So you have taken the big leap, and have started the path of becoming a small business owner, or maybe you have been in business for a while now. You may feel very overwhelmed and once your business is formed things will start to happen, sometimes very quickly. Often times, especially if the business owner is unfamiliar with the financial aspect of their business, the bookkeeping can fall behind. Naturally many of us want to focus on growing the business, attaining customers, and focus on what we do best.
The start-up period is a delicate time in your business’s financial standing. It’s crucial to document every penny spent, and to save where you can as in the beginning its pretty easy to hemorrhage money. Many of your expenses if not all of them that are acquired during start-up can be tax deductions that will ultimately save you money when you file your business’s taxes. One of the easiest way a small business can save money at tax time is to keep the business’s books current. Frantically trying to remember expenses, and going through statements, receipts, at the end of the year can often times lead to an expensive financial disaster.
Maintaining the business’s books at bare minimum of catching it up monthly, will ensure that you can still figure out what that charge was for on the bank statement for $22.95. Even better you will more than likely still have a receipt to prove your expense. Did you know that your statements do not count as proof of your expenses? That’s right, the IRS requires a receipt for your expenses!
Getting in the good habit of keeping your business’s important documentation right from the start will prove in valuable to you in the future as your business grows and becomes more successful. If you ever get audited by the IRS you can rest assure that you have properly documented your business’s financial history.
Create a work flow process for handling bills, receipts, statements, and contracts. Stick to this work flow process and train your employees on the same process. As you grow, stop doing what doesn’t work, and adapt new processes into your work flow process that do work. There are always ways to become more efficient, cheaper, and faster.
Technology has come a long way in recent years. There are many applications out there that have been designed to help stream line a business owners work flow process, making it simpler, faster, and accurate. There is tons of information out there to help you streamline your business’s process. The next question is…
- Do you have the time to research these options?
- Do you know which applications will help your business?
- Are you willing to learn the process to use new technology?
- Do you have the time to handle this function within your business?
- Is this a responsibility you want to handle?
Many business owners, the answer to the above it NO. Your time is worth a lot and bookkeeping, accounts payable, accounts receivable, sales tax, employment taxes, insurance, and payroll all take a lot of time. Time that you the business owner could use to be networking for new business, attending to the clients you already have, training your employee’s, or spending time with your own family.
A professional virtual bookkeeping firm such as Blue Water Consulting Inc can help you solve all of the above problems for a reasonable cost that is tailored to your business’s needs no matter where your business is located. From training you on how to set up a bookkeeping process, to full service bookkeeping we have a solution for you that will allow you to do what you do best for your business! Contact us today for a free initial consultation at 970-673-9379 .
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