4 Tips for Organizing Your Business Books

Samantha Speakes - 02/06/2024

If we're honest with ourselves as small business owners, yes even bookkeepers, we all have something that we could improve upon in getting organized, staying organized and implementing systems that work for us verse us reinventing the wheel as we go. 

As a small business owner you're focus and efforts have been in building your business, as they should be, but what does that mean for your bookkeeping? For our clients it means they've come to us with frustration at how their books look and sometimes a lack of awareness of their businesses overall health. Not the best feeling as a small business owner. We are here to help!

Now that you've gathered all your current year tax documents for tax season and are close to, if not done, filing your business taxes, let's take a look together at four ways you can improve your books organization and get you back to your passion; your growing your business. 

1. Bookkeeping Software That Works For Your Business

QuickBooks, both Desktop and Online, have been a leader in the bookkeeping software segment for small business owners for years and for good reason. QuickBooks is easy to setup, user friendly and affordable, making it a great choice for small and larger businesses alike across varying industries. If you aren't familiar with QuickBooks Online or other bookkeeping software's, now is a great time to spend a few hours familiarizing yourself with them and the services they can provide to your business. What should you be looking for in a bookkeeping software package?

A full suite of software for organizing your books should allow you to track accounts payable, accounts receivable, reconcile bank accounts, track inventory and integrate with other software providers for such things as payroll or industry specific customer relationship management systems (CRMs) if they aren't available internally in the bookkeeping software. If you are going to take the first step in organizing your books, a good bookkeeping software is a must!

2. Put a Good Business Credit Card to Work For You

As a small business owner a business credit card is one of your best friends. Business credit cards come with a host of perks that consumer credit cards usually do not, such as discounts on everything from travel to office supplies, rewards programs, higher credit limits and robust reporting tools. With a history of on time payments for your business credit card you'll also help to boost your businesses credit rating, allowing for competitive rates when sourcing lines of credit for machinery or or equipment needed in your course of business. 

Another added benefit to a business credit card is statements that can be separated to show all expenses in specific categories for specific categories, a significant help when reconciling quickly, efficiently and accurately. You will want to use your new (or existing) business credit card for all purchases for your business, everything from office supplies to gas. 

The final and one of the most important added benefits to using a business credit card for business purchases are that credit card payments are reported on 1099-Ks, provided by the credit card processing company, example Venmo, PayPal, etc. If you are able to pay via credit card for expenses that would ordinarily trigger the need to send a 1099 from your business to the vendor, you are eliminating one additional year end step from your books. For example; pay by credit card for lawncare or landscaping services; thus eliminating a 1099 you would ordinarily send if you had paid by check. A huge plus for our clients when they choose to take this step! 

If you aren't sure where to start with a business credit card, we can help you review your options.

3. Get on the Same Page with Credit Card and Bank Statements

Now that you've decided on a business credit card, you'll want to make sure the statement dates for your business card and bank match. Most credit card companies and banks can accommodate the request to end each statement with a month end cutoff, you just need to know to request it. Why would you want this? It will make your business books significantly easier to reconcile and tie out month over month and especially at year end. When your bank and credit card statements have month end statement dates it becomes easier to match expenses!

Also note; if you haven't done so already always do your absolute best to keep your personal and business accounts separate from one another. The reasoning is two fold; separate accounts hold up better if you are ever in an audit situation and comingled accounts are much more difficult to distinguish between person and business charges. Best practice is to always keep separate accounts for personal and business. 

4. Be Prepared with Backups

One of the ways to protect your business is by protecting your digital records and assets. A great way to do this is with a computer or server, depending on your company size, backup every night. If a computer or server backup isn't something you already implement for your business, now is the time to talk to a specialist about how to implement this for your business. This backup should encompass all of your digital records and files that aren't houses by cloud software companies, these software companies should already be performing routine daily backups of all their clients data. It is always best to double check with them if you are unsure. There are many cost effective strategies for backing up for businesses digital files available to you. 

Additionally leaving yourself an audit trail is never a bad idea. This can include printing records of everything for your books at month end and holding onto invoices and checks. Digital record keeping is the most convenient, and is the goal, however it may also be in your businesses best interest to keep a paper trail at least once a month, as a just in case of computer glitch scenario.