Mornings are stressful. My husband goes to work early and it's up to me to pack up my 5 kids and drop off the oldest ones at school. Earlier in the year I sat down and pinpointed the biggest stressors in my mornings and decided to do something about it.
The result? I decided to stop packing lunches (for some reason I despise packing lunches and it stresses me out) and started prepping for the morning the night before -- packing backpacks, laying out clothes, and planning breakfast. These simple changes have made our mornings go much more smoothly.
There are a few simple things you can put into place in your business this year to make it run more smoothly. With a little planning and setup, you can feel more at ease and relaxed about your finances.
1. Automate your finance tracking.
If you've ever set up automatic payment for a bill, you know the beauty of automation. You set it up once and don't even have to think about it again.
It's the same with your accounting. There are two big ways to automate your business finances.
1. First, automate your finances through software. Spreadsheets are a simple, easy way to manage your finances. But spreadsheets require manual data entry. Which takes up your time.
You can eliminate data entry by setting up software. You don't have to manually enter receipts anymore because your bank account feed will bring in your transactions. You can also create and manage your invoices all in one place. And when a client pays an invoice, your software will connect it with the deposit that came through your bank feed.
There are many software options out there. You can go with a comprehensive accounting software like Quickbooks, Freshbooks or Xero. These require a learning curve, but once everything is set up, you will have access to any number of reports that will give you a great overview of your business. The dashboard alone will help you see the state of your business finances at a glance.
If Quickbooks or something similar seems overwhelming, try a small business-focused solution like 17hats or Dubsado. Basically these are programs that combine a lot of different apps you might use all in one interface. It's home base for things like sending out invoices, tracking expenses, signing contracts, and accepting credit card payments.
You can run your business pretty much entirely from one of these programs. Plus, it integrates nicely with Quickbooks, so you can still have the benefits that come with keeping your bookkeeping in Quickbooks.
2. Secondly, you can automate your receipts. If you're like a lot of business owners, receipts are the bane of your existence.
But did you know you can go paperless and make them digital?? Yes, the IRS accepts digital copies of receipts! This means you can store your receipts digitally, either in the cloud or attach them to expenses in your bookkeeping software.
There are some pretty great companies like Hubdoc or Expensify where you can take a picture of your receipt and it disappears into the cloud...actually into Quickbooks or whatever place you choose to store it.
Just imagine it - life without a pile of receipts floating around.
2. Schedule your finance tracking
If you let your record keeping get away from you, not only will it stress you out at tax time, but you won't have a good handle on the health of your business throughout the year. You may miss out on tax deductions as well.
Set aside time every month to stay on top of your bookkeeping. Maybe it's the 1st Monday of the month. Schedule in a regular time, and don't procrastinate. Make sure all of your expenses are up to date, and all income has been recorded.
Then, every quarter set aside time to evaluate where you are. Look at your income goals, budget and expenses. Do you need to run a promotion to bring in more sales? Do you need to set up a budget to predict what your expenses will be for the rest of the year?
If you regularly track your finances throughout the year, you won't have to spend hours at the end of the year getting everything in order for taxes. Here's a quick year-end checklist for wrapping up the year with your books.
3. Delegate your finance tracking.
These things sound nice. But what if you just know it's not going to happen? Maybe you feel too overwhelmed or too busy to keep a good handle on your finances.
Your time is too precious to spend it on tasks that someone else can be doing. And bookkeeping is one of those things that someone else can do. If something's gotta give, let it be your bookkeeping and hire a professional bookkeeper.
Hopefully you already have a great accountant that has helped you figure out things like sales tax and quarterly tax payments. The next step is to hire a bookkeeper. Some accountants offer bookkeeping services as well as tax services.
A bookkeeper will be concerned with the day to day happenings in your business. They will keep a close eye on your books throughout the year and report to you about the health of your business. They will also get everything ready for your accountant at tax time. If you're wondering if it's time to hire a bookkeeper, ask yourself these questions first.
If you'd like to chat about the possibilities of hiring out your finance tracking to a bookkeeper, schedule a free 30 minute consultation with Tidy Books.
---------------------
Looking for more details on managing your finances? Sign up for the free DIY bookkeeping email course coming in February called 5 Days to Better Bookkeeping. Here's a sneak peek of what will be included:
-------------------------------
5 DAYS TO BETTER BOOKKEEPING: free email course
Day 1 - What is bookkeeping and apply it to my life
Day 2 - Receipts: Why and how to keep them
Day 3 - Software and spreadsheets - A guide to your options
Day 4 - Setting up your system: categories, invoicing, and expenses
Day 5 - Putting it all together. A workflow that works FOR you.