I wouldn’t be surprised if the first person who said, “If you want something done right, then do it yourself” was an entrepreneur. If you are like most small business owners, keeping up with the paperwork can seem daunting and overwhelming. It is just something that takes you away from why you started your own business in the first place- pursuing you passion. However, you don’t trust anyone to keep up with things as well as you do, and there’s just not enough time to waste on going over it all with someone else.
I knew a man who started his own trim & remodeling business, and tried for years to do all of the work himself. Finding customers, bidding jobs, supervising the crew, working with the crew, and doing all of the bookkeeping. This led to piles of receipts stuffed in all areas of his truck, amongst piles of scribbled on yellow notepads and invoices. After years of quazi-organization, and procrastination he learned a few things. He decided to hire a foreman that could supervise projects while he focused on bids, invoices, and other office tasks.
While that works for some, if you’re the kind of person who started a career doing what they love only to find themselves drowning in paperwork we would love to help! Bookkeeping and Business Solutions for Small Businesses are what Omnis is all about. Let us help ease the head While you make up your mind here are a few bookkeeping mistakes to watch out for.
- Putting it off until the guilt drives you crazy.
As any professional procrastinator would know, it’s so easy to put off a mundane task and fill you time with more fulfilling items to cross off of your to-do list. Just like most less than thrilling tasks, if you will just put in a little work every day on your books then the matter won’t seem so daunting when you finally get the motivation to get caught up after a month of putting it off. If you don’t stay on top of it, you’re asking for something to get filed incorrectly or misplaced. When you actually need to refer back to something it’s a lifesaver to know exactly where a piece of information is. - Not separating business and personal transactions.
For small business owners, the work never stops. Your days are spent getting to work early, working through lunch, working late, and then even still having to handle some matters at home. It can be easy to let personal and business spending mix- especially for someone who started their business alone- because after all, it’s all your money anyways. However, allowing your personal and business spending to mix it makes tracking your business growth more difficult and can lead to a disaster when filing your taxes. - Not hiring a financial professional.
Initially, it may take a while get all of your ducks in a row, but hiring a bookkeeper can save you time and money. As a small business owner, your time is invaluable, and many of you already work 50-60 hour work weeks, so hiring someone to take care of your books can allow you more time for you to pursue your passion in the trenches of entrepreneurship. Also, hiring a professional get your books in order can save your accountant a lot of prep work. According to Xero, hiring a professional bookkeeper may not only save you money, but could possibly lead to a 16 percent increase in profits! - Not backing up records.
If you haven’t made the mistake of working on an unsaved project or assignment and being almost finished when your computer dies, or the power goes out then you are lucky.
Take this simple advice: save as you go and back up your records. Technology today makes it so easy with autosave features, external hard drives, and cloud software. Backing up your files has never been easier. - Improper or poor record keeping.
Have you ever spent hours aimlessly searching for a document- only to find out you’ve filed it incorrectly? Or that you didn’t even keep your receipt? Nobody has time for that. Bookkeeping 101. Keep your receipts for everything, and do your best to place invoices, receipts or other documents in the correct file as soon as possible. It will save you so much headache down the road. - Having unreconciling bank accounts.
Reconciling your accounts regularly will help prevent unchecked mistakes or fraudulent transactions. If left long enough minor errors can snowball into bigger problems. Point being always know where your money is and how it got there.Every business owner has to deal with all of these areas on some level, even if it’s just relaying everything to an accountant. However, get in touch with Omnis if you want to get back to your passion and get away from the hours of keeping up with accounts and receipts. Let us help you find more time to do what you love! It would be our privilege to ease the headache and stress!
