The all-important task of keeping your business afloat demands that you pay close attention to your finances, and it leaves no room for forgetfulness. But when you wear multiple hats in your business, you can be so busy that you simply do not remember to manage your account properly.
If you’re that sort of entrepreneur, these two checklists will help you stay on top of your accounting duties.
Weekly
1. Check your cash position: Know how much cash you have at the moment and project how much you will receive and spend in the following week.
2. Keep track of your transactions: Document every business transaction in a spreadsheet or with an accounting app.
3. Pay vendors: Your relationships with your vendors are important. Stay in their good books by paying them on time.
4. Send invoices: You need money to run your business, right? Prepare your invoices well ahead and send them to be sure your revenue stream is not held back by incompetence.
5. Save and sort invoices, receipts and payments: It’s not enough to document transactions. Save physical or scanned copies of invoices, receipts and payments made in files or on your accounting app, arranging them in alphabetical order for easy access.
Monthly
1. Prepare and review your income statement, cash flow statement and balance sheet: These statements can help you spot financial issues and fix them before they escalate.
2. Process your payroll and payroll taxes: Employee satisfaction is important to your business. Avoid unnecessary delays in paying your employees by processing your payroll promptly. To save time, process payroll taxes along with your payroll.
3. Review business performance against past performance, financial targets and budget: Compare the current month’s performance with the past month’s performance, taking your financial targets and your budget into consideration. This comparison will help you keep your spending in check.
4. Review and update your cash flow forecast based on business performance: Compare the cash flow for the month with the cash flow prediction in your budget and make changes as required.
5. Reconcile your business account: Check your business account for consistency, accuracy of transaction records and your cash position to avoid financial errors.
