Bookkeeping Tips

Bookkeeping is a major challenge for many small businesses. We are good at our core business, but may not know much about the bookkeeping side, or don't enjoy keeping the books, or don't have time to keep the books.

Whether you are keeping your business' books yourself, or are hiring a bookkeeper to take care of them, here are some tips to help tame your paper monster, and save you some money, too.

1. Every week, take 15 minutes to file your receipts. This can be a simple as stuffing them all into one file, or sorting them by category. Do what works best for you, but do it. Having all your receipts in one place means that you won't lose them. A little bit of effort over the year will ensure that tax time is not a stressful time and you get all your deductions.
   
   
2. If your home phone is also your business phone, take the time each month to go through your phone bill with a highlighter and highlight all of your long distance business calls. You get to write off a portion of your basic phone charges if you work from home, but this is a small amount, even over the course of a year. Your long distance charges must be separated out. Highlight them and make an abbreviated note about who the call is to, if it is not obvious. Many small businesses lose this as a business write off because at the end of the year they can't remember which calls were for business, and your bookkeeper won't write off any of them, because there is no way for her to tell which calls were for business.
   
   
3. Take the time to staple receipts and bills that are more than one page long together. This will save you and your bookkeeper time at the end of the year.
   
   
4. Keep a file pouch in your vehicle or in your briefcase for receipts. Throw your receipts in the pouch as you get them. Don't stuff them into your pockets, purse, console, briefcase, or glove compartment. When it comes time to do your books, finding your receipts should not be a treasure hunt.

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