Tip of the day! Regularly Reconcile Your Bank Statements. Dont let 6 months of bank statements pile up. This will encorage mistakes. Whether you are using a bookkeeping software or doing it by hand, consistently reconcile your bank statements. Don’t learn the hard way.

Keep Track of Your Financial Data on a Monthly Basis It’s important to keep track year over year and based on month so you can evaluate seasonality, anticipated trajectory, and growth.

If you use something for both business and personal purposes (such as a cell phone), you can deduct a percentage of the expenses on your tax return based on the percentage of business use, but you’ll need detailed call logs and other documentation to back that up.

Detailed Inventory Records are Important Having a proper inventory management process can help small businesses prevent employee theft or misplacement of merchandise. These records can also help businesses track customer shopping trends and ensure efficient buying in the future.

Tip of the day Go with QuickBooks. The biggest thing business owners need to realize is that doing your books two minutes every day is a lot easier than doing it for four hours once a month.

One of the most critical errors that can be made in bookkeeping is to confuse money received from clients with borrowed funds. Apart from both being cash that the business can use for operations, they have an entirely different effect on your bottom line.

There’s nothing nicer than having a lot of sales come in, even if it’s on credit. However, the real challenge is converting credit into actual funds your business can use for its operation.

Checks have the same function as cash but some business owners still make the error of losing track of each check they write. Even your cancelled checks have the potential to create serious errors in your books so it is important to document them well.

Selling on credit will be more of a problem instead of an asset to your company in the form of acash flow problem. Make sure to specify clear payment terms to your customers. Set strict deadlines and consider blacklisting repeat offenders if you think they are taking advantage.

Use Online Banking for Your Business Regardless of the size of your business, it is still advisable to open up a separate business bank account, in particular one that allows for online banking.

Plan for Major Expenses Including Taxes Forecasting and creating a budget for your major expenses like inventory, office supplies, and repairs and maintenance can save you a lot of worry. Setting aside a contingency for these and taxes will help.

Use Online Banking for Your Business Regardless of the size of your business, it is still advisable to open up a separate business bank account, in particular one that allows for online banking.

Tip of the day. Don’t Wait Until Year End to Talk to Your Bookkeeper. Find a good advisor and make it a point to be in contact with your bookkeeper regularly, not just at the end of the year. Doing so will make sure that any bookkeeping issue will be caught in time.

Take Advantage of Small Business Tax Credits & Deductions There are a number of small business tax benefits available to you as long as you maintain the proper records. Things like health care tax credits, auto expense deductions, charitable contribution deduction.

OMG, I have 1,000 followers! Thank you. Think I’ll make it to 10,000?

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Unfortunately this man is a horrible leader and it’s a sad day when a bully moves in!