5 Effective Bookkeeping Tips for Every Small Business

Small business owners often find themselves monitoring and assessing numbers in their spreadsheets while some dismiss the idea of doing their bookkeeping duties. But no matter how you try to skip number crunching, it’s a crucial responsibility you must address to keep your business growing. 

READ: Putting the Spotlight on Automated Bookkeeping

Keeping your numbers in the green means keeping track of your books: keeping them accurate, up to date and readily available. With your business finances steady, you can boost your chances of having financial success at an earlier phase. 

To maintain well-balanced books, you must have some smart bookkeeping tips for small businesses in your pockets. Read on to learn how you can keep your numbers right on track.

1. Do a monthly bookkeeping review

Monitoring your transactions regularly can spare you some time off your bookkeeping tasks. If you don’t sit down to check on your negotiations, you’ll find yourself lost in a pile of receipts, rechecking your transactions.

Doing so further complicates your bookkeeping process, whereas if you schedule a periodic review and update of your books, you can be assured that the process will be as efficient and seamless as possible. You can do your bookkeeping at the same time every month so you can easily block the day to update your numbers.

2. Bring your business to the cloud

Cloud computing technology has given us platforms that help us perform accounting and bookkeeping functions, automating the process and taking away the tedious work off you. 

Aside from the automation that the cloud offers, you can also guarantee your business’ data is well secured and is backed by multi-factor authentication and encryption in the event of data breach.

3. Separate your personal finances

Bookkeeping means going through your expenditures and keeping it on record. To make your bookkeeping tasks easier, it’s best to have a separate bank account for your business. 

Save yourself some time from coursing through your receipts and transactions when you have a dedicated credit card for your company. Doing so will help you identify if your expenditures has gone on business affairs or for personal expense, thus simplifying the bookkeeping process.

4. Track performance against plans

Small business accounting can be tricky and difficult, but with a good strategy, you can surely keep your numbers in balance. With good bookkeeping, you can have a financial forecast to make sure problems won’t block core business functions. 

A key part of your business process should be taking your forecasts against your plans to see how you can improve your team’s performance in the long run. Work with your CPAs to build your budget and revenue forecast. Entrepreneurs do this to see where their business is headed and take the necessary measures to prevent any unprecedented events. 

5. Hire a reliable bookkeeper

Bookkeeping is a crucial part of running a business. It’s the lifeblood that keeps the company up and running. Keeping real-time data on the books entails periodic tracking of expenditures, recording invoices and transactions, and preparing financial statements, among others. 

If you can’t manage your bookkeeping responsibilities, it would be best to get a CPA to address your bookkeeping needs. Doing so will not only help you to focus more on your business operations, but will also guarantee a higher precision update on your books. 

Following these accounting tips for small business owners increases the chances of knowing how your company is going. If you decide to crunch your own numbers, you can know how you stand financially and even forecast your progress in the coming years. 

Still find yourself needing a team to stay on top of your bookkeeping needs? At D&V Philippines, we make sure to keep your books updated and accurate. Download our whitepaper D&V Philippines: Your Talent Sourcing Partner to know how we can help you gain access to the right experts your small business needs.

You can also explore the D&V Philippines blog to read more of our bookkeeping tips for small businesses and accounting-related articles

This post was first published 16 July 2019 and was updated 01 September 2020.