Small business bookkeeping is the cornerstone of any successful business.
While you might be adept at customer service and have the right products at hand, it’s important not to neglect your accounts.
Sure, the thought of poring over each and every transaction might seem underwhelming, but a basic understanding of bookkeeping for small businesses could help to revolutionise your company, reduce tax bills and penalties.
It could also help you make more out of your existing finances.
Basic accounting for small business owners
The process of bookkeeping for small business owners involves the organisation and recording of financial transactions.
This typically involves the services of a bookkeeper, who is responsible for ensuring things are kept in order.
When availing of Geekbooks’ tried and tested easy small business bookkeeping advice and bookkeeping for small businesses, you can expect to have a clear view as to how profitable your business actually is.
You’ll also be able to keep an eye on your finances, allowing you to identify any potential financial challenges early on. From here, you can address these challenges before they have an opportunity to grow to crisis-level proportions.
In addition to this, Geekbooks’ basic bookkeeping for small business owners will also allow you to identify areas of potential expansion, some of which you may not have been able to notice without clear financial reports.
Simple bookkeeping for small business operators: what Geekbooks offers
In general, a bookkeeper for small business owners will record transactions, make payouts, send invoices, manage accounts and prepare financial statements.
The process is similar to accounting, although you should think of early small business bookkeeping as laying down the foundations for the accounting process.
While accounting focuses more on analysis, bookkeeping is the process of ensuring that the data to be analysed is accurately collected, legible and understandable.
How Geekbooks can help you understand your business accounts
Bookkeeping for small business owners is far more than looking at the ins-and-outs of a single bank account.
Instead, your bookkeeping should reflect all financial transactions, including payroll, sales and accounts payable. There are five areas to focus on:
– Assets: The cash/resources kept by the business (things like inventory and accounts receivable).
– Liabilities: Debts and obligations owed by the business (things like business loans or accounts payable).
– Expenses/expenditure: Cash that flows externally to pay for items and services (things like employee salaries or utility bills).
– Revenues/income: Money earned through normal business operations, such as sales.
– Equity: The overall value remaining after any liabilities are subtracted from business assets. Equity represents the owner’s held interest within the business (things like stock or retained earnings).
A bookkeeper for small business operations is crucial, as they can set up each account to record individual transactions to their appropriate categories.
While no two businesses are alike, many business account types are common, and setting them up in a manner that allows the business owner to keep an eye on things will help to foster greater financial understanding.
Simple bookkeeping for small business owners: getting set up
Understanding the types of accounts you’ll need to keep track of is one thing, but recording them up is another matter altogether.
In times gone by, bookkeeping for a small business involved manually keeping track of accounts in a book known as a ledger.
However, today’s businesses mostly use computers to record their accounts.
While the format may differ, the principles stay the same; your business will need a ledger, whether it’s a book, a spreadsheet, dedicated accounting software or an online bookkeeping service like Geekbooks.
While spreadsheets on standard office software might seem like the most affordable way to keep track of your ledger, it’s worth considering that crafting a ledger can take a considerable amount of time and skill.
If you’re a small business owner, you might simply not have enough hours in the day to maintain a ledger by yourself.
In this instance, you run the risk of losing track of things, making inaccurate entries and eventually spiraling into a bookkeeping disaster.
If this sounds familiar, don’t worry; you’re not the first Australian business owner to get into this mess, and you certainly won’t be the last. It can happen to anybody.
Just imagine getting into the swing of things and enjoying business success for a few months, to then turn around and find that your books are completely out of control.
You’ve got no discernible record of who has been paid, you’re unsure of who owes you money, and dealing with your overdue BAS is becoming a nightmare.
In some instances, business owners may feel like their bookkeeping is up to date, but are uncertain as to whether the information is correct or not.
This is particularly common if your core skills lie outside of the administrative side of your business.
There are fewer more stressful periods in the working life of a business owner than when BAS time rolls around, and that’s on top of wondering whether the employee and payroll aspects of bookkeeping, such as superannuation, salary sacrifice and PAYG, are being tracked and processed correctly.
Instead, it can be more beneficial to outsource your bookkeeping by utilising an online bookkeeper for small business owners.
This can save considerable time and stress, and free you up to focus on the revenue-generating aspects of your business.
In short, by choosing Geekbooks, you can actually put yourself in a position to save time and make more money.
Take back control of your small business bookkeeping today
Geekbooks is designed with small businesses in mind. We understand the pressures that bookkeeping can place on the time of entrepreneurs, which is why we have developed a full and comprehensive range of bookkeeping services that can be tailored precisely to your requirements.
Whether you need help with compliance, such as payroll, BAS and reconciliations, or simply need to streamline the efficiency of your daily accounts, Geekbooks is here for you. Don’t simply continue working from handwritten notes and spreadsheets – use a tried and tested online accounting solution that can reduce your frustrations, free up time and allow you to work to the best of your abilities, safe in the knowledge that your books are up-to-date and all above board.
When you join Geekbooks, you can expect to avail of the following services, and more:
– Access to online bookkeeping software
– Complete payroll services
– Accounts receivable
– Accounts payable
– Journals/reconciliations
– Detailed reports
– Detailed record keeping
– BAS processing/lodgement
– GST advice
Regardless of your industry, situation or individual requirements, now is the time to get in touch with Geekbooks.
Our team of small business bookkeeping experts are here to help you explore a simple, cost-effective and stress-free solution to what you might have previously considered a complex task.
Whether you want to free up some time to focus more on revenue generation or would simply enjoy living a more stress-free lifestyle with more opportunities to spend time with your friends and family, Geekbooks can help take the sting out of cumbersome bookkeeping and allow you to focus on the things you’d like to.
For a cost-effective small business bookkeeping solution in Australia, please do not hesitate to contact us today.
A member of our friendly and experienced bookkeeping and accounting specialists will be happy to discuss your requirements and offer a bookkeeping package that is tailored completely to your needs.
Remember: if your bookkeeping is weak, you need the Geeks!
