25/05/2015

Essential Bookkeeping Tips for Small Business

bookkeeping tips for small business

Bookkeeping in any business is important – but even more so for a small business. Startups and small businesses rely on thorough record keeping early on to ensure there’s enough money to pay staff and provide the necessary inventory to get cash flow moving.  Another important factor of learning good bookkeeping at the start? Those habits will continue with you and create a firm foundation to build the rest of the business. Here are essential bookkeeping tips for small business – implement them from the start to increase your chance for success:

  • Just as you would devote a dedicated amount of time to scheduling your business meetings, you need to set aside time every week to go over your books. This helps you stay on top of your cash flow and ensure you’re getting invoices paid on time.
  • Always separate your personal bank account from your business one. When a business is just starting out, it’s easy to just use your own money to fund the business – but as it grows, it’s that much harder to separate things later. From the start, open a business bank account to manage earnings and expenses.
  • Not every business owner is comfortable or capable of learning everything there is to know about accounting – tax laws, employee deductions, etc. Startup life is stressful enough, don’t add finances to the mix. Look for accounting software that fits your business needs – cloud software is best because it allows you to manage your finances on any device, anywhere. Accounting software is easy to use, but you can always look for a bookkeeping business to do the work for you.
  • Get in the habit of saving receipts and records related to your business – the Australian Taxation Office requires you to keep at least five years of records. Since that’s a lot of paper and information, streamline your filing system by uploading your documents to a digital file on an external hard drive.

These essential bookkeeping tips for small business or startups will help you start out on the right track. Still don’t want to bother with the work yourself? Hire a bookkeeper to maintain your books so you can focus on the important things – running your business!

Contact Galaxi Bookkeeping for a consultation and be sure to visit us on Facebook!

01/12/2014

Bookkeeping Tips for Startups

Cropped image of woman's hands calculating home finances at desk

There are plenty of things to consider when getting a business off and running – bookkeeping being one of the most important, and often neglected, aspects of any startup. Creating a business takes so many components it can be difficult to keep records of spending, invoices and other financial considerations. These bookkeeping tips for startups will help you create effective and useful habits from the start!

Keep personal banking separate from business – During the early days of a business, it’s easy to get caught up in spending personal money for business-related expenses and supplies. Before getting started, open up a banking account to manage these expenditures! Whether you do bookkeeping yourself or hire a professional, separating the two accounts early on will keep things organized and easy to manage.

Devote time to reconciling your books – As a startup, you need to know where every bit of money is coming and going. Create efficient habits by devoting a specific time of day or week to managing invoices, paying debits or monitoring cash flow and spending. Getting into this habit from the start will help you stay sane when the business – and bookkeeping – becomes more in depth. Of course, you can always turn to a professional bookkeeper to take the hassle away!

Look for accounting software – One of the most effective bookkeeping tips for startups is to look for accounting software to help you easily keep track of your finances. Cloud-based accounting software, such as Xero, makes a number of bookkeeping aspects easy to manage no matter how experienced you are at accounting or finance. Accounting software easily allows you to send and receive invoices, create reports and a plethora of other valuable services for any startup.

These bookkeeping tips for startups are some of the simplest options to implement into any business – start with good habits early on and build upon them to stay efficient and organized as the business grows!

Contact Galaxi Bookkeeping for a consultation and be sure to visit us on Facebook!