As a small business owner, it’s easy to become your own bottleneck when you try to do it all yourself. But if your bookkeeping is all in your head, you’re more likely to make costly mistakes down the road when details are missed or paperwork is forgotten.
Here are three bookkeeping tips for small business:
- Stay on top of your invoices. You can harm your cash flow with late and unpaid bills. As a client of Cathy E. Parker, E.A. Bookkeeping & Tax Service, you can rest assured that your business billing is tracked and financial reporting is always available, so you can have systems in place to prevent ever becoming past due. Your business needs protocols in place if your payables are 30, 60 and 90 days late. When it comes down to it, every payment made late is technically an interest-free loan that harms your cash flow.
- Set Up a System to Track Your Business Expenses. Tracking your business expenses can be tough, but if you don’t do this, you could miss out on beneficial tax write-offs. One of the best ways to ensure you have a handle on your expenses is to set up systems for each month with protocols in place. We recommend outsourcing these .regular bookkeeping tasks to a virtual assistant. A virtual assistant can help with writing letters, paying bills, monthly invoicing, data entry, etc. at a fraction of the cost of a full-time secretary.
- Plan Ahead in Your Budget. Not everyone loves surprises. In fact, the surprises we don’t want are called problems. The easiest way to avoid surprises down the road is to preemptively consider your future business needs and possible expenses that may arise, such as software upgrades, renovations, or staffing costs. By planning ahead, you’ll reduce the risk of running over budget by anticipating your business needs ahead of time.