5 BOOKKEEPING SECRETS THAT WILL SAVE YOU TIME & MONEY

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5 Bookkeeping Secrets

That Will Save You Time

& Money

Jody Schlese

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kkeepi ng Secrets That Will S ave You Ti me & Mo ney

About The Author

My first experience with bookkeeping was in the beginning of 2003 when I started my own entertainment business. I learned Quickbooks at that time and did payroll for my employees. I remember being so busy but at the end of the month, it felt great having all my financial records organized and being able to see how we did that month. I particularly enjoy analyzing numbers and seeing if there’re trends or bringing attention to the important data that’s hiding.

I’m a logical thinker and am in a continuous state of analysis. But I don’t fall into the trap of ‘paralysis by analysis’. I believe mistakes are opportunities for learning and growing. There’re so many new software packages in the market place that are ever changing and it’s exciting to see how they can work together to simplify a once daunting task.

I’m in a state of unrest if I’m not continually challenging myself to improve and be better for my customers. That’s why I make sure to allot time for attending conferences and courses every year.

Disclaimer

The content in this eBook is intended for general information purposes only and should not be considered as advice. I assume no liability or responsibility for the accuracy of content in this eBook.

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ng Secrets That Will S ave You Ti me & Mo ney

Secret 1

Paper Jam No More

You can eliminate the paper jam by scanning financial documents the minute they arrive in your office. Any documents you receive via email or downloaded can be saved and not printed. The CRA requires you to keep documents in their original format. You’re required to keep the paper documents if that’s the original format you’ve received. Of course, if you scan every financial document that comes your way, you will need to organize the soft copies so they’re workable and not just an electronic mess. This is done by determining a file naming convention that’s suitable for your business and a virtual workflow process. The goal is always to touch a physical document no more than once.

The benefits of scanning and filing soft copies is that you can

 access the documents anywhere & anytime if using cloud storage

 find the documents much quicker by searching for key words/numbers

 have a backup should a physical disaster ruin your paper copies

Did I mention my favorite benefit? Your bookkeeper can work remotely and there’s no need to pick up /drop off documents. Talk about time savings! Oh ya, and your

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Secret 2

You don’t need all that paper!

Many small business owners fall into the trap of keeping every bit of paper that comes their way. Soon they no longer have a desk but a growing mountain of paper.

Hoarders beware…you don’t need all that paper!

Voided Cheques

– ensure that they’re recorded as VOID in your bookkeeping

software and then shred immediately to avoid fraudulent use

Deposit Slips

– Don’t fill out the deposit book, unless your bank insists. Once

the deposit is entered in your bookkeeping software, print out a deposit slip to have the teller stamp it or attach to the ATM deposit slip.

Packing Slip

– keep this until the bill arrives and then only keep the bill/invoice

Shipping Slip

– keep this until your customer has paid for the products

Cheque Vouchers

– when you receive a payment from a customer and the

cheque has a voucher, it’s not necessary to keep this, only the cheque for deposit.

Online bill payments

– if you pay your bills online, write the confirmation

number on your bill and in your bookkeeping software.

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Secret 3

Invoicing. Can I do it?

There’re many products in the market place designed for invoicing and allow the business owner to do just that. Really good products even have the functionality of exporting the data to your bookkeeping software. Since I’m a Quickbooks Certified ProAdvisor and a bit biased, I’ll write from that perspective. Here are some products and information that you may find useful in allowing you to invoice and remove the gridlock on receivables.

Freshbooks

– Not a smooth export to Quickbooks but I was told that they are

working on that. Currently can export to Excel and then manipulate and import into Quickbooks. Really like the regular email alert letting you know how much has been invoiced and how much is waiting to be paid.

Wave Accounting

– Currently can export to Excel and then manipulate and

import into Quickbooks. It’s free but you’re at their whim when they do updates.

Invoice2go

– Can import directly to Quickbooks…slick!

Quickbooks

– Can create a userid that’s only able to create invoices and

receive payments. Your bookkeeper can access your file remotely to do the background record keeping; which keeps your invoices within Quickbooks.

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Secret 4

Break Up The Tasks

Have you considered breaking up the bookkeeping tasks? A good bookkeeper knows that he/she does not need to do all the data entry.

Quickbooks has a feature that allows you to setup multiple user ids with limited access. This can be a great time saver and reduce your bookkeeping costs. If you already have a team member in your business that has room on their desk for more work, they can be setup in Quickbooks and with a little training can do simple data entry.

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Invoicing

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Receiving Payments

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Purchase Orders

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Credit Card Expenses

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Timesheets

By doing this, it also frees up your Bookkeeper to do more number crunching and analysis to help you succeed with your business goals.

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Secret 5

There’s gold in those reports

The Financial reports (Balance Sheet and Income Statement) and the Statement of Cash Flow have excellent information in them but how do you decipher the numbers? These are commonly used ratios to help you see the health of your business among other things. Here are a few you can apply:

1. Profitability

 Gross profit/sales

 Net income after tax/sales

 Net income after taxes/equity

2. Asset Utilization (useful if you have inventory)

 Sales/average receivables (turnover)

 Cost of sales/average inventory (turnover)

 Sales/fixed assets

 Sales/total assets

3. Liquidity

 Current assets/current liabilities

 Current assets/short-term debt

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 Sales per employee (annual sales/average number of employees)

 Employee days absent to total days available for work

 Sales per square foot of space (annual sales/total square feet of production and administrative space)

You’re probably asking what you do with all these ratios. Take the ones that you think pertain to your business and compare them to previous years. Now you will start to see possible forecasting of what lays ahead for your company. If it’s good, great! If not, these are early warning signs to help you steer your business in the right direction.

When doing the ratios, be sure to remove any outliers due to one-time events (ex. natural disaster)

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Summary

The bookkeeping basics have not changed from long ago but how we go about recording, maintaining, and utilizing our business financials has drastically improved. Hardware and software enhancements can greatly help us in being more efficient while keeping our records in excellent condition. No longer do we need to shuffle paper from desk to desk or study numbers that are already obsolete. There’re so many tools out there for small businesses to ease the burden of record keeping.

Want to learn more? Feel free to send me any questions or comments to

[email protected]. As well, sign up for our monthly newsletter for more Financial Tips & Quickbook Tricks at www.thinkeasy.ca. Are you ready for a change? We offer full service bookkeeping, payroll services, Quickbooks training, financial analysis, and business consulting with our custom price packages.

5 BOOKKEEPING SECRETS THAT WILL SAVE YOU TIME & MONEY