 |
Running your business is why you are in business, but if you don’t take care of your business you may not have it for long or worse, you could end up working hard and not getting all you deserve for it.
“It’s hard to make it a priority.” You should realize how important the information you get is. Good bookkeeping will not only tell you how you have done, but it will show you areas where you can save money and areas you can improve.
“How do I get motivated?” Believe me when I tell you I know how tedious bookkeeping can be, boy do I know! What helps me is to think of it in terms of the information I am handling. I think about systems of gathering and storing the receipts; I think about how the information is gathered and how it can be improved; I think about what the information is telling me. I frame the work as information management rather than mindless entering of many numbers. Failing that, I put on CBC radio (when there isn’t a work stoppage). I find it just engaging enough that I can work on the basic tasks and I am able to tune it out when I need to concentrate on the task at hand.
“It’s so hard to get started.” Make a ritual for your bookkeeping start. Brew up a cup of tea or coffee, put on some nice music, get your comfy duds on and think of it as relaxing time. Most of the work is pretty straight forward and allows you to get into a groove. Maybe it’s just me, but I find time disappears while I’m bookkeeping.
“Once I’m ready, I’m not sure where to begin.” I always start with the bank account. Bank statements are usually correct so I use it as a jumping off place to enter cheque stubs, deposits, debit purchases and automatic payments (you can set up a memorized cheque in Quick Books to automatically enter recurring payments). Just remember to enter the actual amount going into or out of the bank. For instance, if you bought office supplies and kid’s school supplies at Chisholm’s enter the actual amount of the purchase on your cheque and allocate the appropriate amounts to office supplies, HST and owner equity or withdrawal. Once that work is done, your pile is pretty much gone.
“Sometimes I get hung up on questions and I don’t know who to ask.” When I get stuck, I make a note of it, then move on and sometimes the answer presents itself as I work through the information. Revenue Canada can be helpful. Their business line number is 1-800-959-5525. I invite you to email me with your questions. I’m happy to answer. If it is something that will take some time to work through I offer 1:1 training.
Better, yet, Get Help
I would be remiss if I didn’t encourage you to delegate this task. It makes much more sense for you to spend your time on high value work. I don’t want to blow my own horn, but it’s my party, so I will. We can often take care of this chore for you faster than you can worry about it.
As I told one business owner (who was visibly relieved to hear this), “You don’t have to know how to do bookkeeping you only have to know how to get and use the information.”
While bookkeeping isn’t rocket science and anyone can do it, it’s another one of those tasks best left to the people who do it. Things like oil changes, hair cuts and bread making. We can do them, but why would we?