How do you manage your business finances, is the process a well-oiled machine or is it a mess that causes unwanted stress and a frantic rush come tax time? Whilst, every business owner recognises the importance of clean and accurate accounts, for some people, finances are simply not their strength.
However, keeping your accounts clean and under control, at times is less about expertise and more about consistency. The key to this is implementing simple yet effective processes that make reviewing your finances less of a chore and more of a habit.
Here are a few simple practices that can help you drastically improve how you manage your books.
Money Minute
It may only be a minute but in this super-compact and super-focused time a lot can be done! Starting your work day with a money minute is a great way to review your accounts, recent transactions and realign yourself towards your financial goals.
The practice of only checking your finances sporadically, or worse as a deadline looms, is a surefire way of leaving your business vulnerable to missing things or creating problems that don’t need to be. Making time to check in regularly, whether this is with your morning coffee or randomly throughout the day can do wonders for your business.
In this time you are able to review your business’ financial health, track cash flow, review outstanding bills and see when payable bills are due. All of this will keep you on track and help to guide your decisions throughout the day to ensure you are operating within your means.
Your time is money
While we all strive to stick to our schedule or try and preempted issues that may arise tomorrow, something will always pop up and disrupt this. For small business owners, this is especially true as we often wear several different hats at once.
As a result, it is a good idea to start to track your time, as you would your money. Cause at the end of the day, ‘time is money’. So, what is an hour of your time worth? Try to put a dollar value on the time you spend managing the book, creating a Facebook ad or working on your product.
Once you have a fairly good idea of the value of your time, you can then look for more cost-effective ways of satisfying that task. For example, if you are spending three hours doing the accounts, when it is a two-hour job for a professional or even better 45-minute job with accounting software.
These other options could be more cost-effective and allow you to spend those three-hours on more important tasks, such as developing your core-offering.
Record everything!
Often times the amount of paperwork that comes with running a business can resemble Mt Cook. Whether you are using CashManager by Accomplish, a four-story filing cabinet or any other form of filing system, if left unattended this mountain of paperwork can be overwhelming.
To avoid this, it is important you get in the habit of filing everything away in one place in a timely manner. This will not only provide a clear picture of your financial health but it will also decrease the stress that comes with tax time or when you are focused to provide your records.
It doesn’t matter if it is a million dollar invoice, the receipt from a new printer or previous tax returns, make sure you accurately file everything in one place.
Managing your business’ finances can be a tough task. However, a lot of business owners make it a lot harder than it has to be. By implementing these three strategies into your normal routine, you’ll be in a better position to maximise your financial positions.
If you are looking for an easy to use and accurate way of managing your financial records, budgeting and facilitating an efficient money-minute, CashManager by Accomplish is for you. Our simple, yet effective, accounting software has the ability to take even the messiest accounts and make them easy to manage and most importantly, accurate!
If you would like to download a free trial or find out more information, click here!