Bookkeeping for Business Owners: How to Tackle Your Finances Quickly and Effectively

Whether you own a small business and work from home or manage a larger home-based operation, keeping up with everyday bookkeeping can be overwhelming. From balancing the budget to deducting the proper expenses, you might find yourself buried underneath mountains of seemingly incomprehensible paperwork and forms.
Rest assured that you can tackle your finances and keep them straight with the right effort and determination. The following offers advice on how to manage your bookkeeping without the stress of complex number-crunching and complicated spreadsheets.

Get & Stay Organized
As a small business owner, you already know that proper organization plays a vital role in maintaining adequate records for everything from taxes to business expenses. Using this same mentality, you can extend that line of thinking into keeping accurate records of all your expenses. Developing a solid bookkeeping system now will save you thousands of hours over the lifetime of your business. Technology makes this process much simpler. Gone are the days when you needed to keep every scrap of paper you used to calculate quarterly estimated taxes and deductions. Now, you can download apps right onto your smartphone to keep track of budgets, expenditures and monthly projections. Upgrading to the digital age will help you stay on track as you grow your business.

 
Use the Right Software
You don’t need to own a bookkeeping business to use professional apps and software. In addition to the apps you can download, make sure you invest in the right software for your computer. While QuickBooks has been a favorite among at-home workers and small business owners for decades, it’s not the only bookkeeping software on the market. When choosing your software, ask yourself the following:

● How much does the software cost compared with other products, and does the cost cover all of the promised features?
● Does this software include full tech support in case of problems?
● How often does the software need to be upgraded, and is there a charge for each upgrade?
● Does the software include cloud computing ability for each access and storage?
● How robust is the security for this software? Will my records be safe?

You can download free software to help you manage your books and business from a variety of legitimate companies. In fact, Microsoft Excel, which comes standard in both the personal and business Microsoft software packages, includes a variety of features that are totally customizable to your business needs.

Seek a Professional Opinion
When in doubt, seek professional guidance when it comes to things like quarterly estimated taxes, payroll and appropriate self-employment deductions. You might think that spending money on a professional will eat into your profits, but the ATO allows certain deductions for professional tax help. A professional accountant or bookkeeping business can help you sort through the paperwork to determine the best course of action. Over time, this advice will help you maintain your own finances in the future and avoid unnecessary spending.

Keep in mind that your bookkeeping system may differ significantly from the norm depending on your specific business and the types of records you keep. It’s important to find a solution that works for your needs. While many products and software packages exist on the market, they may not always offer the full support you need. Staying organized now will help you to avoid potential bookkeeping problems in the future.

*Images by Common Creative Images