Virtual Entrepreneur

Ways To Keep Your Biz Finances Under Control

March 9th, 2009 | Author: Miss Money

What Works For Business:
1. Get the right software. Don’t even think about keeping your books manually or with spreadsheets. Low-cost, easy-to-use financial software for small business such as QuickBooks, or the free version QuickBooks Simple Start (both at www.intuit.com) are perfect for keeping everything in order. New web-based solutions such as Netbooks are also great.

2. Automate your invoicing. Online billing services that can effortlessly issue your invoices and keep track of everything are one of the most helpful web-based small business services to appear recently. Check ‘em out, and put ‘em to work for your business. Look at Bill.com and FreshBooks.com in particular. The services are cheap and can help clean up a billing mess in an instant.

3. Keep it simple and consistent. Bookkeeping is all about columns, and by keeping the same column headings all the time, you will avoid the frustration of mismatches. And if you avoid over-categorizing income and expenses, you’ll also save yourself time. Often it’s just not necessary to break things down into great detail.

4. Use a payroll service if you have employees. Once your business has employees, your finances take a quantum leap in complexity. Outsourcing to a payroll service such as Paychex, Sure Payroll or ADP places the recordkeeping burden on them, and makes your end vastly easier.

5. Be pro-active with your accountant. One reason you need to keep good books is so you can provide accurate and timely information to an accountant to prepare your business taxes. Get their advice on how best to set up your books and organize your financial information. You might also ask them to periodically check your books, adjust entries or prepare financial reports for your review.

More ways here.

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