Five Tips To Make Bookkeeping Easy

Maintaining good books can help to improve cash flow, enhance profits and take advantage of tax deductions. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs running small enterprises don’t have the time or the experience to crunch numbers.

Therefore, it’s vital to work with a professional that can analyze your financial statements and file your tax returns quickly and accurately. But, while a bookkeeper can make your accounting more efficient, it’s still essential to know the basics to create a seamless process.

At Brochu & Associates Ltd., we understand the challenges people face when maintaining their books, and this is why we want to help you. To enable you to maintain your books appropriately, we have compiled a list of five tips to make bookkeeping easy.

Tip #1: Keep everything
Holding on to old records is essential as you never know when you’ll have to refer to something from the past. Remember, if your accountant doesn’t have a copy, they can’t use it. So, it’s always better to be safe than sorry when it comes to your business expenses.

Tip #2: Get organized
Keeping files in order will be helpful when you are looking for a particular invoice to receive a rebate or to compare past bills. But, if you try to get too organized overnight, you may feel overwhelmed. Start easy, and sort everything into a monthly format by matching the receipts with your bank and credit card statements. You can clip them together and collect the cash ones on their own. Also, if you have a large vendor or customer, you can create a separate folder.

Tip #3: Stay current
It’s one of the most important tips as it will keep your business up to date with the latest information and help it to run smoothly. In addition, avoiding late fees and interest charges can put you back on track with spending and collecting money.

Tip #4: Ask for help
There are times when you can get so caught up in day-to-day operations that you neglect your accounts. At these times, it’s essential not to be embarrassed to ask for help, as your accountant would have definitely seen worse kept books than yours.

Tip #5: Never highlight receipts
We often come across clients that highlight receipts. They may feel that they’re helping, but it’s making the situation worse as the ink typically disappears in a matter of minutes, and once that happens, the record is gone. The best thing to do is scan or copy them and give them to your bookkeeper. Also, maintain backups of your bookkeeping numbers for a minimum of seven years. Remember that receipts can fade or rip over time if not kept in perfect condition, so they should be scanned and stored as digital copies on a thumb drive. We hope these five bookkeeping tips make you more confident to move forward with your accounts. If you need assistance with bookkeeping or other accounting services, contact Brochu & Associates Ltd. today! We specialize in personal income tax and render quality, quick solutions at a great price.

Our services include personal and corporate income tax preparation, tax returns, small business tax set-up, HST remittance, bookkeeping, budgeting, payroll, and accounting solutions. We serve clients across London, Glencoe, St. Thomas, and the surrounding areas.

To learn more about the accounting services that we provide, please click here. If you have any questions about bookkeeping, get in touch with us by clicking here.