Accounting is a procedure that requires time and patience, which can cause issues for small businesses fighting against the clock. If this struggle sounds familiar, you may be wondering how to optimise your accounting processes to reduce the time you spend on them.
In this guide, we’ll provide five ways to streamline your small business accounting for a faster, more reliable approach that allows you to pour time into the parts of your business that make you feel exhilarated.
Open a Business Bank Account
Even if you are solely responsible for running your business, such as a small partnership or sole trader, it’s best to have a business bank account to ensure your personal and business finances don’t get mixed up with one another. With your business account, you can have peace of mind that you’re abiding by the law while having all your business transactions in one account for elevated visibility.
Go Fully Digital
There’s nothing worse than having to scramble to find misplaced bank statements and physical documents. The easiest way to eliminate this stressful incident is with digital accounting practices.
While it can be painful to wave goodbye to your perfectly organised filing cupboard, automated software will do this filing for you from now on, ensuring you save time and energy. Additionally, you won’t need to worry about losing data with cloud-based software. Your financial information will be securely stored and able to access from anywhere, so you and your staff have better visibility of real-time financial data.
Create Expense Categories
Keeping track of where your money is going is essential to establishing a healthy business cash flow. Often, it can be tempting to keep all your expenses in one category, but this can make it hard to find specific payments, costing you time.
Instead, create categories such as fixed and variable expenses to efficiently locate receipts, rent payments and any other essential information you need. Additionally, categorising your financial data will be beneficial when filing taxes.
Find an Integrated System
While going digital will massively help the way you store financial data, using an integrated digital system will ensure this process runs smoothly and is easier for your colleagues to grasp. For example, jumping between multiple spreadsheets can be challenging, so using one software or platform would be better.
Many accounting software systems allow users to generate reports, find specific data, receive reminders on liabilities, and manage stock from one dashboard.
Consider Outsourcing
Understandably, many business owners like to keep practices in-house, from a stance on security and affordability. However, if you don’t have someone on your payroll familiar with accounting and you’re treading uncertain waters, outsourcing your business accounting is worth it.
Not only will doing this ensure you have an effective management strategy, but it could also save you money in the long run. Despite the apparent expenditure of hiring an outside consultant, accountants are great at spotting ways businesses can save money, providing you with an efficient solution.
Looking for More Ways to Streamline Your Business’s Accounting Measures? We Can Support You
At YBM, we understand that accounting practices can eat away at your time. Contact us today to learn how we can help you to streamline the accounting measures your small business takes.