If you own your own business, take on client work, or freelance as part of your job, chances are you spend at least some time on bookkeeping and accounting work each month. It’s important to stay on top of these tasks so that you can manage your finances effectively, but it can be easy to let other priorities take over and procrastinate on the bookkeeping until it’s too late in the month to catch up. These four tips will help you make your bookkeeping more efficient and get it done faster so that you can spend more time on what matters most to you.
One of the easiest ways to make your accounting and bookkeeping more efficient is to stop using paper records. For example, some businesses still store their checkbook registers on paper. Go digital! Accounting software such as QuickBooks makes it easy to transfer information from a business checkbook register into an accounting spreadsheet. Using digital tools will also allow you to organize your data more efficiently than with a physical ledger. And since you won’t have as many papers lying around, it will be easier for you to manage your account books and run reconciliations when needed.
Setting up a bookkeeping system is a great way to keep track of your accounts. There are many programs and apps out there, but if you’re really looking for an efficient (and cost-effective) option, using Excel or Google Sheets can get you going without spending any money. Plus, they offer automatic backups so if your computer ever crashes and takes your work with it, you won’t lose everything. By tracking your income and expenses, you also open yourself up to some interesting opportunities when it comes time to do taxes—you can actually find money back! And just think about how much more efficient tax season will be when you don’t have to dig through receipts anymore.
Keeping your books straight will help you stay organized, avoid late fees, and keep clients coming back for more. If you’re having a hard time keeping up with your accounts, there are many things you can do to streamline your bookkeeping workflow. Here are some tips that can help get your office organized. 1) Use cloud-based accounting software: Cloud-based accounting software is inexpensive and easy to master. Most of these programs allow business owners to automatically sync their financial data from various online platforms (e.g., PayPal) or digital storage devices (e.g., an external hard drive). 2) Keep organized digital files: In order to streamline our processes we need to ensure that all of our records are in one place—digital or otherwise.
Simply taking a few hours once every month to reconcile your bank statements, pay bills and other financial documents can mean significant time savings each month. It also makes it easier to track your expenses, making bookkeeping and tax time far less stressful. Plus, if you’re like most business owners, dealing with finances is one of your least favorite things to do. So why not save yourself some trouble by automating bookkeeping tasks whenever possible? The truth is that technology has made it easier than ever to get things done more efficiently—for example, you can use accounting software and cloud-based solutions like Xero or Quickbooks Online to automatically handle everything from reconciling expenses to processing payroll.