4 Tips to Clean Up Your Books
It’s never the wrong time to get your books in order. Here are four quick ways to tidy things up.
Clean up your expenses
Make sure personal and business expenses are separate. Why? Two words: cash flow. If your expenses are combined, you won’t have a clear idea of how your company is performing. And, when it comes to tax time they will have to be separated anyway—if you have to do this yourself, or rely on a bookkeeper, this is a waste of resources.
Pro tip: If you have to use business money for personal expenses, do a bulk transfer to your personal account on a regular basis, i.e. once a week.
Dust off your financial
reports annually
Stay on top of your business's financial health by generating reports and looking at the numbers. Check for positive and negative trends, and keep yourself in the know when it comes to your finances. Areas to look at include income statements, balance sheets, cash flow, and accounts receivable/payable aging.
Toss out the paper
It’s 2022—time to embrace digitization if you haven’t already. Paper documents are time-consuming, messy, open your business up to errors, and are easily destroyed by fire, water, and other hazards. Save space by getting rid of paper (shredding) and spend a little time to see which bills and/or invoices you can receive digitally to say goodbye to snail mail for good.
Soak up the technology
As a small business owner, you’ve got a ton on your plate. But, one area that should never be overlooked is your finances—that’s your bread and butter after all. By embracing technology—with a digital tool like QuickBooks Online—you can stay tax-time ready all year and track your finances from anywhere, a huge asset as you put your head down this year and focus on growing your business.