Business owners know the tasks that consume us each day can be daunting. It can feel hard to put a good rhythm to everything that needs done and work on our personal to-do list of things we want to creatively pursue. After talking to several business owners, the most popular thing I hear about bookkeeping is, “I just don’t want to spend my time doing that.” I completely agree! You didn’t go into business to pay the bills, send invoices, and watch the overall number of your accounts. You went into business to sell a product or service you know will make the world a better place! That’s where good bookkeeping strategies come in – or in this case, a good bookkeeping checklist to make sure you are hitting everything you need to on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual basis.
Daily Tasks:
- Check in with your accounts and look at balances
- Upload receipts into Quickbooks
- Match receipts to vendors you have paid
- Take action on financial mail
- Categorize your spending into appropriate categories
- Send invoices
Weekly Tasks:
- Categorize income
- Match paid invoices to clients
- Pay bills to vendors
- Check inventory and update
- Send invoice reminders
- Categorize expenses
- Review forecasted cash flow
Monthly Tasks:
- Reconcile accounts (most important to see how much money you actually have at that moment)
- Run and review profit and loss statement
- Compare profit and loss to the previous month
- Review your budget
- Pay yourself and employees
- Calculate tax savings (Quickbooks provides a good estimate)
- Update office expenses and order supplies if needed for the next month
- Put tax and business savings into a separate account
Quarterly Tasks:
- Run and review profit and loss statement
- Compare profit & loss to the previous quarter
- Make quarterly tax payment with your CPA
- Check in on your financial goals
Always check your cash flow – see how much is coming in and how much is going out. The goal is to have more coming in then going out.
Many times small businesses that are run by one person forget or think they don’t have enough to pay themselves. Put away about 15-25% for tax time, 10% business savings to “keep the lights on” if something happens or if you lose income one month, and then be sure to pay yourself a fair wage after all of that is said and done.
Good bookkeeping equals a healthy business.
To help you with your bookkeeping tasks, click download below to get this free PDF.
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