5 Quick Tips On Business Bookkeeping

Don’t forget – the federal tax deadline is coming up on May 17th!  Is your small business’ bookkeeping up to date and ready for it?  

If you’re not sure, here are 5 quick tips on how to double-check – and get up to speed!

(1) Are your personal accounts (and expenses) mixed in your business records?

Do you have personal accounts connected to your business Quickbooks?  Or a lot of personal expenses running through your business accounts?  Both are big no-no’s!  Try to keep them separate – and make sure all personal expenses are correctly categorized as “owner’s draw” if an LLC or “Shareholder’ Distribution” if a corporation 

(2) Got a lot of negative numbers?

Now, for your loans and other liabilities, this is ok.  But otherwise, this is usually a red flag, especially when it comes to the assets for your business!  Always dig a little deeper into negative numbers to figure out what’s going on 

(3) How old are your unpaid invoices – both for clients + vendors?

There are a couple of reports you can run for this: the “Customer Balance” and the “Vendor Balance” report.  What invoices still have outstanding balances?  And how old are they?  If you’ve got a lot +90 days past due, you probably have some updating to do!

(4) Are your expense categories consistent?

First, pick a regularly recurring vendor – this could be anything from frequent Uber charges to monthly electric bills.  Are all your Uber charges under the same expense category?  

(5) Do you have a lot of “uncategorized” items?

Look for “uncategorized income” and “uncategorized expenses” on your Chart of Accounts.  Do you have a lot of transactions in there?  Then your monthly reconciliations are probably out of date – and you’ll need to catch