Book Keeping - Where To Start?

Diligent and effective bookkeeping can be possible
only if you know where to start. Make the numbers and
dates work for you. Just by following these basics,
you can setup a very interesting bookkeeping system.

Choose an appropriate bookkeeping system.

Choices are between a single-entry and double-entry.
The difference between the two is that when it comes
to a single-entry bookkeeping system, it is considered
as a rudimentary system which is suitable for personal
financing. One very good example is checkbook
balancing wherein involvements of a single checking
account that is being credited or debited.

On the other hand, double-entry bookkeeping is
something that is more appropriate for businesses
because it can track two accounts at the same time. In
other words, it can do efficient multi-tasking. When
you sell a product, recording of the transactions as a
debit on your inventory and a credit on your account
is automatically done by double-entry bookkeeping.

Get appropriate help.

Business owners, especially the one’s owning small
businesses, have one thing in common – they lack the
enthusiasm and time to have a detailed ledger. If you
want to make life easier, you can find a trusted CPA
or be wise and take advantage of a bookkeeping
program. Although, you would need to ask for
professional help if your business is largely
dependent on timely and precise records or is
operationally complicated. If you want to expect more
than a $100,000 worth of sales or have an inventory
that’s very much considerable, don’t wait for someone
to advise you to get a bookkeeping system. Now is the
right time.

Get a hold of your financial documents.

If you’re planning to rely on a CPA or bookkeeping
software to work everything out for you, you should
have every single document, data and receipt that they
need to organize. See to it that everything is still
intact: purchase orders, sales receipts, bank
statements, and so on. Lost receipts and important
documents will leave blanks and uncertainties on the
part of the system. Dedicate yourself in filing every
ounce of data needed to make your bookkeeping system
possible.

Keep your financial data close.

Employing the assistance of bookkeeping software is
not an excuse to become separated from the important
financial details of your entire business. You are
professionally and legally responsible for every
single activity your business conducts. Therefore, it
is a must that you, as the owner, will get hold of the
bigger picture, following the trend of your business.
Here comes bookkeeping to the rescue. Through the
software, it can give you a clearer view of your
financial records. Because of this bookkeeping
software, an owner can decide to refresh and run basic
reports daily. Furthermore, bookkeeping will
eventually reveal data captures such as overdue
accounts, loss and profits, and the company’s monthly
expenses at one glance.

Provide assurance to validity of data.

Assistance of people whom you hired and bookkeeping
software can only go far. Oftentimes, you as the owner
of your company will be the only person to ensure
timeless and validity of data. Whenever changes occur,
like a customer’s address, make sure to immediately
record the changes made on your bookkeeping system.
Performing these vital acts of being diligent and at
the same time training your employees to be alert
requires a detailed and oriented way of delivering.

Dan and Deanna "Marketing Unscrambled"