4 easy ways to stay on top of your business finances

It might not be the most popular topic of conversation, but among small business owners, it might just be the most important one. How to stay on top of your accounts is crucial, not just for balancing the books, but for submitting tax paperwork, meeting compliance laws and making forecasts. Every year, large numbers of companies endure major losses on account of poor bookkeeping. Make sure you don’t fall into this trap and instead stay on top of your company finances.

Staying accountable – and afloat

The various accounting mistakes made by start-ups and small businesses can often lead to their downfall. Indeed, for any young enterprise, bookkeeping can be one of the most difficult tasks as it is often an unfamiliar skill for those involved. Consequently, there are many things you can do to make account keeping easier and more effective for your business, and here we look at the top four.

Hire An Accountant

Well, it’s an obvious place to start but there’s no doubt that hiring an accountant is the most practical – if expensive – solution to any financing problem. Not only will a professional accountant know precisely all laws regarding tax regulations that your company must abide by, but they will be able to perform the necessary paperwork and submissions in a fraction of the time you will. The high penalties incurred from incorrectly submitting business account information, as well as the time required to do so, means that many people regard employing an accountant as the cheaper option in the long run.

Use Accounting Software

If you aren’t ready to dive into hiring a full-time accountant but do want some assistance with your accounting, there is a diverse range of software out there designed to help meet your needs. Tried and tested options include 1&1’s online package that assists with all areas of your business finances, from stock management to invoicing and cost centre overviews. One of the biggest benefits of modern accounting software is that they are multi-platform and multi-device compatible, so you can access all of your important company data from anywhere.

Backup Your Data

Bookkeeping is all about retaining and using important data. Many companies overlook the possible loss of their files through causes as diverse as human error, system crash, hardware failure and even natural disaster. Should such an event take place, your entire accounting system will be affected. Consequently, it is important to always backup your files on a regular basis – whether to a local device or to the cloud. Schedule a backup on just specific files or across your whole network every week during low activity to ensure that you will always have what you need.

Pay on Card/Keep Receipts

We all know that keeping receipts is an important part of any bookkeeping, but this is made much easier when you separate your business dealings to its own account and use a dedicated credit card for as many payments as possible. With online banking, it becomes easy to obtain an instant overview of your spending with the ability to see the precise time, location and amount of all funds leaving your account. Not only does this help with pulling together records for auditing expenses and tax purposes, but gives you a better day-to-day overview of your outgoings.