So you’ve been putting off doing your quarterly BAS or taxes because your financial books are a big old mess. The quickest solution to getting your books back on track would be to outsource the task to professional bookkeepers, like the team at Infinity22.
If, however, you’d prefer to get them back in order yourself, follow this guide to get your financial books under control again.
What’s the core issue with your financial books?
First things first, before you can get your financial books back in order, you need to know what the problem is exactly. Are your accounts out of balance? Are you missing receipts? Are your expenses all over the place? Once you’ve identified the issue it’s easy to make a plan to tackle it.
Get all your financial documents together
Bank statements, invoices, receipts, or anything else containing your business financials needs to be in one place, whether that’s physically or digitally. If you have physical documents it’s best to scan them and store them somewhere digitally too. This makes it easier to organise and keep track of everything.
Organise your expenses by category
The next step to tidy up your financial books is to organise your expenses by category. This helps you gain a clearer understanding of where your money is going and can also help you identify areas where you can save.
It’s a good idea to organise your expenses as either fixed or variable. Fixed expenses are expenses that stay the same each month (ie: your rent, software subscriptions). Variable expenses fluctuate month to month (ie: office supplies or inventory).
Don’t forget to separate your personal and business accounts
This is especially important. If you’re a sole trader it may be tempting to use your business card to pay for things that aren’t actually business expenses, but this creates a huge headache come tax time. Do yourself (and you accountant!) a favour and keep personal transactions separate from your business.
Find a tracking system that works for you
There are loads of different ways to track your income and expenses. You can use accounting software such as XERO or MYOB, you can use a spreadsheet, or you can keep it old school and use a notepad. The most important thing is that you track, so find a system that works for you and stick with it.
Record your transactions in accounting software
We recommend XERO to our clients. Accounting software can help you to streamline the bookkeeping process and save you a lot of time by tracking your income and expenses for you.
Want to save more time? Outsource your bookkeeping
As a business owner, you likely have enough on your plate already without having to keep your financial books in order too. Outsourcing bookkeeping and accounting to a team of professionals is a great way to free up your time so you can focus on money making activities. Plus it’s tax deductible too!
Talk to the team at Infinity22
Our talented team of experts can take care of all the details surrounding bookkeeping for you so you have time and money to invest in other aspects of your company. With our top-notch services, not only do we keep up with state regulatory requirements but also give you proactive insights into making smart decisions about where to spend on areas like inventory or marketing. Let us help grow your business by taking care of the tedious work!
