5 Small Business Bookkeeping Tips
For those business owners who DIY their small business bookkeeping stay tuned you don’t want to miss these tips for keeping your bookkeeping organized and accurate.
#1- Find a bookkeeping software and become comfortable using it.
If you can find a bookkeeping software that is comfortable for you to use, you will feel much more confident in doing your own bookkeeping and it will also save you a lot of time. Time that can be spent focusing on your business. The best way to determine which software is best for you do some research into a few, do free trials of each, and decide which one works better for you now and will also work as your grow. You don’t want to have to change software every few years.
If you are interested in QuickBooks Online click here to use my affiliate link for 55% off.
#2- Keep your personal and business expenses separate.
The first thing you should do once you open your own business is open a business bank account. Use that account for all business-related transactions and DO NOT mix your personal transactions. This will save you a lot of time when recording transactions and reconciling accounts.
#3 Stayed Organized
Make sure you have procedures in place that you always follow so nothing falls in the cracks. If you upload receipts to your bookkeeping software, don’t wait until you have a huge pile on your desk upload daily or after each transaction. Keep reminders for all important dates, such as, estimated tax payments or sales/payroll tax payments. You can also save time by automating any procedures you can through your bookkeeping software. QuickBooks Online has many features to create automations.
#4 Be consistent
Pick a day of the week for categorizing your transactions and complete this task every week. The more you fall behind the bigger the task will become. If you have time to do this more often go for it, but make sure at a minimum you stick to entering on a weekly basis. Make sure you are always categorizing the same type of transaction the same way each time. If you don’t your reporting may not be as accurate or helpful.
#5 Run reports monthly
Once you have all your transactions entered for the month and the accounts are reconciled you can begin running reports. Running a profit and loss every month will help you to see how much income you are bringing in and how many expenses are going out. You can even run a profit and loss comparing to the prior year to see what has changed. There are many reports you can run that will help show you the overall financial health of your business. By having your bookkeeping up to date, you will always be able to run reports and analyze your business at any given time.
If you’d like to learn more about our services click here to schedule a free consultation
