When you’re winding up the year and making plans for managing your business in the new year, bookkeeping is an important area to examine closely. If you spot any gaps in the previous year’s bookkeeping, the new year is the perfect time to take control. Outsourcing your bookkeeping services is one way to quickly get your bookkeeping processes on track.
These five key bookkeeping tips for the new year can help you get started.
1. Untangle Intermingled Finances
If your personal finances are mixed up with your business records, it can cause problems for you later. Separate all your personal banking and credit accounts from your business accounts. Then, all recordkeeping for the business needs to include only the business accounts.
2. Get Professional Accounting Help
Enlist the help of a white label accounting firm to help you understand and manage key accounting areas in your business, including accounts receivable, accounts payable, available cash, bank reconciliation, and payroll functions. Having this information properly recorded and managed can help you make solid financial decisions to keep your business in good standing.
3. Record Every Financial Transaction
Managing a business can keep you extremely busy, and that may make it tempting to skip recording small transactions. However, to keep accurate records, it’s vital that every financial transaction made on behalf of your business be recorded. Luckily, you have some options that simplify this type of bookkeeping task. You can use a ledger, cloud-based technology, or put the task in the hands of outsourced bookkeeping services so a certified professional can ensure each line item is properly recorded.
4. Keep All Receipts Until You’re Sure They’re Properly Entered
It can be easy to toss out small slips of paper, like receipts, when you’re cleaning. However, it’s important to keep all original documents until you’re certain they’re properly recorded in your accounting ledgers. A cloud-based system can reduce the number of papers you have to hold onto by creating a digital copy of each item to store in the cloud.
5. Customize Your Accounting
The data from your accounting ledgers is the source you need to use for your business’s financial reports. This is one of the many areas where outsourced accounting and bookkeeping services can come to your rescue if accounting processes are new to you. It’s important that these reports be accurate because they serve as the basis for making business decisions. The balance sheet, cash flow analysis, and profit and loss forecast are three key reports that show the financial health of a business.
