keep hard copies of everything for several years. At the end of each of those years, after filing my taxes, I then moved all those files into marked storage boxes. I had a warehouse of old file boxes of receipts ready for review or an audit.

I also had even more paper files and records for my professional clients -- thousands of files and storage boxes.

I no longer need the staffing to help me keep my accounting system together. (But I have bought the office equipment that makes it all possible.) It's just little old me who now keeps all those records straight in about an hour per day.